WWGuy's WR250R photo thread

I recently posted the same pics in the "Sweet Mods & Bike Accessories" sub-forum but wanted to add them here too for easy future reference.

I ordered a Force Accessories radiator guard from Australia on last Monday and was pleasantly surprised to see it arrive here in the USA on Saturday (while I was out riding.)  Giddyup!  Force Accessories doesn't appear to ship to the USA, so I ordered it online from one of their Australian distributors who does: F1 Moto.

I chose this particular model because it's lightweight, strong, is reinforced with 3 cross-tubes, has a rear brace, and extends beyond the radiator on the sides and bottom.  Price was $118 USD, including shipping.  They also make it in a black anodized version.

I've been happily using this VersaHaul VH-55 RO carrier for the past 9 months and wanted to share in case anyone else is considering something similar.

Pros:
- Solid and strong.
- Four tie-down points.
- Includes an anti-tilt locking bracket that keeps the carrier from swaying back and forth like the cheaper models do.
- Includes a ramp, which stores on the carrier.
- Pass-through hitch mount for pulling additional load.

Cons:
- Not cheap.  I bought mine for $470 on Amazon, including "free" shipping.
- Heavy at 94 lbs. (compared to cheaper aluminum models.)

We've had several inches of snow fall in the mountains since my ride last weekend.  But yesterday was a bluebird day and I was caught up on my work so I slipped away for an afternoon ride through our version of the low country near the South Fork of the Boise River.

The great thing about riding mid-week in November is that I pretty much had the whole area all to myself.  The only downside was that air temperatures near 40 F make it challenging to balance body temperatures between low-speed trail riding and higher-speed forest road riding.  There was a lot of zipping, unzipping, and swapping layers!  A couple of times I had to turn back and/or find alternate routes when I encountered snow on steep trail sections.

Please forgive the image quality in some photos.  All were taken with my moderately-smart phone.

oh my.. .. i'm thinking your like the canary in the coal mine for the snow gradually coming this way..lets hope it melts and stays that way for another month.
I noticed in your carrier post that the front forks are pretty compressed on the WR .. i cut a block of 4x 4 wood to the wheel radius on one end.. to put between the tire and underside of the fender to keep from maxing the fork seals out when the ratchet straps are drawn tight. I've yet to drill a hole in the 4x4 so it can be tied to the wheel to help deter it from popping out of position.

keep the riding area pictures coming!!!!

rarepartbuilder wrote:

I noticed in your carrier post that the front forks are pretty compressed on the WR .. i cut a block of 4x 4 wood to the wheel radius on one end..  to put between the tire and underside of the fender to keep from maxing the fork seals out when the ratchet straps are drawn tight. I've yet to drill a hole in the 4x4 so it can be tied to the wheel to help deter it from popping out of position.

That's a great idea, thanks!  I've got a scrap piece of black ABS pipe that'll probably work perfectly for that.  I think the hole in the pipe will fit around the tire tread in a way that'll keep it from slipping out (if compression isn't enough.)

FWIW I never actually bottom out the forks when I tie them down, and I never leave the bike tied down for any longer than it takes me to drive to my destination.

Enjoying some local riding above town.

is it pretty easy for you to push your bike up on the versa hauler ? i'm not overly tall.....

05cr125r wrote:

is it pretty easy for you to push your bike up on the versa hauler ? i'm not overly tall.....

Yes, it's very easy with the carrier height as shown in my photos. Much easier than the carriers with no ramp or pickup truck bed with ramp.

Snow and cold temperatures are slowly but surely forcing me out of the mountains.  So today I spent some time following the Oregon Trail where the Snake River plains meet the Boise mountains.

I got my baby back from the local suspension shop last weekend and took her out for a spin in the desert yesterday.  Wow, what a difference a real suspension makes with this bike!

My initial issues with the stock suspension while trail riding was that I couldn't keep the rear tire hooked up with terra firma on challenging trails.  Lighter dedicated dirt bikes were getting traction where I couldn't.  Basically it felt like the rear suspension was sometimes pushing the tire away from the ground when I desperately needed the opposite.  After reading forum posts here and on ADVrider I achieved dramatic improvements by making the following adjustments to the factory suspension.  The difference in keeping the rear tire hooked up was night and day.

Here's what initially provided some relief for me with the stock suspension:
- Increased the rear shock rebound dampening to maximum (3 clicks out).
- Left the compression dampening at the stock midpoint setting (10 clicks out). This helped keep the rear tire hooked up.
- Increased the fork compression dampening to near maximum (1 click out) to keep the front from diving when hitting rocks and roots.
- Decreased the fork rebound dampening to lightest setting (15 clicks out) to get the head back up ASAP after diving.

But I still had challenges with the rear end pogo-ing (bouncing) in the whoops and with front shocks reacting quickly to hopping over bigger obstacles like roots, rocks, and small logs in the trail.  So I saved my coins and a few assorted bills with images of various dead presidents on them and invested in a new suspension... and I LOVE IT.

On the rear shock I installed an Eibach spring appropriate for my weight, a Race Tech Gold valve, and a new shock seal head.  Up front I went with new fork springs, Race Tech Gold Valve compression and rebound valves, and SKF fork seals and bushings.  I decided to go with a local Race Tech shop rather than send everything out to Go Race.

This was by far the most expensive mod I've done to this bike.  After my test ride yesterday I'm really glad I did it.  I'm looking forward to putting it through the paces this riding season.  Stay tuned for photos and GoPro ride reports.





If you aren't familiar with SKF fork seals you should check out this video (or the others like it on the web):

Looking good... enjoy the new "ride" .... The skf link was informative. When order time roles around for bike parts... sometimes its a bit overwhelming.

Here's a video of my first serious ride on my new suspension, made during a ride on Saturday.  I'm 100% pleased.  My only regret is waiting so long to do it.

I spent the afternoon riding fast and hard through 30 miles of SW Idaho desert with two more experienced riders on KTM two-stroke bikes.  My WR250R is certainly heavier, but the Scott's stabilizer bought me a little additional relief to supplement the suspension mods.  With the shorter suspension travel and smaller diameter fork pistons the WRR will never be seriously comparable to dedicated dirt bikes... but it can keep up with them for a while!

With the suspension improvements now complete the biggest performance bottleneck on this bike at the moment is probably the owner/rider.  But you just can't fix old and stupid.

Hope you enjoy the video. It was a blast making it.

I enjoyed some late winter desert riding yesterday in the foothills of the Owyhee Mountains in SW Idaho.  I'm really enjoying the new suspension.  Video to follow soon.

Here's an 8 minute video summary of my solo desert ride on Sunday. The video is edited at real-time speed except for 3 slow-motion sections where I tried to show how rocky the trails are. This area of SW Idaho is covered in volcanic rock and keeps me on my toes and my suspension busy! The Scott's steering stabilizer is also a HUGE help riding through this kind of terrain.

This area was all new to me and a blast to discover as I rode through it!

I'm soo jealous of you Wwguy. Living in London is fun on my X but damn I wish I could go exploring like that.

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Glad to see someone having fun out that direction. We moved most of the shop this weekend. Still have a bunch of stuff to move, but we probably got 3/4 of it out here. I did manage to break the bike out and run it around on our property yesterday. Running over pocket gopher holes and caving them in on their heads I hope. My wife rides an atv also. We can't wait to get finished moving and go riding soon. Would loved to get out in the owyhees by April. Glad to see someone is.

Great pic`s and great riding area, cheer`s

Just enjoyed another great spring weekend for SW Idaho desert riding.  I rode solo on Saturday then explored the Oregon Trail again with my wife and her ATV on Sunday.

Here's a continuous 4 minute shot from Saturday's ride that reminded me of watching a first-person video game.  

You're making me jealous. Still had to work on the old house this weekend (should be closing within 2 weeks) and then moved machinery and shop stuff. Hoping to be done with the moving next weekend, then we can go ride down by Fossil Butte the weekend after. Both our machines are ready to go now, so it's just a matter of getting the time.

It was a really nice weekend for spring riding, glad someone was out enjoying it!

Gratuitous springtime riding photo, taken Saturday just west of Castle Creek on the Owyhee front. Gotta let Traveller know what he's missing out on with all that moving he's been doing the past few weeks!

wwguy wrote:

Gratuitous springtime riding photo, taken Saturday just west of Castle Creek on the Owyhee front.  Gotta let Traveller know what he's missing out on with all that moving he's been doing the past few weeks!

Yeah, rub it in. We packed the last of the loose stuff and made three trips this weekend. The shop is now empty except for 3-4 things that need to go to the youth ranch next weekend. Then a good sweeping and we're officially out of there. The garage here is stuffed, so now we're working on a storage solution. Need to get the shop operational here as I have a couple people wanting cylinder head work.

Love that area out in the desert.

I have taken the bike out of the garage and run it around on the property however! So far, I think the Kenda Parker DT's are a serious upgrade in traction. They just flat out grip. I've also been able to take out some pent up aggression on the huge whistle pig population. Picked up a Gamo high power air rifle a week ago, and once I put a better scope on it (first one died quick) and got it sighted in, they all run scared when I go outside. Killed about 20 of the little bastards this weekend. They are some serious property destroying little bundles of joy.

I think that in a couple more weekends of working here, that we'll have the house mostly put together. The shop will take another 6 weeks I'm pretty sure. Should be riding by the middle of April at least one day on the weekends we hope.

I'll cross-post this in the Sweet Mods sub-forum but wanted to add it here too for easy future reference. I've been riding solo through some pretty rocky and remote desert country this spring, so I've been looking into some protection for my precious and expensive brake discs.  The jury's still out on a solution for the front, but I think I've found something I like for the rear.

A couple of weeks ago I read a post over on ADVrider where someone fitted a TM Designworks rear disc guard for YZ/YZF/WRF to their WRR.  I checked through some Yamaha OEM parts links and learned that several (but not all) rear brake parts are common to all of these bikes.  The stock gray rear caliper guard is one of those parts.  So I ordered the TMD rear disc guard via Amazon and received it yesterday. I like it.  It's simple, lightweight, and looks like it can take a beating and keep going.

It took me more time to find wrenches and loctite than it did to bolt the caliper guard onto the bike via the 2 supplied bolts. The closest analogy I can think of for the material is colored UHMW. It appears to be tough, flexibly rigid (or rigidly flexible), and the same high density material all the way through.  TMD has been using this material for years to make chain sliders, chain guides, and skid plates for most popular motocross bikes.

I like the look of the disc guard enough that I've ordered the matching TMD caliper guard too. But I must confess that the caliper guard is just a cosmetic indulgence, as the stock grey rear caliper guard works just fine.

It's too bad TM Designworks doesn't make parts specifically for the WRR. Their swingarm sliders, chain guides, and skid plates look awesome too.

From TM Designworks website:


Here's the part mounted on my 2011 WR250R:

Loaded up the bike and headed out last weekend for an overnight camping & riding trip in the remote and rugged Owyhee Canyonlands in eastern Oregon.  Set up a comfy camp at the Birch Creek Historic Ranch BLM site and rode from there.

Oh wow is this bike ever a blast to ride!

^^^ that's good stuff there bud...fantastic pictures