Last year I purchased a lovely blue 2010 WR250X, as usual from Alf England in the Midlands. The X denotes supermoto so it has the 17inch road wheels front and rear whereas the WR250R from which it derives is the offroad version with 21 front and 18 rear. So my bike has wonderful, long travel suspension and is a very gentle and comfortable road machine, with road tyres she would not be very capable off road (maybe just some gentle green lanes).
The WR250 was sold from 2008 to 2021 and remained mainly unchanged over those years. The bike has a single cylinder 250cc engine with fuel injection and a six speed gearbox and produces a very strong 30 bhp (the Honda CRF250 made just 22 horses).
My experience with this bike has been great. The bike has just one ECU and almost zero electronics so the rider must control the bike without ABC, quick shifter, ESP and all of the other rider aids that are standard on bikes today. I would choose ABS if it were available but the rest is good, it forces me to remember the gear selected (and there are 6!!!) and to use the engine revs by feel as there is no rev counter (as well as no fuel guage, just a small light for reserve).
Lovely, simple motoring and the bike has a tiny 7 litre fuel tank and sips fuel, I get about 30km per litre which is about 80 mpg!!! More or less like a small 125 scooter. Amazing.
My bike has covered only about 15k kilometres and is in great condition. As far as I know these bikes were manufactured in Japan and any Japanese bike made in Japan has excellent quality, much better than those assembled in Europe (like my XT660X, for instance). Perhaps for this reason they were also very expensive bikes when new.
I am lucky enough to own 3 other bikes but the WR is GREAT for reminding me how to ride a motorcycle without rider aids!!!
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