2015 250cc Four-Stroke Off-Road Comparison

We settled on the 250cc four-stroke category for the 2015 Off-Road Shootout, for three key reasons: First, we knew early on in the year that there would be two new entrants to this segment from Yamaha, and we have been dying to compare the blue steeds to the KTMs. Secondly, we had a high level of interest in participation from five different manufacturers—three of whom had more than one bike to submit—so we knew that this would make for a diverse comparison.

The 250cc four-stroke category is, in our collective opinion, hugely overlooked. These bikes have improved drastically in the past few years, and many riders who initially wrote off 250cc four-strokes based on a dated opinion of a bike they rode several years ago would be wise to take a second look at the current offering of off-road thumpers.

We gathered the invited machines, installed Dunlop AT81 tires, Powersports Grafx numbers, and Enduro Engineering Moto Roost Deflectors on all, called out the testing troops, and set out to review the depth and breadth of the 2015 250cc four-stroke off-road category.