My XT died on the side of the trail in Moab, UT in March. The ignition charge coil went kaput. I have had in my hands *three* new stators from Yamaha - with a dead open across one of the circuits on the ignition charge coil. Now that Yamaha knows there is a problem, the stator is backordered. Who knows when they might have a new run of parts. In the meantime, I've been itching to play dirt-bike & sharing Zed's WR250X Motard at the track. Sharing his bike on the track means we each get less track time, and I don't do as well on the track as I might since it is also his commuting bike & I don't ride it at any other time. Also, the suspension's set up for him & that 35lb makes a big difference in the appropriate settings.
When the third bad stator occurred last week we started seriously looking at other options. A used XT350 popped up. That would solve the dirt issues - but not the motard part. Zed had already ordered a set of dirt wheels to fit his WR250X & they arrived about a week ago. We had thought his wheels arriving would correspond with my bike being fixed, but no such luck - as I got another bad part. On Sunday we got the wheels onto his bike & each took it out for a spin. I thought it would be too tall for me to handle off-road, but it turns out I can just manage it full height with full knobbies, & the bike is easily lowered by an inch or two. Hmmm.....
A local dealer ordered an over abundance of 2008 WR250X's & is blowing them out at fire-sale prices. My dirt wheel set from Wheeling Cycle has already been ordered, and even when you add in the costs to give the bike its split personality, I got out the door with a brand new bike for significantly *less* than the 2008 MSRP.
How often do you own a *truly* brand-new bike?
The split personality possibilities with the WR250X.
Now I have 1600km to put on before the next Motard practice night in early August (or doing any actual dirt biking, for that matter). There is no way I'll track it before I have it fully broken in - keeping the throttle pinned is a big part of making this bike perform for you!
