Hey!!

First time here and looking at a couple of 250 dual sports to decide which to buy including the 2019 klx250 and used wr250r.

What would you need to do to put supermoto wheels on the klx? Think warp 9 makes wheels for the klx but are these actually plug/play ? Or do you need to make modifications to brake calipers or rotors? I know the kickstand would be too long but that seems easier to fix by having it cut locally. The speedo would read off...not sure how to fix that but bet there's a fix somewhere.

Reasoning is I wanna put full (non dot) knobbies on the 21/18 wheels, trailer the moto, and use those for legit off road riding. Then use the supermoto wheels for daily street rides and occasional track days.

I like the price more affordable price on the klx, the green one especially. However the yamaha wr looks to have more aftermarket parts and accessories including supermoto wheels, bigger tanks, and all that. They say it's got more power and a litte less weight too. Couldn't afford new so would have to be used for the wr.

Not my first moto but wanna upgrade from my crf230l supermoto. It's light and low but kind of lacking in power and aftermarket accessories. Plus it's old and carbs are a nightmare to me.

Thanks!!

 

you ever think about running 21/18 street tires or 70/30 street tires?

 

Sure. It's a compromise and feels for me less useful. Tried it on the crf and the full **** has way more traction in the stuff I ride (tight woods, loose, sandy). I destroyed a set of tires like that fast because trailheads are 60 miles from me. Settled on sumo for all my street riding and full **** + trailer for offroad.

 

Makes sense, just saying because i have two sets of 21/18 wheels and tires that makes it super easy to switch out. One dedicated to street and other for dirt only so i dont have to worry about changing chains for different size sprockets

 

Fair point but I love the fast turn in of 17s on the street and all the good tires for backroads

would supermoto wheels from like warp 9 be straight bolt ons or would there be extra mods needed to rotor, caliper, brake lines...?

 

i would say that you would only need to worry about calipers and brake lines if you go with an over sized front rotor. Should be straight bolt on if you can find some used 17s off a klx 250sf on craigslist or ebay. Wrap 9 should send you all the spacers needed for a bolt on if you go that route.

 

thank you!

excited about the bike, it's going to be a nice upgrade

 

Doesn't changing to a little front tire really mess the handling up? 21 to 17" seems like it would really make the much fork steeper, and stock the forks are all the way down on a 21, so there is no way to slacken the head angle.
I'm not an expert but I would like to make mine slacker using a 21 but can't.
I'm thinking the wr would be a lot more fun in the dirt.

 

If you get 2009 and up wheels they will plug and play with one exception that can be remedied. The SM uses a larger front rotor so you do one of two things. Run the same size rotor on both sets of wheels or you swap out the caliper mount that bolts on the fork when you swap out wheels. The lowest cost would be to use the 260mm KLX250S rotor instead of the roughly 300mm KLX250SF.

The reason is the 300 rotor is rather pricey where the same size rotor was used on virtually all KLX250S and KLX300R models making them easily available on the cheap. I bought one for $20 off ebay, all in. The 300mm rotor is more often about 3 times that. Just a look on ebay finds an SF rotor at $94, a 300R rotor at $30. I know the 300 rotors work because my 2009 KLX250S has both front and rear rotors from a KLX300R.

If you do a 300 rotor you will need the SF caliper mount to fit it to an S model. I looked into it because I happen to have a KLX650 300mm rotor and thought about fitting it. I chose not to, because the stock front brake is strong enough to threshold brake - up to lock up, so why bother.

Hope that illuminates the situation a bit better.

 

I don’t really know the crf230 and how much power it has, but I know that the KLX is not the most powerful 250.
If I found correct information, the crf230 and klx250 have both around 19hp and probably the same torque.

Also checked the price of different 250cc bikes, and based on what I found on the original websites, there's around 1000 dollar difference between the WR250R and KLX, and there's also a ~10hp difference between them.
The WR is a little expensive, but as soon as you want to increase the power of the KLX, and buy a FMF exhaust with megabomb, plus an EJK fuel controller, you are getting close to the price of the WR, but still have around ~5 hp less than the stock WR.

I have to mention that I don't have experience with the WR, my opinion is based on the information I found on the internet.
I would never say that the KLX is a wrong choice, I have a ton of fun with my stock KLX, but looking at the prices got me thinking about these stuff.
Correct me if I am wrong, please.