Every year's bike shootout story begins the same way. First, the authors hype up the competition in the class (in this case, 250F machines). Then they discuss at length how there's never before been a class so competitive, never before have bikes been so great and never before have they, those poor bike-testing souls, had such a hard time determining a winner. They have it so hard and we remember it during every fun-filled lap on these 2008 machines, don't pity the testers. Finally, they admit that after the votes were tallied, one brand snuck out front by just a hair. I guarantee you'll read stories following this exact pattern this year. Likely, you'll find it right inside the pages of Dirt Rider at some point because, really, all of it is the absolute truth. Bikes are awesome. And the chances of your picking a terrible bike for 2008 are slim to none. The worst thing you could do is pick the wrong one for you. But, honestly, we're bored with those kinds of stories. So we're going to cut the fat and get right to it.
Dirt Rider's best 250F motocross bike for 2008 is the Kawasaki KX250F. The bike had more first-place votes than any machine in our fleet. And after our testing, it pleased the majority of testers more of the time, visible through their comments and evaluation statements. That makes it DR's MX 250F of the year. How it made its way to the No. 1 spot is easy. As a strong contender last year, the Kawi took surprisingly small steps in improving its ride, power delivery and overall manners, and that's what pumped it to the top of the charts. Other bikes out there took huge steps this year with major changes to their motors, suspension and handling. But none pleased as much as the KX-F. To get inside all the '08 250F race bikes, keep on reading. And always remember, only when bringing the bikes together do a lot of these traits and characteristics even start to get noticed. Riding only one bike, you wouldn't notice that the fork was a bit harsh or the motor slightly underpowered unless you had something better to compare it to. Or the power being a little bit better on one part of the spread or not when compared to the others. So look at this article as a virtual test ride to distinguish the characteristics you're looking for (or not) in your next ride.
Motor
A 250F bike lives and dies by the motor. Power delivery, as much as sheer output, is very important. It's no secret top factory bikes make huge amounts of power. But what might surprise you is that many top racers spend most of the time finding a happy balance with the horses they have and the way they can use them. It plays to the bike as a whole affecting handling and suspension. Too much juice at the wrong time can have a bike standing up in corners or acting jittery on jump faces. Not enough pull can have you between gears in rhythm sections and other precisely timed obstacles. It's a game manufacturers have tried to master with the stock bikes as well as making them fit a wide range of riders with differing skill levels, all the while knowing these same bikes have to compete at the highest level using the production-based machine as a starting point.
Kawasaki had its game way off for 2007 according to almost all of our testers. The bike produced more noise than power down low and hit so abruptly that the chassis became whacked out of balance and performed well below its potential. To cure this, we smoothed the power with a quiet exhaust and the bike jumped up three spots in our rankings. For '08, the green machine has cured itself. We know the bike has huge power potential (Pro Circuit race team, anyone?), but this year it comes in a smooth package that is pleasant and amazingly strong. Gone is the mid-hit that bothered a lot of our testers last year. In its place is a strong linear pull to the top. Bottom-end isn't as perfectly torquey as we'd like. But you can't have it all in a motor, yet the KX-F is green turned gold. It's so good it's silly, mimicking some of the full-on race 250F motors we've ridden in character and delivery, just off in outright power. Fast pros, lazy vets and reluctant amateurs can grab a handful at any rpm above idle and feel like a champ.