Jesse Ziegler
5'10"/175 lb/Intermediate
The rundown on the 2008 250F machines is pretty complicated for me. I'll start with my personal choice for 250F of the year, the Kawasaki KX250F. To me, the Kawasaki is much better than last year's bike. Its suspension is now balanced, the motor is more polite with the power and the chassis gives me a confident ride in the most conditions. It's not perfect, though, and could use a quality muffler for sure as the stocker sounds blown out already. Overall, the green bike pleased me the most, most of the time.
Sitting in second is the Suzuki RM-Z250. This bike has the motor with the most fun. It's strong down low and is a blast to ride. Also, I can turn this bike like nobody's business. It's just easy to love yellow again. Why isn't it my first-place bike? Well, the fork feels worn out after 15 hours, and I can't, for the life of me, expect this bike to be as durable than the others. There are some shifting issues for me as well, and I really despise popping into neutral under acceleration.
Honda finishes my podium. This bike always ends up in the middle for me but never gets up to the top step. Mainly this is because the bike is so middle-of-the-road that it doesn't shine spectacularly in any one category. This year, the bike was radically different, too. The boost in power was nice, but its delivery faded too quickly for the wide-open tracks I normally ride. Also, the handling seems to be biased toward the shorter, tighter tracks. I'm not sold on the stabilizer yet. It's cool and I like coolness, but do I need one more thing to dial in? I'm sure it will just take some acclimation and I can see myself claiming in a year or two that every bike should be so equipped.
Yamaha and KTM are literally tied for the remaining spots. I still can't get comfortable on the Yamaha in turns. The 2008 bike is better than ever, but when put up head-to-head against everything else out there, the supurb turning of the Suzuki, Kawasaki and KTM blow it away. Motor noise is another thing that I'm not too stoked about on the Yamaha. The power coming out is sweet in spots but spotty in the others. If I could tune in a more linear pull and dial in the suspension to settle in the turns, the blue bike would be a top-three contender easily. Straight-line stability is insane, exhaust note and tone are pleasant and durability and value are great on the YZ-F.
The KTM took another hammering in the shootout this year. Not in overall comments, but more so in votes and straight up comparison. The thing about the KTM for me is this: If I take the time to tune the suspension to its happy spot, the machine works great. The problem is it needs much more tuning to get close to perfect. I would take the orange bike's motor and the smooth power delivery over any other bike. Also, the traction front and rear is out of this world. I've never been so comfortable in off-cambers and I've never had as much confidence in a front end not washing out. If I could change anything on the bike, it wouldn't be adding a linkage...not yet. I'd build more flex into the frame to take out the bump feeling or install an air-bottle system to fine-tune it. The shock is better than ever, the fork is, too, but the KTM is still a solid tuning day away from running with the more-similar bikes of the rainbow. Plus, its performance and settings don't transfer as well from track-to-track. The best news is this is the best bike to work on and will last forever.
Kris Keefer
5'10"/175 lb/Pro
The KX250F rated first for me because it had the best overall feeling and the motor was incredible. It wasn't the fastest bike but it had broad usable power from bottom all the way to the top. I could short-shift or rev out, which I liked. The suspension was a little soft but worked effortlessly over smaller chop and acceleration bumps. The only things I would like to see are stronger brakes and maybe a more roomy bar bend.
The second-place RM-Z250 had great top-end. It pulled my butt over some really big jumps in fourth gear which most other bikes did not like to do. I had a great, confident feeling on this bike, too. It felt light and it loved to corner. The suspension was decent, but I don't expect any of these bikes to really be a super setup for my weight. I didn't like the fork much on slap down landings and on decel, it was getting soft on me big time.