hows good is 250r reliablity

[kruzofman]

well iam going to try and get a 250r in the future and just whanted some opinions on how reliable 250r are ive rode them and love them... and every R in my town seems to be pretty rock solid...but just whanted some advice from u guys

[wilkin250r]

They generally require more maintenance than a 4-stroke. For example, lets look at the 400EX.

The 250r revs a whole lot higher than the 400EX. This means, for a given amount of riding time, the total travel distance of the piston is a whole lot greater. The engine is always working faster, so it wears out faster.

The 400EX doesn't have holes in the cylinder walls like a 250r. These holes will increase the wear on the rings.

As a result, the top end of the 250r will wear out a lot faster than the 400EX, requiring more frequent rebuilds. The good news is, the rebuilds are very simple and easy to do yourself, and generally much faster and cheaper than a top-end rebuild on a 4-stroke.

If you DON'T properly rebuild the top end in time, it will fail. That's guarenteed. And it will probably fail when there is the most stress on it (duh), which is at WOT. This will likely also cause damage to the bottom end.

If you ran the two, side by side without any maintenance, the 250r will fail before the 400EX. It's a guarentee.

But if you do the proper maintenance, you should never have a problem. The reliability of a 2-stroke is directly proportional to maintenance. As long as it is maintained, you'll never have reliability problems.

[velocityatv]

I agree with wilkin. One thing is for sure, use a good quality pre-mix oil, and change tranny oil often. Just play ridding you should get a good year out of a new top end and if you race it re-ringing after a few races and a new top end midway through and re-ringing again at the end of the season, is a good schedule of top end maintainance. Expect to spend some money, check your local shops and ask what they charge for bore and hones and piston kits, that will give you a good idea. I love my R and as far as reliability is conserned, the more time I put into it the more I get out, its all up to you and how much time your willing to spend. If you love to tinker, just to make sure your at peak performance, than a 2-stroker is for you. If you just want the thing to sit in your garage till next we meat again, go with a 4-stroke. (not that I'm saying a 4-stroke doesn't need maintenance just not as often to keep it in top form) :devil:

[kruzofman]

alright thanks alot for the advice, i have owned a suzuki lt250r for a quaple of years now and know all about 2 strokes having more mainmance then a 4 poke. and i know its very easy to make rebuilds on the top end...and i love to tinker on my bikes to make sure there at top performance so, basically i just whanted some opinions from people who own 250r's. The 250r has been my dream bike for some time now and i thinks its time i steep up and get this dream bike...so thanks for the advice.....250R's KICK *****

[86 4Trax]

I bought mine in March 1986 for $2300 ( everyone wanted a blue and white one so the red and white ones sat and I got the dealer to knock $300 my red one). 3 new top ends and about $1000 worth of goodies from LRD, $500 for sand tires and I am still smillin:) .

2300+1000+500= 18 years of fun and being the first one to the top of the hill.

excluding gas, plugs and oil I think $211 a year is a pretty reasonable .