New Wheels and a Friend for My Schizophrenic WRX

As many know, and my signature indicates, I'm a big proponent that you don't need knobbies to ride off road. Every bike I have including my track prepped Z1000 and my Ducati has ended up off road and those certainly don't have knobbies.


Our trip to Moab was great fun and the smooth motard tires gave up little until the sand got too deep. The little front wheel can cause issues during fast descents with BIG ditches. Even with the good suspension it can get swallowed up if you're not paying attention.

However, there is one thing I really really avoid with street tires. MUD!
We were thinking of one particular trip this year that we know would include some of the worst gumbo-clay-muck you can imagine. Also, my wife insisted on riding her XT225 with the nicer handling street tires too since I was. That didn't make it easier for her to learn dirt on. This really got me thinking. So, I finally decided to get a set of dirt wheels for the WR!


I knew that wheelingcyclesupply.com had both dirt wheels and motard wheels. I had also heard of some early build quality issues, so I called Forrest at wheelingcyclesupply. We discussed the parts and the build of the wheels. We discussed what he had in stock and what was coming down the line. We discussed brake upgrades for motard use.


I ordered a set of R sized wheels for the WRX, a sprocket, a rear disk, and a new Braking front disk that I'll use on my motard wheels.
Forrest was very pleasant and professional to deal with, both on the phone and by e-mail. Shipping to Kanukistan went quickly and smoothly via USPS and Canada Post. The tracking numbers follow through the whole way.

The wheels have an SMPro label on the rims and the hubs. They came with the correct spacers and were dished properly. The overall part and build quality seems good.


I already had a 21" D606 on a spare set of KLR wheels. I got my wife to trundle over to a dealer and get me a 130-18 D606 for the rear while I was at work one day. She used her KLR of course.



I've only used the bike like this for a couple of days and nothing major yet, but here are my thoughts.
- It's been a while since I've ridden on knobbies. It was much smoother on pavement than I recalled. The biggest traction issue that I noticed was braking. The front tire really squishes under hard braking. I can see why the R has such tiny brakes up front.
- I've been riding the WRX so much these days that I'm not used to the big front wheel any more. It really affects the road handling. I much prefer the handling of the smaller front wheel. It turns so quick and easy!
- The big chunks of rubber really soak up the small bumps. I can save my legs and stand less on gravel.
- The large wheels are more stable on gravel. The KLR can be a handful at times as it has a lot of mass/momentum. The WRX is somewhat 'flighty' with it's little front wheel. The lighter WR with BIG wheels is much better in that regard.
- The WR with dirt wheels is a very meaty machine off-road. It's still a little top-heavy compared to a true dirt bike, but by far the best dual-sport for dirt that I've seen yet.

Then we made a mistake…

I had my wife take out the WR250X/R to see how she fit and felt on it…

She liked it!

So, next thing you know, we're making plans to sell her XT225 and we come home with a WR friend!


It's a leftover 2008 that the dealer is selling for less than most used ones.


We're now waiting on another set of dirt wheels and we'll each have our own WR250X for playing at the motard track and a WR250R for playing in the dirt!


This is my wife. She generally goes by the name of KLRChickie.

OMG....and I thought having one wr250 was hard on my bank account....

Awesome!!! Congratulations on the new toy!

It's going to be fun.

Is there a reason why you didn't just ordered the front dirt wheel ?

Do you think the width of the rear 17" wheel is a problem with knobbies ?

Nice write-up ZED!
Any chance you could PM me with $ total? (If in Cdn$ the date too, I'll track down exchange rate.)
Did it take long for it to clear border/Customs?
Also, you got a new front disk for the stock SM front wheel, did you put the OEM disk on the Wheeling front?

Thanks...

Hey Mrs Zed Chickie! Nice bike! Welcome to the insane asylum.

Dancamp wrote:

It's going to be fun.

Is there a reason why you didn't just ordered the front dirt wheel ?

Do you think the width of the rear 17" wheel is a problem with knobbies ?

Although I feel the larger front makes the biggest difference in rough terrain, there are times when the rear knobbie will help forward momentum. I could have just spooned on the 17" 606 onto my rear motard wheel, but I want to be able to switch back and forth easily. Actually changing tires is a pain and is hard on rims unless your super proficient at it. Last night we changed the wheels back to motard setup and it only took 30min. I figure once in practice we'll be able to get that down to 15-20min.

deerHater wrote:

Nice write-up ZED!
Any chance you could PM me with $ total? (If in Cdn$ the date too, I'll track down exchange rate.)
Did it take long for it to clear border/Customs?
Also, you got a new front disk for the stock SM front wheel, did you put the OEM disk on the Wheeling front?

Thanks...

Forrest lists the wheels on his web site for US$850 for the dirt set to fit the X.

There was no problems with customs as motorcycle parts are duty free and USPS/Canada Post is one of the best ways to ship here.

I did put the new Braking rotor on the motard wheels and put my old X rotor on the dirt wheels. I also got a new set of EBC HH pads locally and I change these with the wheels so that the pads stay mated to the rotor. Some motard guys swap out their entire front brake assembly when they swap wheels. I've chosen just to swap the pads.

Quote :

Some motard guys swap out their entire front brake assembly when they swap wheels.

Really? Why? That sounds silly. I have a set of street pads and track pads for my trackday car, that I change out for events. They even run on the same rotors, I only change the pads. It's a non-issue. A quick bed in and they're fine. In fact, I only notice a bed in when going from street to track pads. Going the other way I don't notice anything at all.

Since the wheels are being swapped anyway, keeping the rotor with the wheel just makes sense. Then swapping out the brake assembly on a dirt bike is actually even easier than changing the pads.
If you look at it there are:
- two calliper bolts
- two bolts for the brake lever
- one or two bolts for the brake line guide
Then a whole new lever/line/calliper assembly goes on. I've seen it. It seems pretty slick.

The other reason they do it is so they can run higher end callipers and lever/cylinders such as Brembos when in motard form. I considered that, but I think that's overkill at this point.

Is this really an issue with the pads? I am looking to get a new set of wheels and just want to do a quick swap. I guess swapping pads is not too hard.

How is the bigger X rotor off road?

SuperSize wrote:

Is this really an issue with the pads? I am looking to get a new set of wheels and just want to do a quick swap. I guess swapping pads is not too hard.

Swapping pads is quick & easy, but it depends on the situation whether to choose to do so or not.

In the case of Zed's WRX, the original front pads were done from a Motard Track perspective. In addition to all the other riding this bike has seen, we spent two track nights *both* riding his bike. For about 4 hours each night the bike saw a nearly 100% duty cycle - lots of hard braking. The front brakes were overheating & fading by the end of the night. Those pads are down to less than 50% thickness, so everything will heat up more quickly than with thicker newer pads. Using them with his dirt wheels is a way of getting a little more use from the parts before tossing them, as the front brakes won't see the same sort of hard use under those conditions.

In the case of my new WRX, since the pads are new, we won't be swapping pads with the wheels to begin with. We'll keep an eye on things & when the pads start to be worn down from hard braking on the Motard track, we'll likely do the same thing as we're doing with Zed's right now.

Hey ZED, you have anymore pics of the X with the black dirt wheel setup? I'm getting closer to pulling the trigger on them from forrest and would like some more bike porn in the mean time

Great story ZED. Sometimes you just gotta say "what the f-ck" and just do it. Keep in mind you've got a wide range of knobbies - from the very tame to the 90/10's. If your comfy running street tires on dirt - smoothish knobbies might be perfect for you. Good luck with the new bike.

little squirt wrote:

Hey ZED, you have anymore pics of the X with the black dirt wheel setup? I'm getting closer to pulling the trigger on them from forrest and would like some more bike porn in the mean time

The dirt wheels aren't installed on the bikes at the moment. Here's a pic of mine when they were:

& ZED's:


We've used the wheels in the dirt and mud a bit now & are quite happy with them.
The black rims are nice:


ZED's black hubs are purty:

but my blue one are purtier :

thanks klrchickie those blue hubs are NICE! me likey

so it looks like the front & rear wheel will use the X rotors? or is that a R rotor on the front wheel?

so no need to change front caliper?

Aloha

We've stayed with the X sized rotors on the dirt wheel setups. No need to change callipers.

Awesome. Thanks for the help!

That's the great thing about ordering the wheels from wheelingcycle. If you get the R wheels for the X, they have a hub that matches the X so the rotors are compatible. Likewise if you order X wheels for the R, they have a hub that matches the stock R mount.