Two-Stroke vs. Four-Stroke: KTM 150 SX vs. KTM 250 SX-F

[Music] [Music] everybody it's david pingree here with vital MX along with sean clinger and we got a project today that it's kind of playing off something we did recently with a Yamaha yz250 F bone-stock and a yz125 the Pro Circuit had done up and we need to compare some of those two bikes we dyno done we did lap times and we kind of added in the fun factor and tried to determine which bike we liked best did best on and all that so we had a lot of fun doing that we thought hey let's try it with a KTM 150 and a 250 F over there these bikes are both stopped with the exception of exhaust systems FMF provided exhaust systems for both bikes so we thought with a little bit bigger displacement here in a 150 how does that compare to a two VTF so we came out here to a hill track that is in the middle of nowhere fun Hill track bumpy ruddy lots of hills so a really good place to test really fun spot so I started on the 150 and we didn't dyno these bikes because we kind of know the results already that thing is gonna make less horsepower than this 250 yeah but we wanted to to get lap times on each and we wanted to just again try to determine what bike we had more fun which one did we enjoy riding the most so the one thing I noticed about the 150 is a little bit soft for me I did some clicker adjustments and got it where it was better but I probably need a little more air pressure and maybe a little more tuning to get it a hundred percent but obviously having a blast on that thing right away and when we started doing some lap times my best was a 229 and all right it's pretty good that's the top onto the 250f got used to this thing it kind of encouraged you to ride a little more mellow and a little more kind of controlled where that 150 much like a 125 just wants you to wring its neck keep the throttle twisted beat beat up the clutch and really be aggressive you're constantly shifting but it makes it a lot of fun so on this bike for 250 F I I found I could just be a little bit more patient coming into turns roll the throttle on I didn't have to mess with the clutch as much I was able to really push hard into obstacles and things like that because the suspension was a little firmer just in stock setting and when I went to do a hot lap 229 exactly the same literally down to the same 10 so I thought that was pretty interesting and I've always said from bike to bike anyway they're only gonna go as fast as you can go so that rang true with me if I'm picking which bike I had more fun on I think again it comes down to the track today out here I really like that 150 again but if it got to where it was a little more hard pack or maybe really deep sand or deep dirt I probably like the 250f a little bit better just because it's got that extra torque it's got better traction a little bit better front interaction into corner entrances and things like that but I had a ball on both I think if I had to pick one to go racing I'm picking the 250 but if I'm just picking one for good times that 150 is tough to beat the pull in the mid-range of that thing is unreal I mean I had to keep my head up over the plant because when it comes on wants to get off the ground so anyway that was my experience Sean let's hear what you did starting off shooting shooting videos and photos and just putting around a little bit I was immediately more comfortable on the on the four-stroke I'm a lot more comfortable on four strokes so that was kind of my comfort zone and I and when I hopped on the 150 you know it just takes a lot more work so it's funny that you were talking a little bit about depends on the track so for me I think just before we talk about lap times just riding it I felt like I had to work a lot harder on the the 150 in kind of a more motocross key setting rather than being it like Paula or queer or anything where there's you know jumps and in terms of national self a two-stroke is a little more fun but out here it was just kind of hard for me to ride but then when we decided to do our hot laps and time it I actually found you know getting the 125 to turn exactly where I wanted it to to get into the rut and pivot out of it it was a lot easier than the for show so on the 250 I was kind of blowing through some of the turns where when I was trying to do my hot lap my lap times on the the 151st and I was three minutes seven seconds was my fastest lap time on that and then hopping on the 250f I dropped it down to 302 so not a huge difference I mean in a in a three minute lap it's it's only five seconds faster on the 250f I have a hard time deciding which one I felt faster on I know I was a lot more busy on the 150 you know shifting braking deciding you know picking my line on the the 250f I felt like I could just charge a little bit more and like ping said the suspension is definitely set up softer for a lighter rider on the 150 the 250f set up for a heavier person even the the stock air pressure to the forks of the AER forks and this is about one full bar of lower in air pressure as the stock so if I had to go race I think I'd still choose the 250f just because that's what I'm more comfortable on and I'm a little bit more fast but if I was gonna pick one I don't know I'm kind of in a pickle like I've been this whole time trying to decide which one I would want to put in my garage because the 150 I don't feel like it's lacking any power especially like you said in the mid-range you know it just pulls really hard it's so light you could just put it anywhere you want and it makes you feel like like you can ride better than you actually do so I would say if I was if I was going to race I picked the 250f if I was just gonna have one in my garage to have fun on the 150 yeah one thing I'll add that whether it's the 150 or 125 the great thing about those bikes if you're like me an older guy who's I really don't want to get hurt anymore I've had my share of that never do I feel like I'm just not going along for the ride I always feel like I've got pretty good control that doesn't mean I'm not gonna fall over in a turn or still have a crash but we're a 250 or especially a 450 at times if you get a little bit of arm pump or just hits hit a bump you can just be hanging on for dear life I never feel like that in those I've always got control of it because it's lighter because there's less spinning mass and all that so that's something I really like about that is I just oh I feel safer on at the end of the day and and I'm having fun and so for me that's really a big plus for those yeah I would agree I mean when we did our hot laps at the end of day my last lap was on that and I was towards into the lab I was just hanging on like you know I was just tired and my arms were you know pumping up and everything like I feel like I could ride this I don't take twice as long but just ride this all day and not be fatigued let me just ask you this between a 125 or 150 how much difference did you feel and again we were going against a pro circuit built yz125 150 but I've ridden 150s before and I kind of expected a little bit more more torque but I didn't really feel that today maybe it's we're riding but it overall I did feel more meat in in the mid-range like when you did hit the power band and you be on top of the power I felt like that was stronger because it felt really really close to the 250f but kind of off the bottom I was definitely having to rev it up a little bit coming out of turns I thought the same thing and I didn't know if maybe this exhaust is sort of designed to shift the power up because the middle and topper is saying I think we'll Rev to the moon and like I said that middle is strong but I definitely if this was my bike I would try to get that power down a little lower maybe add a little spacer to the to the exhaust to get a little bit more bottom or something just so it'll pick up a little easier cuz as it is man you really had to be on that clutch charge yeah you had to work for it well either way lots of fun big thank you to KTM for letting us borrow these bikes and do this comparison if you've got a favorite or you've ever you know you got one in each of these bikes man leave a comment down below let us know what you think and we'll see if we come up with some more these may be 250 versus 250 stay tuned thanks for watching you

Channel: Vital MX

Views: 302,725

Rating: 4.894567 out of 5

Keywords: Vital MX, VitalMX.com, motocross, supercross, dirt bikes, mx, motorcycle, two stroke, four stroke, KTM, 2020, bike review

Id: n6ybtZmhiQM

Length: 8min 54sec (534 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 30 2020