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2011 KTM 250 And 350 XC-F – First Tests – Dirt Rider Magazine

By: Jimmy Lewis

Thursday, February 3, 2011

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<p>For the last five months we’ve been bombarded with questions about how to modify a KTM 350 SX-F for off-road, questions about how we think such a conversion would work. We’ve been offered no less than six orange midsize motocrossers converted for off-road by aftermarket companies. But we knew KTM was rushing to finish its own version of the SX-F converted for off-road, called-what else?-the XC-F.See, when you drop in the correct transmission and dial in the suspension, add the things that make sense for off-road racing and leave off the stuff that doesn’t right from the get-go, you have a big advantage. Because some of these things, like transmission ratios, are either impossible or extremely cost prohibitive to change out, but when you have the chance you change this stuff out, because it works for the intended purpose. Most manufacturers’ “off-road” bikes get confused in the transition from the motocross bike, but KTM has it dialed. The orange guys take the SX, change the close transmission ratios to a semi-wide ratio, add a sixth gear in the case of the 350, boost the gas tank volume, swap to an 18-inch rear wheel, throw a light-weight kickstand on the bike and send it off, right after they tune the suspension to match the revised job description of the bike. Put a kickstarter on it, too-not for backup (most will never need it for that) but for quicker dead-engine starts! Maybe they could have played with the engine setting, but KTM felt it was fine already.The bikes, both 250 and 350, fire right up with spotless fuel injection, and it makes us want that feature even more on some of the KTMs that don’t have it already. The throttle response is crisp and does not bog. There are preprogrammed maps inside the ignition box that can be activated with an accessory switch, if you feel the need. Computers on dirt bikes are great!Riding either machine is exactly what you’d expect from the new SX-derived chassis off-road. It is light, nimble and aggressive-handling. The bikes have a good steering feel in the front end that is not vague at all. It bites in with good grip, and the bike is most likely a little on the twitchy side for riders used to a more trail-based off-roader. Anyone familiar with the current crop of MXers will feel right at home. The suspension feels very similar to the MX version, but KTM took the steps to make it work in an off-road racing world. Both XCs feel a little plusher the whole time when riding them, and both ends tend to use just enough stroke to be active and not too wallowy. On the top of the stroke the KTMs suck up the ripple bumps better. They do bottom easier than an SX, maybe too easily for heavier guys in the West Coast conditions where we tested the bikes. Back East you’ll love that the bikes are less reluctant to deflect since it uses all of the stroke, the biggest issue with MX-style suspension.
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<p>Power for the 350 is just what you’d expect a 350 to put out. But since the engine is identical to the SX, there isn’t as much torque as a lot of riders might expect in an off-road bike. No heavy flywheel feel, not much chug at low rpm. This is not a trail-going powerband, and you’d better be willing to rev the snot out of it to make competitive power. You can lug it but then the bike is actually pretty slow and does not pick up without a downshift or some clutch. And that is where the 250 and 350 seem to differ the most. You just can’t lug the 250F at all in comparison, as it feels like it will never pick up and go. Sure, the FI works wonders in making the bike run properly and not bog in these conditions, but you have to understand they are tuned to run at full-noise and the sacrifice is low-end torque for top-end power on both. In reality, if you are holding these throttles wide-open, they are not that much different in outright speed riding on open and flowing tracks. The more you’re pulling out of slower turns, the more the additional boost of the 350 can be felt, but it takes a better rider to keep those ponies under control as you actually have to use some throttle control; it will lift the front wheel and slide out the back much easier. On the 250, you just pin it and steer.For most riders who ride both track and trail, the ability of the XC to multi-task onto the motocross track is a lot better than the SX’s ability to tackle the off-road. The gear ratios are less noticeable on the track and the suspension less of a pain than the motocrosser on a trail. There isn’t another four-stroke out there that strikes this balance for a guy who likes the track and trail, at an aggressive level.Both machines are thin and the 2.5-gallon tank isn’t anything you’ll notice; it feels just like an SX. Also, you don’t really notice any additional weight in the XC compared to the SX. The noise coming out of the muffler is at SX levels, and we put a Dubach Racing S/A-equipped muffler on the bike to get it deeper into the off-road world where a spark arrestor is required. Like any good exhaust system it picked up some of the soft spots in the power and dropped the sound levels, too, a tough task especially on a KTM. And where the bike needs to be ridden, on top, it lets the power last longer. The brakes are insane, the tires good, you don’t notice the kickstand till you park it, and we never touched the kickstarter. The gear ratios are really good for off-road racing; the spread is perfect for that. First isn’t a trail-crawl speed; it is taller than what an XC-W has and takes some clutch work at super-slow speeds. First is a great gear to drop into in technical racing conditions, while moving forward, otherwise you’ll never use it on the 350. The rest of the speeds seem to let the motor work a little longer in each gear and the bikes never have issues pulling the next speed. Sixth seemed good for an easy 70-plus mph on either KTM. Sixth is the one you will miss on a 350 SX-F.
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<p>Is this the off-road race bike you’ve been looking for? Yes, right off the showroom floor if you’re looking for a 250 or 350cc four-stroke to do some closed-course off-road racing on. If you want 450 power in the 350, especially low-end chug, don’t kid yourself, it isn’t here. A 450 has more-power and weight. You have to pay for that lightweight feel somehow, and for a lot of guys, the easier-to-ride 350 makes perfect sense. And these four-stroke XC bikes are not as versatile in the trail world as the two-stroke XCs seem to be; they are a little too high-strung in the engine to torque around like most of us ride on trail rides. If you converted your SX-F, well, you’ll wish you had waited as KTM did just about a perfect job, especially for the price, $8,349 for the 250 and $8,999 for the 350. You just can’t compete with that giant orange factory in the Austrian mountains when it comes to a great starting point for your next off-road racing and track bike, one huge step closer than the SX-F was ever intended to be.<strong>Opinion</strong><strong>Chris Denison</strong><br />
<em>5’10″/155 lb/Off-road expert</em>My first ride aboard the KTM 350 XC-F yielded two profound realizations: This chassis feels incredibly light, and 350cc of power is more than enough to put a smile on my face. On that first point, I was surprised at how nimble the handling of the 350 XC-F is, with an ease of use not typically found on bikes with big tanks. To me, the bike feels shorter (not height-wise, but length-wise) than the 350 SX-F, yet the stability and tracking both remain on par with the MX version. There was some unwanted kicking from excessive rebound in the rear end, but I was honestly having too much fun laying the thing over in perfect traction to stop and adjust the clickers. The quick-handling character of the Katoom is perfectly suited to both fast, flowing sections and tight, threading trails, and as a result the bike transitions well between terrain types.Engine-wise, I’d thought from my first lap aboard the SX-F that the power would be fun to play with off-road, and I was happy to see that KTM didn’t overly revise the already strong engine. Sure, the 350 XC-F doesn’t have the most robust low-end out there, but then again neither does a stock 250cc two-stroke and those things rip off-road! As with a two-stroke, the 350 XC-F just requires a quick, easy snap to bring the revs up to where they need to be, and from that point on it’s no huge chore to make the bike sing. The lack of engine-braking is still surprising, and I nearly blew the first few turns when I jumped on the bike. For those of you who feel that you need 450cc to be competitive off-road, I’ll just say this: Unless the number on your bathroom scale is twice the number of links on your bike’s chain, the 350 XC-F has plenty of punch for you.<strong>2011 KTM 250 XCF-W</strong><br />
<em>Six Days</em><br /><strong>Race Test</strong><br />Now that the 2011 XC-Fs are here, people are asking, “Where and when will there be a 350cc XCF-W?” Well, not here and not now, maybe next year. But right now you can get a 250cc four-stroke that has more trail in its veins than the race-oriented XC-F. That W in the name gets you some things (in the case of the Six Days model, a lot of things) and leaves out other things.
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<p>The XCF-W is as mellow a racer as KTM sells; it is 100 percent race bike, not even considered a trailbike, the riding most customers will tackle with the machine. Its makeup is a California green sticker-legal, six-speed wide-ratio-transmission-equipped single-track race machine. The kind of bike you can show up on the start line of an enduro and be ready to go, less a computer if they make you do that old-fashioned timekeeping stuff. The Six Days treatment is the factory orange frame color graced by a slick set of graphics commemorating the ISDE in Mexico last year, plus additional goodies that look sweet and some that even perform better than standard stuff; the rear sprocket jumps to attention here. We trail rode the wheels off the bike then loaded it up with ace tester Kris Keefer and headed for the last ever Tecate Enduro to really race test the bike. Here is what Keefer came away with after a hard day in the saddle:”Never riding it before this race, I thought I was going to really have to get some miles in before I started to feel comfortable. I was wrong; I felt comfortable right away. The bike has finicky jetting and one quirk is that it does take some time to warm up, but once out on the trail I was having a blast immediately. It’s a little flat off bottom but once in the mid the bike pulls great. If you ride this bike like it is intended to be ridden (aggressively), you will be rewarded. If you think you can just chug along, like other trail 250cc four-strokes, you might be less impressed. I would have liked to have more throttle response and bottom-end pull to better utilize second and third gear and avoid having to drop into first. The Tecate Enduro is known for its very tight and twisty trails. About 60 miles into the event I was glad I rode this bike because the handling is so quick and so maneuverable in the tight sections that it made up for the engine’s downfall in bottom power. The light, nimble feel of this bike makes you want to charge harder in the tight terrain without getting you tired out too quickly. The suspension did bottom out on large G-out sections, but in the rocks the bike stayed straight and had plenty of traction. The brakes were amazing as I was hard on both in every special test section of the 90-mile race. Overall, the KTM 250 XCF-W was one of the most fun bikes I’ve ridden in a while. I could ride this bike without the bike riding me. Especially at this race when you’re in the saddle for seven hours.”Overall, the XCF-W is the bike if you want to trail ride aggressively on a smaller four-stroke. Its slightly softer suspension than the XC gives it a more comfortable ride that doesn’t sacrifice anything in performance or weight, only in throttle response compared to FI. And if you can deal with that, this is a great bike.</p></div>

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