Author: Transmoto
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Talk to any dirt bike dealer, and they’ll tell you that 250cc four- stroke enduro bikes aren’t exactly running out the door these days. Some might even tell you they can’t give them away. But that hasn’t always been the case. In fact, as recently as 2007, KTM’s and Yamaha’s high-performance 250cc enduro models were both topping the sales charts. Yep, just seven years ago, both manufacturers were selling more than 1000 of these 250s per year in Australia. And for each of the seven years before that, Yamaha Australia moved up to 1500 of the things. The WR250F was actually the biggest-selling motorcycle in Australia for a couple of years – aside from Honda’s CT110 postie bike, that is. So, should we call it a coincidence that Aussie off-road riders lost their appetite for 250s shortly after Yamaha stopped updating its WR250F? You could certainly build a strong argument that the two were linked. Using that same rationale, you could also argue that Yamaha’s release of the all-new 2015 WR250F is set to revive interest in these quarter-litre bikes all over again. And funnily enough, that’s exactly what the other manufacturers are pinning their hopes on. We sure hope that happens, too, because for a couple of years now, we’ve been saying these new-gen, fuel-injected 250s have taken giant steps forward, and that they’re the most underrated and overlooked off-road models on the market. Being able to spruik the 2015 WR250F as “the world’s first enduro bike to use a reverse-mounted, rear-slanting cylinder” will definitely help Yamaha’s marketing cause. As will the fact that KTM’s 250EXC-F has won countless world enduro titles and made big performance gains since adopting the MX bike’s engine last year. But how do these quarter-litre enduro bikes compare to ride? Where does each bike sit on the spectrum from trailbike to race bike? Has their bolstered power made them versatile enough for both the trail and track? And which bike suits what sort of rider, and why? To get concrete answers to all those questions, we let these two old 250cc rivals resume their battle across a mixture of off-road terrain, and then repeated the process after fitting each bike with a less restrictive aftermarket muffler. For the full-length feature, pick up a print or digital edition of Transmoto Dirt Bike Magazine's March-April issue (#49) that goes on sale in early March. Note: Both test bikes were standard, but de-restricted. They had their ADR bits removed and were set up in ‘Competition Use’ trim, which is how most customers request them from dealers. Both ran FIM-approved tyres – the Yamaha was shod with its standard Metzeler Six Days Extreme hoops, while the KTM was fitted with non-standard GoldenTyre hoops because a fresh set of the standard Maxxis EnduroPro tyres was not available for the test.