Photographer Drew Ruiz on...
Photographer Drew Ruiz on the wrong side of the camera and one-handing his life's savings of lenses.
The Final Six
Left as finalists to be tested here in the magazine were the Am-Pro FMF Yamaha Tucker Rocky WR450F, a pair of Hondas-the Pro Circuit CRF250X and the Dubach Racing CRF450X-plus three KTMs: the 250 XC and 450 XC along with the Pro-Action 300 XC.
To get here was tough but interesting nonetheless. The stock KTMs, we thought, would be shoo-ins and they were. They work so good at being all-around bikes and fit such a wide variety of riders, the goal of a stock bike. Both have good standard power, proper suspension and an equipment list that includes everything you need and nothing you don't. Yes, when we were narrowing down the field, our test riders resorted to nitpicking but the KTMs were impervious to it. Things like missing kickstands or hand guards, not geared low or tall enough, not being electric start all helped make the test riders' decisions easier (though it was tough losing out for such trivial matters, no?).
The Pro-Action 300 XC was an easy choice since its mods enhanced the XC goodness, but without a minor clutch adjustment and some slight suspension tuning it would have missed the cut. Enhancement can turn to decreased performance so easily when it is not done just right.
The Honda CRF250X, a virtual brother of our favorite modified 250cc 24-hour champion of a few years ago, slid in on the fun factor and its suitability to the lesser-skilled rider.
The Dubach CRF450X had a lot of fans and a lot of us needed to ride that light at night! Then, there was the astonishing Am-Pro Yamaha WR450, which had a lot of guys thinking it was a 250. It feels this light and the power is smooth and docile on the bottom, it just has way too much torque for this to be true. But anyone who got the throttle open past half (shows how tight some of our trails were) had a clear understanding that this was a 450 and then some.
It doesn't matter how small...
It doesn't matter how small the bike is, motorcycles make Malcolm Smith smile.
So we strapped on Baja Designs battery-powered Diablo lights to the bikes that couldn't light their own way and rode off into the night. Good thing we had a poker run to keep us in check; I'm still baffled by how few guys stick around to ride at night, as this is truthfully the best time of the event. Sure, a lot of the riders were exhausted or even hallucinatory (a gorilla out on the trail? C'mon! Maybe it was true...). Dubach Racing's Terry Beal got the best poker hand despite our trying to cheat him out of it. At some point, bikes were parked and beers were opened and we tried to make sense of what had just taken place over the past 16 hours. The conclusion: We needed to do some more riding over the next few weeks.
So we did. It didn't take long the next morning to quickly run through the six bikes at the Rynoland facility to check out any lingering questions, whether on the track or the trail. Then we headed out to our regular ride places to see if anything more surfaced. It was quickly becoming clear there was indeed a pecking order. Like before, it wasn't performance issues that wrote the story, it was quirky stuff or a bike lacking a feature. If one of these bikes had, say, no kickstand, we would have used that against it.
 Ogio came out to class up...  Ogio came out to class up the place. Nice! |
 If there's ever a time you...  If there's ever a time you need extra energy, it's at the DR Torture Test. |
Our first issue was fuel capacity. Now this may not be a big issue to some, but when you really like to ride, you need a certain amount of gas. Whether to extend a pit stop in a long GP or to make it to the next available gas, whatever you're doing. The Hondas and their stock 1.9-gallon tanks bit us here. There are options, but these bikes were not equipped for more than 40 miles. Add to that the 250F's power deficit in this field and guys were a little quick to write off the little Honda, yet always coming back to that one thing: "Man, that is a fun bike, it'd be great for (insert the name of your lesser-skilled friend here)." Take it from experts who know this stuff, this is the kind of bike that makes pros happy and lets most other skill-level riders improve since they are not fighting the bike. Its modded-up performance, especially the suspension, takes it to a level that can challenge anything you throw at it. And it is downright affordable. Ranking as high as second for a couple of riders, it nevertheless wasn't a threat for the overall so we put it in the back of our minds. Yes, we kept riding it and, yes, we have a larger IMS tank on it now!
In the same category regarding gas and beginning to show its GP-racing-specific setup, the Dubach Racing CRF450X was getting picked on. First, by the KTM riders who had to give up gas, then by everyone for not having a kickstand. The suspension was a bit on the loose (or faster on the rebound) setting for a lot of us. This was great for traction on a rough course but not the best feeling on the trail; adjustments helped but the bike was still a little hyper. The motor followed suit. Mildly aggressive and with too loud of an exhaust note for most of us, the quirks were stacking up against the Dubach bike. If it had only grown dark earlier, this bike could have shined.
With four bikes left, it was rough going. Every one of these finalists could easily have won. And if I tell you how far just having a kickstand on the WR might have helped it out, you might think we are idiots. But in our all-around world, we look at everything. If you know you don't need something like that, look deeper into what else the bike has; you know what you're looking for, not me.
The Yamaha went way too far in this "best general bike" comparison for being Thad Duvall's GNCC race bike, but we have never ridden a WR this good. It takes off from a platform we're already familiar with. Our own WR450 from the DR 450 off-road comparison rode on similar Factory Connection suspension and was lightened up with an E-Batt, only Am-Pro "lowers" that weight even further by placing the battery in the skid plate. An offset triple clamp aids this feel even further. Then there is the motor. Forget the price tag on that baby for a moment; it is as close to a works engine for off-road as we've ever ridden. Mentioned earlier, it has the ability to disguise itself as a strong WR250 on the bottom, and that is a compliment of the highest order. Then as you turn the throttle it goes deeper and deeper into where a WR450 lives and surpasses even that. It isn't YZ wild; it doesn't spin up that uncontrollably. But when you want to unleash the ponies, it does that as strong and as hard as you'll ever need-one look at the radar chart confirms that. This engine has become some sort of Jekyll and Hyde WR/YZ that is better than both of them, especially off-road. The power defines "long pull"; the jetting is seamless, throttle response instantaneous and about the only issue we have with the engine is that it grew a little loud for our tastes; we're pretty sure a muffler insert went missing. And then there is the suspension goodness of that FC setup. Good enough to go fast on-just look at the times for the Terrain, Moto and Extreme tests. It also didn't raise a criticizing eyebrow with any of our riders on the trail.
What held this bike back? We tried to ignore the price, but couldn't when stock bikes were playing in the same game. Yet for every individual we could find a better setup, and this is where the modifications come into play. If we were able to build any of these modified bikes for a specific person, we'd likely change them again, just like a stocker evolving into a personal bike. So that is how we balance out the cost issue. And every modification has a clear and defined purpose, especially on the WR. When ridden back-to-back with the two-strokes you feel the weight of the bike. Here the handling can be a little slow, but conversely it is more stable and more planted to the ground. Depending on what type of feel you like from your bike, it can even be easier to ride. This bike has the right protection and a layout and setup that will easily get GNCC podiums if not outright wins, and there it won't need a kickstand, either.
On the other side of the same four-stroke fence sits the KTM 450 XC. Pretty much stock with hand guards, an adjustable fuel screw and a dual-position ignition map switch, it rivaled the WR for top four-stroke honors by being completely different and just as good. It feels lighter than the WR, especially in the steering, but then it feels less stable and twitchy to some. The fork is also asked to do a lot and a few riders felt it was just a little on the soft side, making the turning sensitive. But the setup allowed fast times in all of our tests, and considering it was set up for "everybody" and the valving came with the cost of the bike, it is really good. On to the motor, and the XC has the same differing style from the WR. Less torque feel but a quicker burst and a faster-revving nature to the top-end where it feels just the slightest bit down on power in comparison.
What hurt the XC was, as we rode it at different locations, the fuel screw was unable to keep the throttle response spotless; it needed some tuning with a leak jet adjustment. All of our other four-strokes were not as picky. But consider that stock, this bike does what it does, with a hydraulic clutch, a perfectly spaced gearbox, plenty of fuel capacity, a decent sound level and, yes, a kickstand that tucks out of the way. Blue or orange? At this level, it's all blueberries or oranges.
Now we move on to the two-strokes. Surprisingly nearly a quarter of the bikes entered were smokers, a breed some feel is headed for the history books. But don't write them off so fast because it was obvious from the first spin right down to the last test ride that these bikes perform as well as, and in a lot of places much better than, anything in this test. Yes, even some of the ones that didn't make the final cut.
The Gas Gas has a motor that is incredible on the toughest trails and a chassis that works there, too. A stock Yamaha YZ250 was, as you'd expect, versatile on the motocross track and the trail. About $1000 in mods to the bike and most of us could have had it sitting right next to these KTM XCs, only lacking an electric starter, but lighter for sure. Even FMF's 2005 Suzuki RM250, totally affordable by anyone's standards, was just edged out of our final bikes. And it had a large gas tank! Sure, four-strokes are great, but two-strokes are great, too.
The nearly stock KTM 250 XC is a bike that can do just about anything anywhere. Almost every letter I get asking, "What bike should I buy?" is replied to with "KTM 250 XC" for a reason. It is like going with vanilla ice cream, buying mid-grade gasoline, driving in the middle lane and having a fixed-rate mortgage that you can afford. You can't go wrong. OK, you can. Regulations, not the bike's performance, might dictate that this, or any two-stroke, is not for you, but you voted for the guys who make the laws; remember that. (You voted right?)
 With a little Baja Designs...  With a little Baja Designs love the poker run was on. |  Kawasaki brought out the big...  Kawasaki brought out the big rig and its off-road heavy hitters. | |