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He says bike is a monster. “Different” than previous generation 250SX as in, it targets a bit of a different rider (4 stroke guys) but an absolute weapon of a bike. Much easier to ride than the previous gen bike power delivery wise, making it a pretty decent 450 competitor.
Also the fast flashing light while idling is also gone.
The SX was somewhat of a handful at the track I rode last Sunday. I really blew it by not trying the white map, I think I would’ve enjoyed it a little more.
I’m going to try and get out this weekend on a more familiar track and set my sag and start off in the white map. I only have the one ride on it, so I need to ride some more to loosen it up.
Pit Row
But here’s what he had to say about his experience-
They hooked a lap top to my bike today. The program takes approximately 20 minutes to go thru resetting ecu and sensors. During that time at different steps the tech has to clear codes. It's not all automatic. I would love to get a flash drive from an unknown source to do it myself. They fixed my bike for issues off jumps. Then the next day it went a safe mode that is extra rich. That's when they reset everything with laptop.
We found a good tech at ktm. He changed one little thing for my jump issues that made a night and day difference. My bike didn't show the codes, but for a whole race and until reset in ran like 4 main jets too rich if it had jets.
I doubt that he’s looking for more top end on an endurocross course. Smoother power is what they are after, but how much bottom are they loosing, while running these long ass mufflers ?
Last one I did last night revolves around the start/stop and what I am doing to avoid it.
God Guitars Guns and Goats is the name of the channel.
Also, he states that the old KTM’s vibrate like “a mother f’er”. That hasn’t been the case since counterbalanced 250SX’s were released in 2017… so I don’t think he’s ridden one recently enough for a proper comparison. Which again is proven by how surprised he is that it carries 3rd gear, which is something the KTM 250’s have been knows to do exceptionally well for years. They are a low-mid motor.
That said, can’t wait for MXA content on these. I think this bike will get a lot of the 4 stroke crowd on 2 strokes and will help the sport become more affordable at a weekend warrior level. Say what you want, but MXA 2 stroke tests are legit. They are the only ones that test pretty much every single 2 stroke released every year.
300SX, not very surprising. Really curious what KTM could do if they went with a longer stroke.
What's really interesting is how much different the 350 and 450 curves are! Would be curious to see 250F, 350F and 450F side by side.
My first impression was very similar to theirs, but I hindered myself by not following through with changing the map switch to mellow it out in the corners. I also failed to check the sag, although it had to have been pretty close. They are 30-40 lbs different in weight, so Eddie was probably riding it similar to how I was, with too much sag, just my opinion…
As far as the 3rd gear claim, I have both the XC and the SX and had a ‘19 XCW 300 (with the counter balanced crank) and the amount of torque that these ‘23 bikes have is completely different, IMO. Yes, the vibration that he mentioned was non existent on my ‘19 300, so I will agree that this is nothing new for the Austrian brand 2-strokes.
I’ve owned a lot of 2-strokes and even had a properly tuned Eric Gore RM250 that wasn’t anything like with of these new bikes. I’m convinced that the mapping is different between the XC and SX, but then again I’m riding the two bikes in completely different conditions and am not having to turn in ruts on the XC. I found myself missing the ruts on my SX and that might be several different reasons, mainly me being out of Mx shape, but sag and the fact that 90% of the bikes making the ruts are on 4-strokes. Some may disagree, but the lines made by a 4 stroke are not the same as the ones made by the same rider, on a 2-stroke. I’ll have a much better evaluation of the bike after riding it on a much bigger/ spread out track. Glen Helen or Cajuilla would be a much different scenario for getting an honest opinion for me.
Another note on the Mapping switch… I’ve stated at his different they were on my XC300 and I’ve seen others post that they did not feel much difference between them.
I am looking forward to riding the SX in the white map, the green map was a little much for the track I was riding and trying to get used to a brand new bike.
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