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Another 03 KTM 250 story.
I’d been building quite a few engines at the time but hadn’t done a KTM 250 for a few years. Local Pro I knew was doing an Aussie national round and he thought he might need a few ponies to at least start with the factory bikes.
I took it for a quick spin before tearing it down, holy sheet! I was like, are you sure you want more?!
After a pipe, porting, head mods, offset boring the carb, reeds, machining the clutch and opening up the air box, that thing was absolutely berserk.
Would have made a good flat tracker, not so sure about moto.
I've been struggling with my 2016SX for having too much power. I added a flywheel weight and more mellow power valve spring and it's still a quite of beast but a lot more manageable now.
The scariest bike I have ridden was my friends Husqvarna 2014 TC250 two stroke which was imported from Netherlands was most likely set up for riding in heavy sand. It wheelied up to fourth gear was just too powerful when the traction was good. My friend ended up selling the bike quite soon for his own well being.
I'm honestly really glad to see that the 03 SX250 is coming up a lot in here. I'd love to ride one now because I'd only been riding a few years when I tried one.
It's the only bike I've ever barely been able to ride, a riding buddy had one with a pipe and jetted to crispy perfection. I think I rode it around 500m before I'd nearly looped it twice and my teeth were chattering with the vibration. I cruised back to him and gave it back, bloody evil thing.
I had the SXS version of that and can confirm!
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Had several CR500s, but my brother picked up a 93 CR250 that felt way too fast. It was hard to stay on the throttle for any length of time. Too uncontrollable.
Big gain on the top. Really screamed out and kept pulling.
All the mfg's are pumping out 50+hp mx bikes. Everything is fast.
When me and a few buddies used mx vacations years ago I was on a 2006 crf450 at perris and it felt like too much, it was also mid feb and I hadn't been on a bike in 5 months so that probably didn't help.
At 14 my dads 93 RM 250 felt like a beast, but it was also my last year on an 85.
Add me to the 2013 250sx list. Once I got that thing tuned and dialed in all crispy, it would sense I was starting to get tired and repeatedly try to end me.
My favorite being back when Milestone (RIP) had a set of semi-fast rollers and I Villopoto'd through them. Lofting the front through them like the last several laps and suddenly 12 o'clocked and spit me off the back (RIP sub frame and rear fender).
95 KTM440 MXc. The most violent light switch I ever owned. I tried lowering the ports via porting and a thinner base gasket, and Installed a Rad Valve. Just made it more insane. I rode my friend's 93 CR500 and fell in love with how smooth and controllable it was bt comparison.
Probably a KX500 I stupidly bought thinking I could lug it around. Brutal.
Every 450F I've ridden has way more power/weight than I ever could use.
You guys have me curious about these KTM 250SX. How do they compare to a 450? My buddy had a carbed CRF450 with a high compression piston and pipe and I remember thinking "F this, I can't ride this thing." All 140lbs of me was flapping from the handle bars like a flag hanging on for dear life through a hurricane.
I’ve been a fan of motocross and supercross since I was 4 years old when I turned on the tv to see Jeremy McGrath doing a nac nac on his yz250. Never got to race growing up, only had a ttr125 for a couple years. Bought myself a dirt bike last year as a reward for losing 250 pounds (long story). The bike I bought is a 2012 ktm 250sx. People tried to warn me to go with another bike but I didn’t listen. My first time on a practice track was…interesting. At my ability and size I would be better off with a kx250f.
Yeah all the newer Ktm 250 2-st r rockets. A floater hill jump , land with brakes locked . Dive into a rut then a steep & short hill with a step up ramp to clear the hill & drop 100 ft into a valley. A 250 Ktm with a pc pipe was in front of me. I couldn’t believe how much air he got, it was very impressive. I,m in 3rd wo on my 04 using body English & pulling up on the bars to clear it clean. It such an awesome feeling clearing it & dropping into the valley. I can pull new Ktm, yz 125,s there. To give ya an idea of the power needed. Modded 250f,s can’t run a Ktm or tc 250 with a pipe down. You got a fast bike there.
This TMR “spare no expense” engine build 96 Cr250 with CrankWorks built crank, flat top piston setup. Full HRC ignition, is probably the fastest, longest pulling engine I have ever ridden. I routinely go back & forth between this bike and my lightly modded 23 KtM 300SX…. KTM is slightly better off idle but once the CR hits midrange/top end, it’s game over, the top end overrev is simply amazing. I am 100% certain I could race this bike against modern bikes and finish exactly where I would on my modern bike…… I would also be working harder…
Had to race my BIL's 98 CR250 , after my 1998 RM 125 blew top end on a wednesday before the saturday race here in NC. Rode his bike one evening to practice, then took it to race. I was scared to death in the long whoop section every time i entered them. Thought i would die from Whiskey Throttle every lap. But that thing was a dream to jump the long uphill double and huge table tops. I ended up with a top 5 in 250 B that day. Never raced it again though. I had enough 250's after i had owned my 1996 YZ250 for two seasons.
Scariest was an '83 YZ490... but only because the ignition was going bad and would randomly change the advance. You could hit a corner 9 times in a row and it would respond the same way each time... and then the 10th time it would hit violently - stand straight up (if it didn't loop), try to rip itself from your grip and accelerate so hard all your blood was in your backside. You could try to let off, but because it had yanked so hard you reflexively held on for dear life... which resulted in the throttle being twisted harder.
It was so evil we were tempted to call an exorcist.
Pit Row
My last year of racing was 1983 and the bike I had was an 83 YZ250. Good motor, not so great suspension... My neighbor was more of a desert rider than an MX guy and he had bought an 83 CR480. I took it to the track for a day, that thing was a monster. Granted at the time I weighed 150 and had been racing the 125 pro class for the last 4 years... I couldn't hold on to the sucker. I was 3-4 seconds a lap slower on it than the 250. I would say, because it was too fast...
Oh man I didn’t know you had that. I would Love to race it at a pro am, for a good finish or crash out. All out in 1 moto.
I had an 05 RM 250 that I love, and my friend bought an 06 KX 250. I hated the KX, it handled like shit and seemed scary fast - a dangerous combination
98 RM 125 I Loved that bike. How about the slowest bike ? I rode my pals 98 rm250 with pipe, ignition, v force. That thing was so slow it pissed me off. So I rode it screaming on the ovr rev everywhere. Slam the rear brake & slide it into turns screaming the shit out of it. Haha
Red Bud Vet race? I will pay all your entry fee”s If I can just absorb some of your skill & knowledge.
2009 YZ 450. First time on a big thumper and couldn’t believe the power!
Oooftah - that 1996 CR250 of yours = NICE! Your picture makes me realize that the black fuel tank is what that bike always needed. Amazing look!
A stock 1996 CR250 almost killed my Dad with the low-end snappiness that bike had in spades that induced a wicked headshake episode that led to a brutal crash on a concrete-hard clay track in Minnesota - maybe "Hurrican Mills?" At any rate, he exploded his scapula, tore his aorta, etc., and was in ICU for a week.
That same bike bit me, too, when I was at the 1.75 hour mark in a hare scramble at Millville, MN, and I whiskey throttled it in a woods section and hit a giant downed tree and cartwheeled several times. Ended up in the ambulance.
Come to think of it, the same bike hurt my college buddy really bad, too. He also whisky throttled it, but coming into a berm - same track as my Dad! He broke his right arm.
I think I repressed these memories ^^^. That bike was too much for any of us at our novice skill levels back then.
Sold that bike, got a 2001 Honda CR250 next. That 2001 was waaay easier to ride for me for some reason.
My 72 TM250 was to fast lol.
I rode a maico 450 one time when i was 12. I felt like a rag tied to the handle bars. terrifying!
Yessir!
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