Is 2009 a good year?

NorgeWR2X wrote:

do ALL 2008 have fuel pump issues?

No. Not even close. Many of those of us who are the "originals" are riding '08s with lots of mileage and no fuel pump issues.

There certainly were a number of early '08s in Feb through April manufacture that had fuel pump issues. Enough that it got noticed, but not enough that those months of manufacture are to be found up and down the highway with dead fuel pumps.

Jäger wrote:

NorgeWR2X wrote:

do ALL 2008 have fuel pump issues?

No. Not even close. Many of those of us who are the "originals" are riding '08s with lots of mileage and no fuel pump issues.

There certainly were a number of early '08s in Feb through April manufacture that had fuel pump issues. Enough that it got noticed, but not enough that those months of manufacture are to be found up and down the highway with dead fuel pumps.

what's your build date? i'm scared now. my 08 is built in dec 07.

NorgeWR2X wrote:

what's your build date? i'm scared now. my 08 is built in dec 07.

March '08. One of the "bad" ones. Never an issue.

There were, very roughly, about 18 people between ADV, TT, and here who reported that their fuel pump died. Some would have been repeat posts in different forums. We have nearly 2000 dedicated WR members just here, most of whom own the bike. Bottom line is that's a pretty good sample population with a small but noticeable number of failures.

If it worries you, buy a new pump and sell your used one in the Flea Market with a description of why you're selling it. Somebody not quite as worried will snap it up for a spare at the right price.

Mine has a 01/08 manufacture date. I have 9,000 miles of which 60% is technical single track. I run it in very hot conditions and am constantly turning the bike on and off. I haven't had a single issue. I believe it to be a completely over blown internet forum issue. (knock on wood)

motokid wrote:

It's a little funny to me that as a BIG dude you are more worried about suspension than horsepower.

I'm a big guy also and only worried about the suspension. It was the best money spent on the bike and makes it that much better. If I was worried about power I wouldn't have bought a 250.

My first bike was a Honda CBR250RR BabyBlade. They didn't have preload adjustment either but if you took the fork cap off and placed 3 20cent coins on top of each spring it made the world of difference. Preload adjustment for a buck twenty is pretty good value. You may be able to do something similar with correctly sized washers in the WR.
Have you looked at the XT660R as well to see if it might suit your size better?

playwme wrote:

Have you looked at the XT660R as well to see if it might suit your size better?

I don't think they import the 660 for us. I did look at it on the web but the closest I could find is the super tenere which is 1100 ccs, linked brakes, 5 speed and generally more street bike than I'm looking for.

LHD wrote:

YZEtc wrote:

Why is no preload adjustment a big deal?

If its a difference of an inch I won't worry about it. If its 5 inches, I may need to get new forks.

It's your money and (maybe) your WR, but I don't see that line of reasoning at all.
Buy new forks instead of doing the much more common respring/revalve?

New forks (and I mean new) are not cheap, especially if you go with something like Ohlins in order to get adjustable preload.
But, even if you got some used forks, guess what?
You are going to have to modify the springing/damping just the same.

Sure, adjustable preload would be a handy thing to have on the fork cap, but, even the current motocross bikes don't come with that, and those are the bikes that are regarded at the top of the dirt bike heap.
Also, I don't believe adjusting the preload would make-up for a spring that's way too light or heavy for you.
It's there to fine-tune a correct spring rate that's already the right one for you and dial-in the ride height.
It won't make a wrong spring the right one by twisting the adjuster.

I'd just get the fork (and rear shock) resprung and valved for my weight, and if I had to fine-tune the front preload, I'd do it with a shim under the fork cap.
Once I got it dialed-in, it would stay like that.

YZEtc wrote:

LHD wrote:

YZEtc wrote:

Why is no preload adjustment a big deal?

If its a difference of an inch I won't worry about it. If its 5 inches, I may need to get new forks.

It's your money and (maybe) your WR, but I don't see that line of reasoning at all.
Buy new forks instead of doing the much more common respring/revalve?

New forks (and I mean new) are not cheap, especially if you go with something like Ohlins in order to get adjustable preload.
But, even if you got some used forks, guess what?
You are going to have to modify the springing/damping just the same.

Sure, adjustable preload would be a handy thing to have on the fork cap, but, even the current motocross bikes don't come with that, and those are the bikes that are regarded at the top of the dirt bike heap.
Also, I don't believe adjusting the preload would make-up for a spring that's way too light or heavy for you.
It's there to fine-tune a correct spring rate that's already the right one for you and dial-in the ride height.
It won't make a wrong spring the right one by twisting the adjuster.

I'd just get the fork (and rear shock) resprung and valved for my weight, and if I had to fine-tune the front preload, I'd do it with a shim under the fork cap.
Once I got it dialed-in, it would stay like that.

Getting the correct spring is one thing. Setting preload by changing spring rates is a whole other ball of wax.


So I picked it up saturday. $5263 OTD with a new textile jacket that I can wear over my suit without wrinkling it. Here are my intial observations after the first 250 miles.

Holy tittyballs does this thing need a damper. At highway speeds doing as little as taking my left hand off the handlebar would cause a shimmy. Coming from a super sport, that was not expected. Does anyone else have one? Can you put a slide style damper on it or is one on top of the triple tree the only route?

Yamaha makes a lot of things but a comfortable seat is not among them. I hear the corbin is hard and low while the sargent is original height and soft. I'm guessing the latter is more popular.

You guys were not joking about carving up twisties with this thing. It is definately nimble, even with the knobbies. I can see that I'll need another set of rims with some street tires and sprockets already.

I figured not being in the sport bike bubble would be a pain in the ass and I'd immediately want a windshield. Its not bad at all.

The bike stands above the rest on the list of features it combines for the price. Electric start, EFI, water cooled, modern suspension etc. Who the hell designed the dash? I knew it was not desireable but its horrible. My speedo is off by 10mph above 30mph. I'm getting ready to buy one of those nice GPS mounts recommended here to mount my Rino. It looks like I'm going to have to use it for both mileage and speed. I'd also like to get a tach and coolant temp gauge. Has anyone already done this? I know the tach will be difficult due to the coil on plug setup.

My last dual sport was a 2 stroke KE100. It was a mediocre offroad bike since the suspension travel was so short and mediocre onroad bike since the suspension was soft and the gearing was short. It was still a lot of fun. If it had electric start I may have kept it. This bike is amazingly better. It seems to excel at everything except for top end which is fine by me.

All in all I'm extremely happy with my purchase. Rode it the 22 miles to work this morning. What a difference the soft suspension makes on the crappy roads we have near our beltway.

Stock speedo is roughly 7.7% off. As far as I know, and everything I recall reading, the stock odometer is pretty spot on.

Also - don't worry about tachometer. You'll get real used to knot having one. There's a rev limiter that'll keep you from over-reving the motor.

Stock seat will "break in" over time. It's a usual complaint that new riders (including myself once) have. It does get better.

Never really ever heard of anyone having over-heating issues. Not sure why you'd want/need a coolant temp gauge.
Are you planning to run just plain distilled water?

motokid wrote:

Also - don't worry about tachometer. You'll get real used to knot having one. There's a rev limiter that'll keep you from over-reving the motor.

No. I'm going to put a tach on it.

I understand your desire to have a tach.

I rode nothing but sportbikes for over 20 years. Never had a dirt bike or mini bike.

A tachometer was always there for me.

I roadraced for about 5 years and disconnected the speedometer, but the tach was there in all it's glory.

The last bike I owned before my X was an R1. It even had a shift light on it that could be programmed to light up at a specific rpm to aid shifting.


I felt naked and lost on my X when I first got it. No tach was a HUGE adjustment that just felt so foreign. Way more foreign than the upright seating position.


Amazingly enough - that feeling did not take long to get over. I could care less about a tachometer. I can hear and feel where I am in the rpm range.

Honestly - there's a really valid reason why the wr250x/r does not have a tach.
It doesn't need one.

But if you want to spend the money have at it.

I really think you should just ride the bike for a few hundred miles before you consider spending money on it.

However - it's your bike. Post pictures of it and your mods.
We love pictures here.

Welcome to the addiction.

Really, before you set your mind on replacing the forks, do a bit of research on the WR's suspension. People are reporting great results from having their suspension set-up (revalved/ sprung), and even if you buy top of the line forks, you are still likely going to have to have that done.

I have owned a ton of dirt bikes over the years, and really can't recall any of them having external preload adjusters (maybe had some old ones with air...dunno). But, I have had to change the spacers between the fork cap and the spring to change preload, and have trimmed the spring to increase the spring rate. But, all of those mods were done when I thought I was just at the edge of an acceptable spring rate. Having external adjusters would have made that easier, but I never bemoaned it.

I really haven't had any shimmy issues on my WR, but I have heard other people say it really benefits from a SD. Heck, my bikes are ussually sporting half-worn knobs; I thought they were supposed to shimmy.

Tach? Again, I've never really felt the need. But, i can see where someone that is deaf might benefit from it.

Rufjeep wrote:

Really, before you set your mind on replacing the forks, do a bit of research on the WR's suspension. People are reporting great results from having their suspension set-up (revalved/ sprung), and even if you buy top of the line forks, you are still likely going to have to have that done.

I have owned a ton of dirt bikes over the years, and really can't recall any of them having external preload adjusters (maybe had some old ones with air...dunno). But, I have had to change the spacers between the fork cap and the spring to change preload, and have trimmed the spring to increase the spring rate. But, all of those mods were done when I thought I was just at the edge of an acceptable spring rate. Having external adjusters would have made that easier, but I never bemoaned it.

I really haven't had any shimmy issues on my WR, but I have heard other people say it really benefits from a SD. Heck, my bikes are ussually sporting half-worn knobs; I thought they were supposed to shimmy.

Tach? Again, I've never really felt the need. But, i can see where someone that is deaf might benefit from it.

What RPM are you at in 6th gear at 60mph? Where in the power band does your fuel economy begin to suffer? Did you plan your mods based on that that data or did you just do it?

There are a couple different ways to get tachometer data. One is an adapter from MSD that gives you a standard tach electronic tach signal that just about any electric tach can read. I'll probably get a PC and the LCD screen. It gives a lot more data for a little more than the cost of a nice tach setup.

[quote="LHD
What RPM are you at in 6th gear at 60mph? Where in the power band does your fuel economy begin to suffer? Did you plan your mods based on that that data or did you just do it?

There are a couple different ways to get tachometer data. One is an adapter from MSD that gives you a standard tach electronic tach signal that just about any electric tach can read. I'll probably get a PC and the LCD screen. It gives a lot more data for a little more than the cost of a nice tach setup. [/quote]

My precise RPM at 60 (as given by a tach) and the fuel economy for a given point in the power band are simply not important to me. I didn't consider that data because it's not relevant information for how & where I ride. IMO, with a bike like the WR250R, it does not take long to come to a point of diminishing returns when it comes to tuning. It is what it is, and while you can make improvements, it's not long before you start trying to make it something it's not.

Understand, I am not a motard guy. My riding is probably 80% tight, technical trails. I feel very confident that I can produce very acceptable tuning results based on the feedback I get while ridiing- feel, sound, etc. Oh, and if I need to see a tach, I will go into diagnostic mode on the WR.

BUT, if you want a tach, go for it. Just because I am a luddite when it comes to bike tuning does not mean that folks like you shouldn't forge ahead with more scientific approaches.