What does lots of road riding actually do? WR250f

[Roscoe26354]

Afternoon all

I try to use my 2009 WR250f as little as possible on the road as I've been advised to do but I was wondering what exactly it does to the bike.

i.e is it the speed which damages the bike and if so what exactly does it damage?

Also if the you can ride for 200+ miles a day off road, why can't you do it off road.

And please don't give me some sarcastic "because the terrain is different dumb ass" answer or the like. I'm really looking for the technicals for this.

Thanks

Roscoe

Bristol, UK

[Sund]

If you have off road tires on - they will wear really fast.

Maybe it has something to do with the shocks and the gearing - optimized for off road, not good for on road :-D

I tried driving my yz250f on the road as fast as I dared, it shaked a lot and didn't fell very stable or comfortable.

[07wr250]

Supposedly its hard on internal parts. Increased traction on pavement doesn't allow the rear wheel to slip like like does off road. This causes excess stress on transmission parts. There are products like kush sprockets that are supposed to remedy this.

[SmokinRZ]

I don't think it will do any damage it's just that these are pretty high strung racing motors with a relatively short life span compared to something like an XR Honda. There are only so many revolutions that motor will turn before it goes bang or needs major maintenance. My recomendation is to keep the revs way down when on the road to help prolong motor life. XR hondas don't have a cushy rear wheel either so I don't know how valid that is to transmission life, but yea it's not a beffy long life street transmission.

[07wr250]

I don't think it will do any damage it's just that these are pretty high strung racing motors with a relatively short life span compared to something like an XR Honda. There are only so many revolutions that motor will turn before it goes bang or needs major maintenance. My recomendation is to keep the revs way down when on the road to help prolong motor life. XR hondas don't have a cushy rear wheel either so I don't know how valid that is to transmission life, but yea it's not a beffy long life street transmission.

A WR250F is not designed to be dual sport out of the box. Bikes that are designed to be dual-sported are manufactured with certain tolerances built in. I don't dual sport, but I know lots of guys modify their WR's to be street legal and are quite happy with them

[ronbuell]

07WR has the correct answer. All dual sport bikes have a cush drive in the rear hub to prevent damaging the transmission. There is a cushion sprocket which helps, but I've read threads talking about failures on those. Best to get the 250X or other bike designed to street use.

[hart]

my wr250r doesn't have cush drive, either does the xl650r but the transmission is overbuilt too. I've dual sported wr400's and the like and it works out pretty well as long as you realize they aren't real reliable after about 10K miles. thats about 200 hours. where a dual sport is good for 30k to 40k reliably.

All the little things like the chain slapping through the swingarm protector, tire usage, comfort, lighting options, longevity, gearing, etc. If you tore it down every 15k and did piston/rings and valves, cam chain, etc. i bet that bike would a few rounds of that pretty well.

[stanmerrell]

I've never been convinced that street use is any harder than off road use. In fact, I imagine it's the other way around. If I could, I would dual sport my WR with no concern. You're not going to get 30K out of the engine, but I bet you'd get 10K with good care.

[barns19]

im not sure wich parts but the bikes are designed to have wheel spin. on the road it putts extra stress on these parts. resulting in engine failure sooner than you would like to think

[Roscoe26354]

The wheel spinning part makes perfect sense. I hate road riding but unfortunately where I live for every 20 minutes of trail riding you need to do at least an hour of road riding.

Trail riding in the UK is really awful. Nobody wants to tolerate it, but then, that's not exclusive to dirt biking unfortunately. And the country's not big enough to just go out in to the wilderness and get lost.

Still, I have a good time anyway

[hitman hart]

yeah road riding is harder on the transmission and hubs than usual having a cush drive hub will help hugely in reducing the harsh load,here in new zealand i ride my wr on the road a bit and havent had any problems,but it isnt designed for it and i try and get on the gravel/dirt as quick as and have fun!wish i still had my xr600r for the long touring rides......then again i chopped out a rear hub and had to do the gearbox on that.....

[Roscoe26354]

Never heard of a cush drive hub but sounds like a good idea. Does anyone have a link to where I can get one from?

I did the obligatory google search but the results were a bit sketchy.

Also, just an idea but I know one guy (and probably lots of others) had installed a small electrical switch inside the air box (so it's easily accessible) and connected the grey wire up to it so he can switch between the grey wire and no grey wire (CDI and no CDI).

Would this help on the road with reducing the rear wheel spin therefore reducing stress on the insides? Then when I get off road I can switch it off and have a blast.

Thoughts?

Roscoe

Bristol, UK

[Toby_S]

I just think it's wasted miles on the bike - less quality time between rides. The 250 is definitely low geared - I only feel comfortable cruising at about 55 max.

The cush drive is a factor, but I don't think it's that significant. You still have some give in traction, especially if you have knobby-ish tires. Having said that, I think I loosened the rivets on two magnetos on my '02 by doing aggressive upshift wheelies on the street, especially uphill. I quit doing that, and haven't had any problem since.

As long as you don't rev it too high for sustained periods, and take it easy on the drive train, street riding should not be much different than off road, aside from it being miles better spent.

-Toby

[hart]

Roscoe, if you look at a klr650 parts on maybe thumpertalk.com oem you can see what a cush drive looks like. A lot of bikes just overbuild the transmission so its not a big deal. Ive seen the xr600r blow gears especially in 86,87 and they did something about that years later but never added the cush drive. the latest debate has been on the ktm exc 450/525 because they have been blowing gears on the highway and ktm says then don't run them on the highway so people have been looking into adding cush drive on them. Heres a yamaha xt600 cush drive. I'd be more concerned about it on a 450 not on a 250. If you were concerned just limit your throttle on the road. when this happened on the xr600r it was from doing wheelies on the road.

http://shop.thumpertalk.com/oem.asp?partcategory=19275&manufacturer=6&category=3&year=1992&model=491

[jcbikes]

I agree with just taking it easy on the road with the throttle. I have a dualsported 2002 WR426 that has well over 6,000 miles on the road alone. No problems with the trans at all. No wheelies or power take offs and such. Just take this into account when on pavement and I will bet you will be ok.

[SmokinRZ]

I wonder if the super moto guys have tranny issues? Thats pretty intense pavement use with sticky tires. Maybe not over very long distances but still, it's racing and should reveal any tranny problems real quick.

[Roscoe26354]

Good point about the supermoto riders. That would be interesting to know.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I do take it fairly easy on the throttle anyway while on the road so I think I'll just be more concious of it.

I'm still going to look in to getting a switch installed to change between grey wire and no grey wire. If nothing else I can change between settings when the trails get really muddy.

[dgcars]

Think about it like this.....Yamaha make a whole range of bikes from street machines to competition dirt motorcycles. The WRF is the closest in the range to YZF competition bike....so thats where its strengths will tend to favour more off road than on. Simple...

[dgcars]

..I'm still going to look in to getting a switch installed to change between grey wire and no grey wire. If nothing else I can change between settings when the trails get really muddy.

RS components supply a decent waterproof toggle switch. I mounted mine in the airbox. You have to switch the bike off before switching for any map change to take effect anyway.

[Benno_bro]

I'd imagine it's the prolonged high revs that would kill the valve train eventually....if the drive components hold lol.

The way I see it, if it increases your enjoyment out the machine....go for it. just expect even more maintenance on a already high maintenance machine. When I move back to civilization I plan on doing it as I could literally go anywhere then

Now I have to wait till June to get back on it....damn snow