Xt 250?

[TW_rider]

After selling my beloved TW...I went and bought a Kawasaki Super Sherpa.
After owning the SS for almost 6 months, I can clearly see (and admit) that it was an impulse purchase.
Although it is lightweight and peppy...I find that I cannot ride it for more than an hour or so before my knees get sore from being "scrunched up" due to the short seat height.
Parts availability is also an issue.

So now, I am looking to get a Yamaha XT225/250 and I'm looking for advice from owners past and present.
Are you satisfied with this model?
How is it for maintenance/upkeep?
Any manufacturing issues (ie: KLR doohickey...DR650 NSU issue...)?
What to lookout for when buying used model?
Would you buy another one?
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.

I know that finding a used XT is a lofty goal, but I am confident that I will find one if there is no pressure...and there won't be this time.

Thanks.

 

[Farp]

I've had my XT for just about a year now, have about 7000 kilometers on it, and I'm very happy with it.

Maintenance/upkeep is easy, basically just change the oil and filter every 5000 km. I did a valve clearance check at 1000 km and it was fine. The bike has a 2 valve head and checking the clearances is about as easy as it gets. The engine is reputed to be one of the most reliable there is. No manufacturing issues, this is a fill it with gas and ride it type of bike. Speaking of gas the bike gets around from 28 to 32 kilometers per liter, depending on how hard you ride it, and it has a range of about 300 km per tank. One thing to be aware of is the speedometer reads about 10% faster than you are really going. I made a high speed test to see how fast it would go. The bikes speedo indicated 133 km/hr but my GPS was only indicating 120 - as fast as the bike will go on level ground. I found that on the freeway, in traffic, I could exceed this limit because of the slipstream effect provided by the vehicle in front of me.

The seat is wider than most dualsport bikes so you can sit on it all day without getting a sore butt. You should check out the seat to footpeg distance on the XT because it has a lower seat than the Sherpa and if your knees are getting scrunched up on the Sherpa then the same thing will happen on the XT. But you used to ride a TW200 which has an even lower seat height than the XT so your knees were probably even more scrunched up on it.

I'm not sure what you need to be careful of when buying a used model. One thing that most people overlook is who you are buying it from. A bike that's been ridden by some 17 yr old guy will probably have been ridden a lot harder, than a bike owned by an old retiree. I bought mine brand new, have never had cause to regret the purchase and would definitely buy another one.

Hope this helps, Mark, good luck.

John

 

[TW_rider]

Thanks John,
I don't know if it's the distance to the pegs, or the geometry of the seat because I could ride my TW for hours-on-end without knee issues...seat pain was a different topic, though!

 

[SouthPoint]

I did a valve clearance check at 1000 km and it was fine. The bike has a 2 valve head and checking the clearances is about as easy as it gets.
John

Sorry John, but I just couldn't resist. Did you use the chopstick method to find TDC?

I have to agree. We have an XT225 and they are a great bike.

 

[Grove]

XT250's kick freaking butt!!!!

I had a 1986? XT250T (Tachometer model, the rest don't have one) for quite a while an absolutely loved that machine.

I could ride that bike for 5-6 hours at a time no problem and I did it a lot.

The older XT250's seat I found quite wide for the size of the bike and well padded, also the older XT250 still feels like a full size bike despite only weighing in at 275lbs full tank of gas.

Farp already nailed it, maintaining these bikes is so simple an the funky Yamaha dual carb setup was sure new to me but easy to work with once I figured it out.

My bike would top out at 120km/h at most, not fun on the freeway but it can do it.

Everywhere other then the freeway what a flippin joy to ride!!

Parts, fuel, insurance all cheap cheap cheap for these bikes and they are built bullet proof if you do your part.


As for XT225's.........feels like an XT250 got tossed in the dryer and shrank slightly......that said I'm jumping between a KLR650 and a XT225 right now so the XT225 feels to me like it weighs 150lbs haha.

I've only got .........not even 200kms on that bike yet so I cannot say much but it mechanically/ect it behaves just like my old XT250T.

XT225 in the back of my jeep on its way home.

Beside my KLR650 before I reinstalled the front fender.

 

[Farp]

Sorry John, but I just couldn't resist. Did you use the chopstick method to find TDC?

Nope, all done with that nonsense. Funny how things work out. When I rode your wife's XT225 and found out what a great little bike it was it completely removed any misgivings I might have had re the XT250, so in some respects the chopstick adventure finally resolved into my purchase of the XT. Others might be wondering what the chopstick adventure is all about but fuck it, if they don't know I'm not gonna tell them. :tup:

John

 

[SouthPoint]

Nope, all done with that nonsense. Funny how things work out. When I rode your wife's XT225 and found out what a great little bike it was it completely removed any misgivings I might have had re the XT250, so in some respects the chopstick adventure finally resolved into my purchase of the XT. Others might be wondering what the chopstick adventure is all about but fuck it, if they don't know I'm not gonna tell them. :tup:

John

Yes, the old XT sure saved that ride! Don't forget how tough they are when they lock horns with a KLR!

I can't eat Asian food without thinking of that and having a good chuckle!

 

[cactusreid]

chop sticks or dairy queen straws to find tdc when your setting valve clearances? i still use that system to find top dead center on bikes these days, cause it still works!
and for the people that have not tried it, they are soft enough not to harm any of the internals, but still firm enough to tell you when you are at tdc.
Now possibly the original poster has another use for them, and if you do,please inform us?
Sorry for the hijack on the xt topic.

 

[Farp]

Yeah, that's what I was using it for alright - finding TDC. But a major problem developed. I used a bamboo chopstick thinking, as Cactus pointed out, it's soft enough not to damage the internals. But when I was bringing the piston up to TDC the chopstick got wedged in the sparkplug hole and snapped in half with the bottom half falling down inside the cylinder. I was going to use the bike (Beta 400 RR with a KTM RFS engine) to go to the Routledge run the next day. But you need a chainbreaker to break the cam chain before you can remove the head and I didn't have one, nor was it possible to get one late Friday afternoon. Ted (Soutpoint) graciously offered me the use of his wife's bike (XT225 Yamaha Serow) for the run and I happily took him up on it - and was pleasantly surprised at how capable the bike was. From now on I use a thick nylon zap strap to find TDC as there is no way a zap strap can get hung up and snap off in the spark plug hole.


John