Best mods to make WR more dirt worthy

Hello all! New to the forum. Just got my 2009 WR250R and loving it! I have ridden (raced) motocross all my life but I figured at 41, it was time to slow down a little. Although I'm loving the WR, it doesn't have anywhere near the power of my YZ250 and CR250 I just sold (both 2 strokes). I guess I am just wondering what mods people are doing to make the WR more dirt worthy (whoops, berms, small to medium jumps, powerlines and woods)? Lighten it up and add a little power. Already did the airbox flapper mod and got the D606 tires. I will still need it to be street legal too! I know I'm not going to end up with a WR motocross, but wouldn't mind getting a little closer than it is now.

Thanks!!!

changing your front sprocket down a tooth or going bigger on the rear sprocket will make it better off road..I have a new 47 tooth rear sprocket that I haven't put on yet,,,some guys are going higher than 47.

Power Programmer, pipe, 12T front sprocket, more aggressive DOT tires, remove the emissions garbage, open the airbox. Then skid plate, rad guard, barkbusters. Should I keep going?

Ok thanks! I know I have A LOT of mods ahead of me. Hey, that's half the fun, right? I already got the D606 tires and did the airbox flapper thing. My next thing I will be saving my money for is the FMF Powerbomb header and either the Q4 or the Powercore 4 muffler. (Which one has more pure power???)

And what exactly does getting a lower tooth front sprocket or higher tooth rear sprocket do? More low end pull? Quicker? Not too concerned with top speed. And the fuel injection thing removal..... I've read that it shouldn't be done until I get an aftermarket exhaust. Is that true?

Thanks in advance for any help!!!

You should add a fuel programmer right now as well as gear the bike down right now.
The reason being that the fueling is set to pass EPA regs and not to provide the best throttle response and power.
Well worth the money, whether you have a pipe or not.

Same with the stock gearing - it's rediculously tall to pass more EPA regs (some kind of a drive-by sound test done at a certain speed, and the supa-tall gearing the bike comes with gets the RPM down enough to allow the bike to putter quietly past).

Going a tooth down is a good start, but if you're a motocross guy at heart and (I assume) you want to concentrate on off-road performance, also go up at least four teeth on the rear sprocket.
I'm using 12/47 sprockets and acceleration and gear spacing is mucho better for off road use.
I can still hit 84 mph with those sprockets, so you won't kill your street ability, either. :)

The Powercore is supposed to be the gruntier pipe, although I haven't heard from anyone who's run both whether or not they actually notice the diff. It's certainly louder! I run the Q4 and love it. Also, there isn't really much for gain running the PB header from what I've heard (and been told). Might use that cash on something else maybe...

i went for my first ride yesterday after re-gearing to 12-45 (from 13-43)..... it made a HUGE difference . I hated it in the woods with the stock gearing.

and i got to keep the stock chain!

yellowredlight wrote:

i went for my first ride yesterday after re-gearing to 12-45 (from 13-43)..... it made a HUGE difference. I hated it in the woods with the stock gearing.
and i got to keep the stock chain!

Interesting. I have a WRX and want to get a set of Wheeling dirt wheels, but I've been wondering about how much taller the gearing will be with the taller rear wheel/tire. So keeping the same chain, whenever I swap wheels I would just also swap the front spocket (because the 'dirt' rear wheel would have it's own dedicated sprocket.) Nice.

So down 1 on the front, up 2 on the rear, does that generally = same length chain? (within the usable chain adjuster range!)

deerHater wrote:

yellowredlight wrote:

i went for my first ride yesterday after re-gearing to 12-45 (from 13-43)..... it made a HUGE difference. I hated it in the woods with the stock gearing.
and i got to keep the stock chain!

Interesting. I have a WRX and want to get a set of Wheeling dirt wheels, but I've been wondering about how much taller the gearing will be with the taller rear wheel/tire. So keeping the same chain, whenever I swap wheels I would just also swap the front spocket (because the 'dirt' rear wheel would have it's own dedicated sprocket.) Nice.

So down 1 on the front, up 2 on the rear, does that generally = same length chain? (within the usable chain adjuster range!)

yes i have the same length chain. my bike is only 3 weeks old so im not sure if my chain is done stretching! the rear wheel is far up in the dropout, but obviously their is still enough room to move the rim up and roll the chain off the sprocket...