Blaze Reviews: My 250cc Motocross Machines

I'm Elsa I crystal and this [Music] hello this is Tony blazer back on that a video for the motocross fault and what this one's gonna cover is the second installment of my kind of bike review series where I went back and looked at all the machines I've owned over the years last week I released the first installment that one covered the 125s I had if I remember right eight of those had significantly more 250 s I think at last count it's 16 250 s I've had over the years I kind of jump back and forth I I get 125 s and all the side on one of 250 and I even get a 500 sometimes over the many years I've been riding I kind of like switching it up but a lot of times I've had many bikes at the same time at one point I had a 125 250 and 500 a couple of times so I like jumping back and forth I'm like I said I technically don't keep my bikes for a long time I'll keep them maybe a year sometimes lasts depends on whether how much I like them or not so some of these bikes I had a long time some of them I had not very long some I like a lot some I hate it so I'll get into that here in the video so unlike the other videos have you've seen some of my other bike reviews these are not going to be a real in-depth thing I'm not gonna talk about the size of the suspension you know diamond or the forks or any of that stuff this is just really my recollections my thoughts my feelings of things I remember about the bike the things I remember liking disliking about them as I said in the first video I did I get a lot of people asking me was this bike good that bike good or whatever they're looking to buy and some of the old bikes so these are gonna be based not on the magazine reviews just my personal experience with the machines I've had a lot of them loved motorcycle stoves stay like to have more all the time so this is gonna be you know I don't know probably not a real long video I wouldn't think I'm gonna get in not going to too much in depth than anyone but hopefully you'll enjoy it get a little something out of it so this is a look back at the 250 machines that I've owned over the years my first 250 machine is the 1978 Honda CR 250 R Elsinore alright first up on my look back at the 250 machines is the first real motocross bike I ever owned the 1978 cr250 R Elsinore I bought this motorcycle for $250 I still have the little index card I got from I think it was at the local dealership here in Leesburg Virginia which was hauls Honda back then so on the bulletin board back in the days before you know before you go on the internet or anything used to get the cycle trader or the one-eyed weekly or something or you know both of morons go to your post office local bike shop let me stick a little postcard on there I wanted it I snag the post car didn't write it down I kept the postcard like I said I still have it so nobody else can get this bike I went out got it for $250 it was pretty cool machine like it was mind-blowing for me at the time I you know my brother-in-law and my wife's brother had and several see ours I never had anything like that I had my parents were definitely against motocross bikes and stuff they weren't in for the two wheelers so I had a foofy little bike I had a trail 90 one of these step through nineties you familiar with them that was the first motorcycle I had that was you know a full-size anything that was you would consider a real motorcycle I had it it's hard to remember now maybe for a year or so two years it was pretty also yeah 72 73 it's pretty old when I had it and then the same guy had the CR Joey he ends up jumping it and breaking all the electricals which are inside like a welded section in the middle anyway kill Mike for 90 so I said screw it I'm gonna get a bike so I went and got a CR 250 this bike taught me all about what real motorcycles are like it was a first motorcycle I had with a clutch super high performance for the time like I said I had written he at the time maybe had an 81 CR this is like 86 ear I think about 1986 when I got it and this was a really really awesome machine at the time really I just wrote it up with my my parents place we had you know some trails to the woods and a big one I lived in the middle of in the woods for starters it wasn't like I was living the city then so there was a lot of places to ride like as far as trails go travel through the woods we had and it was mainly up and down like my driveway which was probably out on a half a mile long it's pretty long so like so we were way back in the woods so there was still some fun to be had I did not get to ride on a motocross track I never ever had that bike on a motocross track the whole time I had it it was just for a trail ride and playing around I didn't know how to do jobs didn't know how to do that stuff really but it taught me how things how to use the clutch you know how to you know keep from killing myself on a very potent now things I do remember but this bike it was really fast so much fast or anything I'd ridden before I honestly think it was faster than in his 81 it was a really potent machine 78 was a great year for the CR why something feels still racing now it was a really powerful machine coming from such a like a turd of a machine to this thing I was like whoa I got very careful not to kill myself but the bike was awesome for that suspension stuff I can't speak to that I mean that they said it at my speed and my knowledge it worked okay I wasn't hitting any big doubles or anything on it in fact I ended up buying a spare one after I had some problems with it and that spare one had like Fox air shocks on it which holy crap I wish I had them now they're probably worth a fortune but I stuck him on there I had no idea how these damn things work they were completely out of whack and I had no idea how to tune them it was worse I end up putting them the stocks I actually think he might had works performance shocks on there they weren't when I got the bike it didn't have the OEM shocks had some aftermarket ones but I'm not sure what brand they were on there I ended up you know there was nothing I could know how to do I wasn't gonna change tune the submitter anything it was just ride it put gas in it probably Kmart two-stroke oil the time that's nothing fancy but I love this machine like I said it's one of my favorites I ever had just because it was the first real bike I learned to ride on so great great machine and dammit I was just ill had it 250 number two is the 1985 Yamaha yz250 the next 250 I own was a 1985 Yamaha yz250 now between the 78 CR and this 85 y'see I had a couple of 125 s I had an 87 kx125 and I had an 88 yz125 and I covered in another video but after riding those I just said hey I want to get another 250 here so even though was a couple years older I found a really really clean 85 yz250 I think it was over in Baltimore and my buddy not Jamie went to go get it I think I paid about $1,000 for it if I remember right but you know it's but this is like 88 or so I think maybe it was a couple years old but it was really clean and this bike was really powerful that's one thing I remember about it two things I really take away from this bike fantastic motor the motor was incredibly torquey if you ever had one these 85 yz250 s they were monster engines they were I mean Rick Johnson and those guys are wondering basically stock bikes that year they've you know production bikes and that bike was it's fast stock as many of the other modified bikes where it was a Rompin stompin engine you could ride it around all day with actually getting up in the pipe it we just had so much torque phenomenal engine the rest of the bike though is crap the ergonomics I thought you know again coming off like a 87 and 88 125 with the more modern look kind of one really low boy yet but much lower slimmer graphic slimmer economics the 85 had got a really pudgy tank you kind of had a banana seat and you sat up in it so it felt it felt really wide it was really hard to get forward it had more of that old-school ergonomic feel where the newer bikes the 87 Zanu were getting into the all the tank up to tank seats and all these other things to make the bike a little more slim so jumping back even though it was only three years you're talking about pretty big difference in the feel of the bike he also went from disc brakes which I gotten used to at this point back to a drum brake which sucked the motor again was the highlight the rest of the bike it didn't handle very well the the handling was really really compromised by the suspension again at this point I had gotten into motocross a little bit I was still a novice riding c-class but I knew enough that I had figured out how to jump and things like that and the stock suspension on this bike was just terrible the forks were like marshmallow soft if I remember I remember putting like air and the forks but in the old days ant Schrader valves on them and he would actually add air to the fork and it had a spring in there but the air was like an assist to stiffen it up and I had a run air in it to prevent it from bottoming over everything and the rear shock had this nasty habit of kicking they used to call Yamaha Pan if you hit a square edge bump it would just kick and send you a flying WI almost one of the bars a couple of times one time he hit so hard and I did that whole thing we can see in you know dirtbike crash and burn where your legs are up over your head and you're hanging on by the handlebars think just try to kill in several occasions so the combination of my mediocre skill level the really powerful engine the terrible suspension and the wayward handling not a great combination I'm era when dirt bike tested the thing they described the handling of this bike as like a school bus with four flat tires and that's how I would I would I would have described it at this point we had a cool little track and pointed rocks Maryland it was super whooped out and rough and holy Christ this bike was just a handful it's scared to crap on a mini cage and so I think I only had it maybe six months or maybe I don't not even a year I I really didn't like this bike it was like I said it was going back a couple years back then was such a difference now again I mean you look at the kx250 if you look at a 12 and you look at a 17 you almost can't tell the difference they look the same there's not much difference I'm sure little subtle things but not in the old days in the 80s you went back three years you're like holy crap that's like a total generation change so I think that was probably a mistake on my part even though the engine was plenty powerful the rest of the bike was way lacking my third 250 motocross machine the 1988 Yamaha yz250 after I got tired of fighting with that 85 I decided I did want to get something home they were a little more modern so I picked up in 1988 yz250 now this was the bike was maybe a year old at that point is probably like 1989 or so that was a hugely improved bike of the 85 it was the first year for the new yzm look bodywork complete redesign Yama I did that year in a big big big improvement especially the layout like I said the 85 was tank was very fat pushed you back couldn't get up there over the front it hurt the handling cos you couldn't wait the front end the 88 had a very low boy sleek layout you could slide all the way forward on it this breaks big improvement cartridge Forks holy crap the suspension was better big big big improvement this was a really cool looking motorcycle and I quite liked it but eventually what happened was my buddy Jamie Connor again my best pal he ends up picking up in 1989 yz125 and we were riding to get a little time and of course we always swap bikes back and forth and after I don't know I probably had the bike 3-4 months or whatever we were swapping back and forth I finally decided you know I liked his 125 but I felt more comfortable on it you know after being on 125 took quite a while and then switching back to 50s he got on my 250 and loved it so we made it we made an even swap we decided you know what I like your bike better you like mine let's just trade so we ended up trading I gave him that yz250 straight up for the 89 yz125 happier with the 125 at the time my fourth 250 in 1989 Kawasaki kx250 after we made the trade I had that yz125 meeting about a year ended up having a problem with where I ended up roach in the cylinder that cylinder let go and then it I think I tried to get it replaced because I didn't have the money for a new cylinder back then it was probably 250 bucks which you know I mean I'm in college at this point it's like 1990 89 era I didn't have any money I was flat broke and I tried to get the cylinder fixed I've sent it out to one of the sleeving places they put a higher NIT but then I don't think they got the ports quite right so that Y Z 125 never ran right after that I was like okay time to let the yz125 yz250 cr125 I KN dedup buying that for what I got out of my Y Z I never felt comfortable this mic now if you look at the test what the magazine said this was a really good machine but it reminded me a hell of a lot of that 85 Y Z it was very pudgy basically the K X 500 layout if you get on him like a what modern is a wrong word but the last generation of K X 500 they have that really pudgy tank and it just felt big and heavy to me and now the forks were good this year but I just I didn't drive with the bike I didn't like the way their motor ran my buddy might have 88 version of kx250 and it was a monster lee powerful engine holy Christ that thing was it was actually a lot like maytee v it was really powerful with better suspension basically and I know a lot of people like my buddy Mike Sweeney Hanna Dean and he loved it I didn't like this bike I had it about a month and a half maybe two months not even very very short time I just never could feel comfortable with it so it it was here and gone pretty much right away the next bike on my list the 1990 Honda CR 250 R after I got rid of the kx250 I ended up picking up a 1990 cr125 a bike that I ended up really loving a great machine and I loved it so much I picked up a CR 250 as well so I had in 1990 cr250 one of my favorite all-time motorcycles did this bike I love the ergonomics of it super slim layout great it's funny I I just restored one two years ago three years ago now and I went and I had a brand new KTM at the time at 2016 and that 1990 CR is thinner it's slimmer the ergonomics I think to me at least I thought they were actually better there's a really really narrow layout this first generation of the lowboy tank look and stuff with the Honda they were razor thin through the middle and just really really nicely put together motorcycles now had a great engine that HPP engine the Honda power port motor was phenomenal it had a super wide power man for its day and even riding it now it's still pretty strong it's not powerful compared to a modern 250 today but at the time in 1990 it was a romping stomping engine it was great engine really wide electric there was not a lot of hit the 89 it had a really powerful hit the 90 has a much smoother transition it just pulls and pulls and pulls the thing I liked about that was you know I had a couple of races where I would have liked crash and I know what time I crashed I put the clutch lever off had a new clutch in that thing man you could just leave it in a gear you don't have to worry about shifting it it would just bring it out and it just never stopped pulling incredibly wide timing I mean listen to the guy Cooper talked about his Honda how he could do all the triples in first gear on his Honda when he went to Zook he had to figure out he had to shift a lot more and stuff that's cuz that that Honda engine just never it never stopped pulling it was just so awesome what was not great about the bike headshake was a brutal these things all those late 80s Early 90s Honda's had a really nasty head shake so if you got tired you know towards Miyamoto and you weren't you know your arms are letting go it was real easy to have the bars without your hands you had to be cognizant of that I used to the old trick we'd use was you would cinch the crap out of the triple clamp bolt and pinch that thing down to you felt a little bit of drag so it was not good for the life of your bearings but it was like a poor man steering stabilizer side crank that crap out of that thing so you'd feel that little bit of drag but it would slow that oscillation a little bit the suspension was not great either really the forks and the shock neither one was good but the forks in particular were really bad in these 90s they had a problem with the early you know Shawa upside down stuff had particulate contamination issues where it would when you got him serviced I had mine reviled by bum sticks over in Maryland and they worked really well at first but within a couple of weeks they were back to being thrashing and what would happen was as the sliders are going in there they're actually you know rubbing off all these little metal flakes that would get in the damping they didn't have that kind of hard coating on them like modern force do and it just would leave all this particulate crap in there just like you know dirty oil in your car when it's ready to change it was full of scrap you a merriment you change out the oil and it was just tons of gold little shavings in there and stuff it would just clog up the internals so it was one of the things where the the bike required constant maintenance to keep the submission working yeah again I'm broke I'm at the time I'm going to school full-time I'm working at a bank and making like I don't know six bucks an hour or seven bucks an hour whatever the hell it was back then and I would just flat broke so I didn't have money to the racing thing was always a hobby it wasn't I was never gonna go pro so keeping the bike maintenance wise the suspension was always the name here but the the machine itself was excellent I had some great results in this bike I had basically all the trophies I own still to this day except for a coupler from this bike the 1990 125 and 250 won my first race on this bike great machine loved to death I had it maybe two years which at the time was a really long time for me too or 3 or me anyway so it was one of the bikes I had the longest I really loved it great machine and like I said I liked it well enough that I bought another one a couple years just back to restore next up the 1995 Suzuki rm250 now as I said I had that cr250 quite a while it was a great machine really the only reason I got rid of it was it just started to get tired again I didn't have the money to do a complete rebuild on and I could feel the the crank was getting a little bit wonky same thing with the 125 I had both of those bike for a couple bikes for a couple years and I just decided to get rid of them because they were just getting tired I cracked the wheel two or three times I erased a lot on that thing wrote a lot pretty much wrote it into the ground and when it started to give up the ghost I didn't have the money to do a complete rebuild for it so I ended up selling it and I went back to my buddy j JT Motorsports Ted or and picked up a 1995 rm250 now this was a bike another one that I absolutely hated it was so different after that CR I kind of had the same thing guy Cooper I wear this it literally didn't care what gear you in you could be in third you mean fourth it would pull it would pull from the zero rpms and then revved to the moon you didn't care this RM was the complete opposite it had no response off the it was a case read engine it like how bogged and then it hit like a ton of bricks in the middle and just it was such a death machine I hated the way it handled the bike felt super busy and sketch all the time where the CR would headshake like the CEO would head shake under deceleration you'd be coming down a hill and then into some braking bumps and if you were not holding on tighter you weren't in the right position it would get oscillation the arm was opposite of that it didn't really head shake under decel it was more like it would it would actually head shake under acceleration and just felt loosey-goosey like it's kind of just dancing all over the place even on paper I think the suspension that that was had the twin chamber forks and stuff so the suspension was better it wasn't that part wasn't too bad but I just the best way I described this thing is always felt like it had a hinge in the middle like the front wheel was doing something that the rest of the bike wasn't and I just never felt comfortable on it it had that there's mid-90s rms to had like a really fat midsection they actually put extra plastic over the airbox and stuff to make them thicker and I had the theory with that was to give you a little more to hang on to which I get it that's fine but it felt very porky to me after the CR didn't sound I'm gonna make infront of the sounds like my CR like Bret burp and this thing was like ringing and it just I don't like it it was a hunk of crap I hated this motorcycle so I I got rid of that one as quick as I could definitely uh you know our IP 1995 or 250 next up the 1995 Yamaha yz250 after I said good riddance to the unloved rm250 I picked up a machine I liked a thousand percent better I ended up getting in 1995 yz250 now this was a great machine motor car ii picked it is the best bike that year it was definitely maybe not as sexy as the CR at the time although the 95 Sierra was purple and it was weird I thought that was strange but I did like the looks of this y'see I love the graphics that year even though they're like lavender it's kind of a strange thing in general I think some of the 90 stuffs maybe a little bit much but for some reason this 95 appealed to me it still does I still love this bike it was a really really machine it had again I don't think the motor was as good as the night that's that hvp motor that CR was just unbeatable that's why they raved about it so much as a motor Adam it was phenomenal the Y Z did have a much more CR like power bein from low to mid it was a really strong roll-on power you could whack a throttle and just myrrh up and pulled right through super smooth hooked up excellent almost anything very electric like the CR was didn't have that like shallow low in and then hard hit like the RM did it didn't pull on top nearly as far it kind of laid down on top it didn't have that that screaming higher RPM rev this er had but overall I like this motor a lot handling was pretty good III still think the CR turned a little better but it was certainly way more stable the suspension was very good in this bike I liked it a really only thing that I kinda had a beef with was the at least for me without putting race gas in it at paying they had like a knock to it if you wrote it and really heavy sand like at Budds Creek or someplace where you get out there in the sands deep it's wet the bike would you know ping pretty bad if you didn't have a race gas in it so I usually ran like a little bit of a 50/50 mix or something put in there to stop that but the bike itself was excellent love this bike good machine another machine that I would love to have today I wish I still had it I'd you know if I'd pick up one now I definitely would it's a great bike if you're looking for a bike to restore a ride or whatever you can't go wrong with a 95 y'see next up the 1996 Suzuki rm250 in 1996 I got hit with the new bike bug big time when Suzuki came out with her all-new RM line up the rm125 rm250 were completely new in 1996 and I just thought they were gorgeous I thought they were just beautiful I still do it nothing is a great machine maybe one of my all-time favorite Suzuki designs really cool bikes I could not afford the 250 initially I was really on the fence you know about getting the 1 to 5 I had always used bikes they said that the last new bike I owned embarrassingly was a 87 Honda fat-cat I bought brand new other than that every other bike I've ever owned ATVs bikes anything had always been used it allowed me to get them cheap and you turn them basically for whatever you almost don't money you've got him for a year and get out of it without getting hurt too bad so I just wanted that for whatever reason I was obsessed with this new 96 Suzuki so I ended up going and getting a brand-new 96 rm125 rm250 a pan that's total BS if you aren't Jeremy McGrath they were phenomenal so I love that part of it but I had been riding to 50s for I don't know three or four years at this point and I had a hard time going back to the 125 and particularly this 125 because it had a very narrow power band it wasn't like that rm250 where it was like all made only it had a little bit of low ingre for 125 it was actually very responsive but the mid-range was where most of the power was and there was just no top in pole at all it just kind of hit hard and then kind of laid down I always felt like I was in the wrong gear on it I had a hard time and I didn't have the money to get pop-ups me if I'd put a pipe on it and some other stuff that would have been a little more comfortable on the bike but in general the 125s I had at this point the 90 cr125 I had had been like a rev rocket just pin it buddy might had a 94 cr125 heard that a lot great bike again just pin it and this RM was kind of like if you pin it it just kind of hit a wall if you try to scream it so I like the bike in a lot of ways but I ended up not feeling real comfortable that I raced racing for maybe half a year I had six months or so and I said you know what I think I'm better suited to a 250 again I'm always going back and forth so I end up selling the 125 and I picked up they used 96 rm250 now this bike again is one of these machines that gets a terrible rap but I think that's because of mcgrath as much as I love Jeremy McGrath I love you McGrath you're awesome the fact that him and the rock on these guys ragging on this bike I think makes it sound like it's worse than it is I mean it won motocross action shootout they're 96 I thought the bike was great it had a similar power band to the Honda's of the time in that it had a nice wide pull it just didn't have as much now at my speed at this point I'm riding 250 B it was fine you know I wasn't an expert I'm not a guy who's gonna pin it to the stops and you know wring the Calot hell out of it I just need to pull my butt around and help me get over jumps and did that just fine I thought it was actually very powerful I thought it was fine snappy power great suspension great looks I just thought it was an excellent motorcycle I never had any reliability issues with it too I only had it about a year so I know a lot of people had problems with like I think the wheels and some transmission issues but I never experienced that like I said they were it was almost brand new when I got it and I never had any problems so in general my experience with Suzuki's has been kind of so-so in terms of reliability but I had no problem either one of these 96 arms gave me any trouble I love the bike it was a good machine for sure next up the 1996 Honda CR 250 R after I had the 96 rm250 I actually ended up getting out of motocross for me I don't know half a year or so for a little bit my buddies and I joke about it is the dark days we got into mountain biking I bought a Cannondale super V and we were all going to the mountain biking thing for a month or so until a buddy of mine a couple months I mean buddy mine we came out mountain biking and he comes along my buddy Eric baihe comes along with his cr125 and I was like you know what I feel like a loser on this bicycle so I was like you know what screw this we kept our bikes but we decided we want to get some dirt bikes again so I ended up picking up a pre-owned 1996 cr250 from my buddy Greg Valle at loud motor sports the same dealership I'd bought the fat-cat from many years prior it was a really cool bike I like this thing quite a lot actually like I said it reminds me a lot of that 96 rm250 they're more similar than they are different I think in terms of the way they felt and ergonomics I think it's pretty clear when Suzuki and decoster made this 96 RM they were patterning it after a Honda the house were the best bikes at the time and it had a very Honda esque feel the CR didn't have as good a suspension like I said that arm with those right-side-up force was phenomenal so the crs pitch was a little little less awesome but really good motorcycle overall by one beef was what it was didn't have great low-end I think my 90 actually had more low in these the 92 and and newer bikes they kind of changed the way they ran a little bit they had a lot more hit and pulled stronger on top but they maybe weren't as electric and smooth as the earlier ones so for me personally who was I was riding some on the track some of the trails like I said my my personal track was in the woods there my buddy Connor and all of us we had laid out this kind of motocross track in the woods it real tight fun little area but it like I said very tight and I needed a bike that had a little more grunt so I ended up putting a gnarly FMF gnarly pipe on it and that really kind of perked up the groan on the bike and really brought it to back to where I wanted it with that pipe on there it ran much more like the 95 Y Z or whatever had you know a good roll on power excellent mid-range torque just a phenomenal motorcycle I remember another buddy might had at 19 bought the new 1999 CR 250 and he brought it over to my house and one of the actually Joe Bartlett one of the Bartley brothers were riding around there and we swapped bikes and he was like man you love the 96 it was so much better and I got him that 99 I was like this thing is a pile of crap the suspension was it just felt harsh because the damn frame was so stiff I think the motor - they made some change in the 99 I felt like the motor was much near the power bands much nearer even those in general those engines are thought to be pretty good for 98 or 99 one of those years and there they kind of screwed them up a little bit and this 99 I didn't really like so this 96 was a great motorcycle phenomenal machine there's a good reason why so many people restore now it's not just mcgrath they're great platform good handling bike and probably one of the last best CR 250 s next up the 2001 Yamaha yz250 F after a little while with the CR 250 I got the really idiotic idea to go back to 125 actually the 125 probably wasn't the problem that bike I chose was the problem I ended up getting in 1999 cr125 long story I originally wanted to get it why's he 125 if you know that in my other video I mentioned that I went to go get it they're sold out so I ended up getting a CR 125 brand new again from my buddy at allowed motorsports here in Leesburg this is another bike I did not care for so another friend of mine had a Y Z 400 F when that thing first came out and I was riding over with my buddy Greg Harrison's place and I tried out the y'see 400f and I was like you know what this is exactly what I'm looking for I hate this with cr125 it's a turd it vibrates it hasn't got less POS hated it so I said you know what screw this I'm gonna sell this here 25 took a beating on that when I bought it brand new so that you can tell I'm selling it about six months after I bought it what you've imagined what I lost I don't even remember now but I'm sure it's probably two thousand dollars or something insane so I ended up getting a Y Z 400 F had that for a while loved that bike I'll cover that in another video but the next 250 I got though was the first 2001 yz250 F a summer the day I'm sitting at my computer at work and I saw I mean beyond moto news back then or one of those sites is not around maybe my key piece fresh dirt I don't know but they were talking about the all-new 250 version of the Y Z 400 F and that like blew my mind because gotta remember the time 254 strokes or not the kind of thing you would motocross race I mean I'd ridden a lot of X or 250 s over the years I had an extra 200 at one point and they were fun bikes good time they're great great fun got no problem with forced drugs love X ours but they weren't race bikes and the thought of a 250 four-stroke was like super intriguing cuz I liked the the 125 experience like holding it wide open the lighter feel and stuff but I just you know maybe wasn't getting the point where I was as comfortable riding the demanding power banette required so the 250f seemed like an intriguing thing so I called up I called all of my local buddies and shops ended up finding one at they had on order the first one they had coming at cycle sport I guess in Herndon here in Virginia and I said I put a deposit on it and it came in maybe two months later so I got the first one they got and this bike was just mind-blowing to me at the time the only thing that kind of sucked was I got it I think it was like February so I went to take it out riding at the ground was frozen was a little sketchy at first but I couldn't leave how how quickly it revved I mean all the bikes are like this now but if you grew up riding two strokes in X ours and things these first generation these Yamaha four-strokes were just like mind-blowing I just couldn't leave it revved to the moon and I couldn't leave how torquey was compared to 125 it was like no contest the thing was there's no way this bike should have been fair to race against the 125s that was the AMA just screwed us all with this asinine decision because this bike would just romp all over it now in terms of outright like if you look at the power curve peak power maybe not but everywhere else but that like 500 rpm where the 125 had it it killed it this bike handle great it was felt much lighter than why is he 400 F I loved it but it was a very heavy bike and you felt that it felt like an XR I felt I had this great super easy revving engine nice handling but felt like a tank and this 250f didn't feel like that at all it had about the same I think it's about the same weight as a 250 at the time not as light as a modern KTM but for the time very very light my real only beef with this thing was the friggin starting back then the Yamahas had a starting drill you had to find top dead center you had to click over the compression release just to go it just passed and you had to let it go all the way to the top and then you had to give it a good strong kick now that doesn't sound like too hard but it's actually really tricky because you had to spin it it just the right rpms there's actually way harder than on the 400 the 400 the same drill but it seemed to be a lot easier this 250 was persnickety in my problem with it was sometimes it just would refuse to start I mean it literally would not start I would have to the only way to get from your start was to put an all-new plug in it so I would have to it wasn't easy unlike a two-stroke where you just get a wrench and take it off you take the tank loose and it was thus owners like way jammed up in there wasn't easy to get to and did this to me on half a dozen occasions where the freaking thing would not start and heaven help you if you accidentally wet the throttle like you would on a two-stroke or your jerk buddy would come up and give it a couple of squirts just to screw with you you never get it started for like half an hour so as much as I like the performance of this bike and thought it was fun the starting thing made me start to hate it and basically what happened was one day I went we were gonna go riding with my buddies I went out to start it the son of a refused to start and I you know what I just I had had enough I was like screw it you're out of here and I ended up taking it to loud motor sports traded it in on the all-new 2002 CRF 450 and I never looked back the 2004 Honda CRF 250r I had that CRF 454 every year so maybe a little maybe me once too I really liked the bike it was a really good bike the thing about the CRF had no starting drill first kick second kick boom easy awesome love that part of it what it got me again was again the new bike bug when Honda came out with an all-new design in 2004 they came out with their version of the yz250 f2 2004 CRF 4 CRF 250r that thing looks so cool they had all new bodywork subtly different than the o2 made the o2 look kind of kabhi compared to it and the main thing was it was the 250 AB which I actually did prefer riding the smaller bike and it had no starting drill it had none of the other nonsense the Yamaha had with it I thought it would be like the perfect kind of compromise bike so I ended up taking my bike down to Aloud and trading in the to the 450 R on the all-new CRF 250r so I got an all new Oh for this bike though amazingly I never felt comfortable on it um something about the way it ran again this the Yamaha was very much kind of like my 1990 CR 250 in that it didn't care what gear you're in you just pinned it and the power was there at just this long linear flow of power the farther you revved it the farther pulled that CRF though it had a more narrow kind of a mid-range e own only motor it was another one those bikes that I always feel like I wasn't wrong here kind of like that 96 RM to 125 I never came to grips with it it with the funny thing is if you look at the bikes that's the one motorcycle I never got graphics for I never got accessories for I never bought a pipe for it I didn't do I barely rode the thing for some reason I just never connected with this motorcycle and then I started hearing these rumors about pistons breaking and all these other problems they were having with this first generation CRF they were it didn't have the combined oil like the yz250 F had they had like a very small little oil tank I kept the training and the engine all separate which was a great idea in theory but this bike would use oil and you had to be really diligent about and if people if you weren't careful you could run it out of oil and cause some serious problems they also had I think valve issues anyway I didn't have it long enough having these problems mine mechanically did not have any issues because I really barely wrote it as well this bikes that should have been great I didn't like didn't connect with it and ended up ditching and after maybe about a year our next 250 is the 2006 Kawasaki KX 250 after I'd had enough of the O 4 CRF 250r I ended up getting ditching that and getting a 0 5 CRF 450 one of my all-time favorite bikes loved that machine but it was really a massive handful in the woods the thing was a powerhouse and just an absolute rocket ship really kind of too fast for me uh quite frankly it was a bike that didn't need any motor mods I mean jeez you could probably a supercross with a stock motor the Honda really killed it with that design so I wanted something to ride in the woods again I kind of split 50-50 between track riding and then trail riding I have a great network of trails up at my parents place even to this day we got their ride little motocross track and all kind of like a really kind of a hare scrambles loop all over the mountain so I wanted something to ride that kind of thing with and I had had an o-5 KTM 201 something a little more like a two-stroke because I always felt that they were a little more at home in the woodsy environment so I ended up picking up I used 2006 kx250 this was a really cool bike I like the looks of it I ended up getting the Chevy trucks graphics and the flow plastic forward and making it look really awesome this thing was a rocket it was really fast the thing just hit like a ton of bricks I remember at the time I also had a CR 500 1990 CR 500 and so I had the time I had I had a 454 stroke CR CR 500 and then this KX 250 and I'm gonna ride that kx250 back to back with that 500 and it didn't feel like a whole lot slower I was like damn this thing is fast but what I didn't like about it was the handling was weird it had just a strange feel I had not had a whole lot of Kawasaki over the years I had that 87 then I guess 89 so I don't have a lot of experience with the mid-90s ones I always wanted one one at a 94 couldn't afford it back then but it just had a strange feelin in felt like the ass was up in the air and the front was down kind of that stinkbug thing they talked about a lot of times and it just felt a little sketchy again it didn't feel planted my other problem with it too is the clutch was just terrible in this thing it was like a light switch on and off grabby as hell which is not what you want in the woods where you're gonna be you know feathering a lot kind of because it's not gonna I didn't put a heavier weight flywheel on or anything I'm just kind of riding it as a motocross bike in the woods and the clutch was crappy ended up dying and Magura hydraulic clutch that definitely helped because the pole was pretty heavy too but overall I just didn't really like this motorcycle it was I had it about a year and it was fine for what I was doing with this that was another bike - I had to run the race gas mixed in it would ping like a son of a so not a great motorcycle in a lot of ways I you know it's a neat looking motorcycle I like the looks of them in general but certainly not the best machine of its here I don't think next up is another four-stroke the 2007 suzuki rmz 250 my next 250 was a four-stroke funny story I actually sell cars for a living I work for a car I'm in general sales manager at a car dealership in Virginia I saw a buicks and gmcs I need a truck give me a call but I was thinking in 2007 year about transitioning into the motorcycle business somebody mom was on the floor a GM my buddy Greg and allowed motorsports he was looking for a GM for a store and he actually offered me a 2007 suzuki rmz 250 as a signing bonus so if i decided to go work for him he'd give me this new rmz as a signing bonus so seems like a pretty good deal I wanted to make a change anyway at the time so I went in did that this bike I liked it a lot for in some ways other ways it was kind of the first time I rode it we actually went through a little water crossing with the damn thing and it ended up somehow sucking water into the airbox and developed a knock I at first I thought it was a rod knock I had I'd ridden it at all of like one hour and it started making a knock and I remember going my buddy James does that sound normal to you what does that sound long story short it turned out to be it got a little water in the oil and it is the oil out enough in just that one little minute to cause the piston to go out around a little bit and it was rocking if you ever seen one of these Pistons in the modern four-stroke there's no skirt to it so it doesn't take much to get that rocking thing going and that was what I was hearing so I don't happen to get out all new cylinder because I don't have the whole thing completely rebuilt after an hour riding and I have ridden in water my entire life I've taken almost every motorcycle ever had cause like their necks my right next to my parents place there's like a creek we go down there and ride through it I've submerged bikes I have never had a problem I go through this friggin little creek crossing with this brand-new rmz and it completely you know jacks the motor up so needless to say I was not a happy camper with Suzuki at this point once I got the bike rebuilt the boater was ok this was the first year for the Suzuki 250 the previous version had been like the Kawasaki version I love the way it handled I felt really fast on this bike I mean this bike I felt like I put it anywhere the handling was probably the best of any motorcycle I've ever owned it was just a phenomenal it felt like an 80 on most she'd just toss it around and the power though was not spectacular I was probably running I don't know I was probably a buck 80 buck ninety at this point a little heavy for a 250 F but it was kind of struggling with my weight on and it you know if you you try to pull a tall gear it would bog it didn't have an excess of power probably like the current one - that was not the Suzuki 240 the forte was the suspension was very good I had to put stiffer Forks in it the stock suspension was little soft with my weight on it but once I put stiffer Springs front rear the bike was awesome handle excellently it just was always having little problems I I kept getting flats in it and it's hard to say that's that's clearly not Suzuki's problem but I've never had a problem with flats other than this motorcycle I must have went through three or four tubes I don't know whether there was I took it to the bike shop said look you changed the damn tire something going on here they didn't find anything didn't see anything poke I don't was going I just kept having problems so I had it maybe a year I got aggravated with it it was after a while it just felt like the thing was jinxed and I I let it go because you know maybe unfairly or whatever I just had a sour taste in my mouth about old experience next up the 2006 Suzuki rm250 Carmichael edition now while I had this arm z250 actually ended up picking up another 250 two-stroke at the same time I came across a Ricky Carmichael Edition 2006 rm250 in like the local cycle trader or something I don't think it was on eBay and although it could have been at this point but I'm pretty sure it was a local paper I happen to stumble across that said holy crap love this bike I remember looking out on the showroom floor had the gold rims and all the whole thing and I thought the bike was badass looking really my favorite Suzuki design of all time that look I love that beautiful Makita graphics the whole thing just a great great looking machine so I said you know what I've always wanted one of these let's go look at it I made the mistake of going to look at the bike in a at night the guy had it in a barn and he told me the bike was super clean little hours I barely ridden it and all yadda yadda yadda and we went there it was raining it was dark it was in a barn and I got totally snookered I bought the motorcycle and soon as I took it back to my house and we saw it in like bright light in the garage or like this thing is beat it would it had if my the bike was only a year old at this point in it it was worn out like it was 20 years old all the roller bearings were worn out everything the guy just trashed it and I was super not pleased with this but you know caveat emptor buyer beware it's not like I bought it from a dealership I couldn't take it back you know so I was like oh well I got it now whatever center of having to completely replace everything on this bike it looked great I did love the looks of it that Makita graphics were awesome I end up scoring another set of those off off of ebay I guess and replaced those original grabs were getting kind of beat I kept the bass I didn't put my own numbers on or anything I never raced this particular one I had it just kind of as a play toy I never felt comfortable on it this bike was really frantic this is the first RM I've had are like armed 250 since my 96 and the the bike had a super sharp turning it ended up putting around my head a couple of times I'd go in and it was like oversteer I'd go in the front and a knife and an oversteer it just was very very busy feeling kind of there are n thing I know a lot of people love it it's probably eight for Supercross but I was riding on a big outdoor tracks and the bike just felt kind of sketchy at speed it also had a really hard hit the engine was really really explosive again great for Supercross great for getting up on over jumps I thought it was a little hard to get off that rmz 250 which had this really smooth linear power to this like hyperactive yzr and 250 so my feeling on this bike was it was probably great if you're a pro or an expert for me at this point a middle-aged I don't know 35 or 36 at this time I was it was a little bit more than I was looking for I I love to look at in the garage but actually riding it it must be a little bit of a handful so I ended up mostly looking at it abiding the rmz most the time and let that one sit next up one of my favorites the 2005 Yamaha yz250 after the 2006 rm250 the next 250 motocross machine I owned was a 2005 yz250 now even though a year older my buddy Greg got it's actually a repo bike this dude had brought it in for repairs and never paid him it had been in his shop for like two three years maybe at this point is this is maybe I don't know 12 13 or whatever bike was you know pretty 6 or 7 years old in but it was really clean up and sitting back in the shop gathering dust and I went in there one day so what's the deal with that bike you know would even want to part with it so I think I'd bought it for like two grand and the bike was actually very clean it was actually owned by a former Redskins player believe it or not and the only problem was he had put I don't know what the hell Springs he'd put in it but they were they were made like for James Stewart the the forks did not frigging move it was crazy how stiff the suspension was so you know even with my lard ass on it it felt like they didn't move I was like holy Christ to this guy that must have been three this bike so he had stiffed Greg I bought it great engine I like this of the Oh 6 KX the Oh 6 RM and this Yamaha I like bahama by far the best this was a great great motorcycle love the layout love the handling really it's the same biking you buy right now phenomenal engine this was the first year for the aluminum frame like I said this is mentioned I never got a tree valved I really should have sent it off to race tech and got them to fix it get it set up for me I fiddled with the dial to where you kind with it but anybody who wrote it was like God ding the forks don't work I said yeah I know they're terrible so I use it mainly for a trail bike like I said I had it for riding in the woods so it wasn't too bad just softened up as much as I could and kind of live with it if I hadn't been so heavy it probably would've been unridable but the fact that I was pretty heavy myself and it made it least livable but it was never great yeah I would like you know if it a minute no six with the SSS Forks probably a lot better this was the last year the older style and great motorcycle and needed some suspension work pretty much the reason I ended up selling this one was I cartwheeled the damn thing he them up riding my parents place hit this what was a stump patria got pulled up and in the woods I didn't see the whole dare hit the front end went over the bars Jack my knee all the hell I'd already had two knee surgeries at this point so I had to get another third knee surgery I ended up selling the damn motorcycle to pay for the knee surgery because it was gonna cost me a couple grand after the deductible in everything so that was a sad way to end things with that motorcycle they kind of I loved it I was funny as well as days where you haven't you're on fire you feel so great I remember the day I crashed I was like aw man I'm long and I'm just looking through the woods and then and then you know I'm sitting or wondering whether I can get up and kick the damn thing to get back to the truck so I'm sure we've all done that where you have that let's go one more lap and it didn't work out for me that day and it was a sad into a great motorcycle my next motocross machine was my 1990 CR 250 our project bike after jacking up my knee I decided I had had enough of dirtbike riding for a while I took probably that three years off I just said I had so many injuries I've you know like all of us I've had many many surgeries many concussions many broken busted everything so I was getting up there I was in my mid-40s I was like you know screw this I'm too old for this crap so it took a couple years off but then I got the kind of itch a little bit and I decided in 2015 I wanted to find a bike to do a restoration on I thought it was something I could do for pulper max write about it do a little video you can actually find the video of this bike on this channel as well I did a whole kind of a vlog on my restoration so Nick McCabe one of the race guys who writes for Racer X he had had in 1990 cr250 has quite a collection of bikes he was willing to part with clean bike just old unrestored seem like it's a pretty good shape overall and it buying it from him how it shipped out here from California overall the bike had a weird little glitch where I had a it would run on and stuff it turned out it was the carburetor was a problem it took me quite a while to figure that out you watch the I read the article on Palma Mac's about it and like I said I chronicled the whole thing but the bike itself was I tore it all the way down to the bare wheels had the frame fix the frame is actually worn out on the bottom the guy who had it out in the dunes and I guess it wasn't like flattened and crashed it looked like it had been sandblasted and worn through the frame which was pretty crazy I guess he never wore never ran a skid plate the bike though was overall mechanically sound I had to get you know some new wheels the same thing my old ninety had done the wheels were all cracked and I was familiar with the machine like I said I knew what was gonna break on these old things and the same old stuff overall I think the the project turned out great the bike was beautiful loved it it was fun to ride I had race detected suspension huge huge improvement I wish I'd had them had them might have them do it way back in the nineteen ninety although I'm sure the technology has gotten better since then so overall an excellent machine a fun project I really enjoyed my last 250 the 2016 KTM 250 SXF riding my project bike around gave me the itch a little bit again so in 2016 I decided hey I wanted to get a little more modern to ride so I ended up picking up a 2016 KTM 250 s XF this was a bike I debated what I wanted to get original I was looking at my buddy Greg had some really great deals on the kx250 F and I looked at a Yamaha yz250 F I talked to Chris Kiefer he recommended I get the Yamaha the power band of the Yamaha is excellent I would like to have had that but I really wanted some of the electric start and back then they didn't have it on the Yamaha really though I think the KTM was only one that had it then I love the looks of the KTM I just thought was a trick machine and so I wound up going with that the bike itself I liked it quite a bit the power band was kind of weird in that it revved to the moon like I remember when I first got on that oh one yz250 I'd never experienced anything like that before the high revving holy crab just pulled and pulled and this it was the same kind of experience I had KTM though it was even more so the thing basically you'd rev it to the point you think you should shut off and then you got to keep it on a little bit longer and it would keep pulling so it was a little tricky to ride in that respect and that it didn't have a lot of grunt it was really if you're gonna go fast on it which I wasn't gonna do that I was not I was just got it to kind of play on it was fun though if you could just ring the crap out of it it was a lot of fun the thing just pulled and pulled good motorcycle love the electric start I thought the suspension was pretty decent ended up having race tech redo it for me just kind of a project for Popo mechs I did an article on it just to see what they can do with it I was real happy with the results I think I could have written it stock it's fine in my speed it wasn't gonna matter I actually thought the 1990 cr250 had better suspension after race tech got done with it which is what prompted me to get them to do it us like they just did a good job with that I was real happy with that part of it the brakes worked great you know KTM the one thing that kind of sketched me out was a couple times on it headshake pretty violently which surprised me most of the newer bikes I had had not done that in quite a while and this thing every now and again would do that same my my old you know CRS would do in the old days it ripped the ham bars out of my hand one time and I was like dude I'm getting I'm getting too old for this saw my life flash in front of me and I enjoyed the bike that was pretty good in the end I got rid of it because my health basically I have my right hip is just jacked up from years of getting the crap pound out of it and I need to have my hip replaced and it got to the point where I ride for a couple hours then I couldn't walk for like three days I'd be hobbling around like I was 90 so it kind of took the fun out of it I couldn't really get the most out of the motorcycle so that at this point was like the last motorcycle I've owned iYou know selling it dunno know maybe a year and a half ago I had it about a year so I guess 2017 or 2018 I don't remember exactly but it was a great motorcycle I didn't get rid of it because of the bike I get rid of it because I physically just couldn't do it anymore so there you have it that's a look back at all the 250 motocross machines I've owned and I've had quite a few of them really really great machine some of them really not great machines others some that are probably great they just didn't jive with me you know I'd love to know what everybody else's experience has been with some of these machines I've been lucky to have a lot of motorcycles and kind of try them all out get a chance to experience a lot of the great machines and then these are just bikes I've owned between myself and my buddy Jamie Connor he had like a 92 yz250 and Kalista he's probably mics as I have and so I've written I have written literally hundreds of different motorcycles over the last four years and some of the ones I guess several great some are not so if you want to check out the 125 video I did it posted last week that'll be in the on the channel as well where I went down those I'm gonna do one on the open class bikes I've had as well get a little detail on those if you like these let me know I mean I'll do one on the off-road bikes I've had I've had I could do one of ATVs and off-road like I said I've had a lot of different motorcycles and it's kind of fun to look back on them and see what everybody thinks I got pretty good feedback on the 125 one so if you like this one as well I'll keep going with them if you want to help out the channel I have motocross vault merch available and mighty spring the link is in the description below if you could subscribe to the channel I'd appreciate it share it on social media give it a thumbs up that helps the algorithm helps people find the channel I do appreciate that great deal if you're listening to this on my podcast if you could give us a like and a thumbs up and a rating on Apple podcast I'd be very much appreciated as well so again until we meet again this tiny blazer keep the rubber side down [Music] you

Channel: The Motocross Vault

Views: 19,438

Keywords: race, crash, supercross, motocross, HONDA, YAMAHA, KAWASAKI, KTM, SUZUKI, 80, 125, 250, 500, 490, YZ80, YZ85, YZ125, YZ250, YZ400, YZ765, YZ490, YZ450, YZ426, CR80, CR80R, CR125, CR250, CR450, CR480, CR500, CR500R, KX80, KX125, KX250, KX450, KX420, KX500, rm80, RM125, RM250, RM465, RM500, RM450, RM-Z250, RM*Z450, ATC, FOURTRAX

Id: D5uDbnnPF5I

Length: 54min 47sec (3287 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 01 2020