Street tires for a 2020 wr250r

You know a lot about bikes. You've been a teacher to me, and that's awesome. I love my bike. As a teen I grew up riding dirt bikes and I've loved the dirt bike type look ever since, above all other bikes body types (harleys, crotch rockets or street bikes) and that's why I chose the wrr as my first street legal bike also because I think it's a great first bike for a rookie like me, I don't need a rocket ship bike that can go 150+ mph as my first bike that's absurd (maybe some peple could pull that off but I'm good I'd like to live to be an old man someday, maybe my next bike I'll get something faster though someday who knows)  
So anyways since I ride strictly Street, never any trails, is there any "street" modifications that you'd recommend to me for any part of the bike?  not just tires. I wanna get the most bang for my buck.

I ordered the correct size Pirelli tt tires. Will they come with tubes included? Or can I just use my old tubes that are already on the bike? The tubes that are on the bike have only been rode for 900 miles, if that helps.

If you grew up with dirt bikes, then sticking with 21"/18" wheels is a wise choice.

As far as modifications are concerned, I presume you bought the bike new and it is still in stock condition?

What modifications are appropriate or helpful mostly depends on what type of riding you do: just city streets? Highway? Mountain roads? Do you ride conservatively, happy to just cruise along, or do you attack every road as if it is a racecourse?

ab1234567890 wrote:

I ordered the correct size Pirelli tt tires. Will they come with tubes included? Or can I just use my old tubes that are already on the bike?

Tyres will come without tubes, but you can use your old ones. Have you installed tyres before?

No. I could probably do it thanks to YouTube videos but I'll feel a lot better having someone else do it who knows what they're doing.

And yes bought the bike brand new. Everything on it is stock. I live in rural southern Illinois and I ride a combination of single lane highways, (55mph speed limit) small town roads (30-45 mph speed limit)  and back roads. No interstates. Those freak me out. No steep hills around here it's mostly flat with tiny rolling hills occasionally. Also I do ride aggressively to an extent. I'm very respectful and courteous to other vehicles out on the road (no tailgating or going between cars at stop lights or anything like that) but sometimes when I'm out in the middle of nowhere and no one's around I'll open it up full throttle and get the bike up to 85mph now that it's broken in. In traffic though I just go the same speed as everyone else except sometimes I know the other vehicles are speeding but i keep up with them cause i don't wanna be the slow poke. I love taking turns and curves fast and I love zipping around town but all within reason or else I'll get a ticket. I knew Street riding was gonna be fun but I didn't know it was gonna be THIS MUCH FUN.

My dad always changed the tires on my dirt bike when we used to ride a long time ago lol. A little embarrassing to admit that

If you bought the bike new, then you didn't have a choice of picking up a WRX: Yamaha stopped producing these back in 2011.

I'm afraid that you have to learn how to change your own tyres, otherwise what are you going to do if you get a flat while riding?

It sounds like you're pretty happy with the way the WRR has been working; basically, if you never hit the rev limiter, I would say there is no need for any engine modifications.

The suspension is fine for anyone between 150 and 180 lbs, I presume you must be close to those values.

Do you feel there is something missing from the WRR? If not, then there is no point of changing anything.

You make a good point that I need to learn how to change a tire. Ok I will learn how.
Also I weigh approximately 185 maybe 190 so I'm really close to those values

My wrr is great. It accelerates quickly, until 6th gear, once I get up to 55mph it doesn't have much power. I'd be scared to pass drivers out on the highway at this speed because it would take too long to get around them and get back in to the lane safely. But. I got the bike for fun and recreation so this is not a big issue. It's not like I take the bike anywhere when I'm in a hurry like work for example. I don't need to be out there passing people all the time. So in a way, it's a good thing I don't have a more powerful bike (at least for the next several years... I'm not switching to another bike for a long time..I love my wrr.. it's such eye candy!)

The alternative to learning how to change a tube, is to convert your wheels to tubeless, either with the 3M tape, or with Tubliss. After that you only have to carry a tubeless patch kit, which is far easier and much faster to use.

The bike should not be running out of steam at 55 mph. In fact, at 55 mph you should still be in 5th gear, shifting to 6th only after you reach 65 mph. Don't be afraid to rev the bike, in fact you should try to rev it to the limiter just to get an idea of how high the engine can go.

I hope I didn't break the bike in wrong cause ithe engine sounds like it's ready to switch from 5th gear to 6th at 55mph. The engines revving pretty high in 5th gear at 55mph. I'll try it though. It won't hurt the engine?

And ok I'll go with the tubeless tires someday. That does sound a lot better

You said the bike is stock, which I take it to mean that you have not changed the gearing either, correct? In that case, 55 mph in 5th gear means that the engine is spinning at 7,000 RPMs; redline is around 10,500 RPMs, by which time you should be doing more than 80 mph. Shifting to 6th should take you to 90 mph.

Don't worry, not only can the engine take the higher RPMs, it's actually happier there.

That's correct, no changes to the gearing. Ok I'll switch to 6th gear at 65mph. Once im in 6th gear though, the bike loses a lot of its quick acceleration that it has in its lower gears. That's why I hesitate to pass on the highway in 6th gear

It takes too long to accelerate even 5mph more in 6th gear. I wonder why the bikes like that

Generally speaking, the acceleration in 6th gear will not be as strong as the one in lower gears, but this has nothing to do with gears per se, it has to do with the speeds one is travelling: at 70 mph air resistance is four times greater than air resistance at 35 mph, so no matter how much power a bike has, the acceleration at higher speeds (where one is using higher gears) will not be as strong as at lower speeds (where one is in lower gears).

However, in your situation my suspicion is that you're shifting to 6th too soon, the engine is outside its power band, so it has a hard time accelerating.

If you can find an empty road, it would be a good exercise to rev out second, third, and fourth gears all the way to the limiter so you can see how fast you can go in those gears; this will give you a good idea of how high the bike can rev.

Ok I'll do that.  

Sometimes when I'm coming to a stop and wanting to down shift into first gear it won't down shift, it'll stay stuck in a higher gear or in neutral, I'm pushing down on the gear pedal with my foot but i can feel it that it's not down shifting, eventually I get it downshifted but I worry about this cause what if that ever happened while I'm going into a turn and the bike gets stuck in neutral and there's a car coming... I wonder how such a new bike could be doing this

ab1234567890 wrote:

Sometimes when I'm coming to a stop and wanting to down shift into first gear it won't down shift

If you're trying to downshift multiple gears at once, then yes, sometimes the gearbox will get stuck, that's not unusual. Just let out the clutch a bit momentarily to re-engage the gears, then downshift.

There are bikes that are notorious for false neutrals, but the WRR is not one of them; still, you need to be decisive when shifting gears, if you lazily just touch the lever you might fall on a false neutral.

Approximately how many miles will I get out of my new pirelli tires?

I've never had the MT-90s, but I'm familiar with the MT-60s; you should get at least 3000 miles out of them, and depending on usage, up to 5000 for the rear. Double these numbers for the front.

Is it hard on my bike to ride it with the gas light on? I fill it up with gas as soon as I can but sometimes my gas light comes on while I'm out riding

No issue at all with running low on fuel; you can even run it dry, at which point the engine will suddenly lose power and die, it doesn't hurt it.

johnkol wrote:

I've never had the MT-90s, but I'm familiar with the MT-60s; you should get at least 3000 miles out of them, and depending on usage, up to 5000 for the rear. Double these numbers for the front.

I had rear rear MT60 last in excess of 5,000km on a KLR and a 640... given the reduce weight/power of the WR, they ought to last a whole lot longer.
For mostly paved road, the wife also had good luck with the Kenda K761



Personally, other than a few MT60s, the most street-oriented tires I've run on dual sport bikes are the Kenda K270 (or the Cheng Shin 858)
- They still get decent mileage, and I much prefer the traction "should" I come across some dirt roads...