New to Dual Sport and Off-road in general

Good Day All!!
      This past Friday, I brought my new 2020 WR250R home with 0 miles on her! I've been riding motorcycles for well over 20 years but this is my first dual sport/off road motorcycle. I have been researching and reading everything I can get my hands on regarding this motorcycle and am very excited to start modding and making her my own. She currently sits with 38 miles on her, so we're still in the "break-in" period. Once I get more acquainted and comfortable on her, I'm going to start with exhaust, air cleaner and fuel programmer. After that, the sky's the limit! I look forward to chatting with all of you and welcome any and all advice you can offer.

Semper Fi!
-Robert

Welcome to off-road motorcycles.

Advice #1: Service your air filter correctly and often when riding off-road.
This is in your Owner's Manual.
Do not get into the habit of thinking, "It doesn't look very dirty", and letting it slide.

Advice #2: Change the engine oil much more often than you would on a street-only motorcycle.

Advice #3: Realize that most of the recommended service intervals shown in the maintenance chart in your Owner's Manual are for a street-only motorcycle.
When riding off-road, practically everything gets done more often.

Thanks!! I'll keep all of that in mind. Where I live, I can commute to work through 9 miles of desert or 12 miles of pavement. I plan on going the off-road route more often than not. I'm going with a no toil air cleaner that I'll probably check at least once a month. I'll blow it out and oil it regularly. Thanks for the note about maintenance intervals too. That'll be something I keep an eye on too.

Once a month is not enough if you ride it off road often.
I'd do it once a week at a minimum.
You're not on the clean air of the pavement anymore.

When I go for a day of off-road riding (an hour or more), the air filter gets serviced before the next ride.
If that day's ride was very dusty, you'll be surprised at how dirty the filter can look, especially if you're following somebody else's dust.

Also, the filter media is oiled foam, so you don't blow it out with compressed air.
You clean it in foam filter cleaning solvent  then luke-warm soapy water, then plain water, then dry it, and then oil it with foam filter oil and squeeze out the excess oil.
This is shown in the Owner's Manual.

The reason I cite air filter maintenance is because LOTS of riders let dirt pass through their engine because they hadn't a clue about off-road riding maintenance.

Congrats!! You may not get a lot of direct responses but dig around this forum and you'll find a ton of useful information. I bought new in 2018 and relied on this forum for almost everything I wanted to know or learn. I've ridden the New Mexico, Colorado and Utah BDRs, multiple trips in Death Valley and a ton of other rides, all solo, and the bike has never blinked.

The general advice I would give is to first understand how you intend to use the bike because that will inform your choices on gearing, tires and suspension, three things that arguably have the biggest impact on how the bike performs.For other mods I'd say first ask yourself why you need the and if you do, take the time to read multiple threads and/or search elsewhere (same as any kind of search) because it's often a case of a lot of smart riders who are all "right" but disagree.  There are riders who seem to want to make this bike what it will never be. The forum members I tend to listen to are the ones who accept it for what it is and maximize that.

Enjoy the bike, cheers