is a 250R still competitive

[HippieMcgrath]

My question is. Does anyone think a 88' TRX250R is gonna be competitive in the GNCC against all these 450's? I'm setting a R up to race this year and I'm pretty confident a R will be perfect. But I thought I knew best before and was wrong. My R will be pimped with everything I can afford. And the valves won't tighten up in the middle of the race and the engine braking won't put wear and tear on my shoulders. What do you think? I got just as good a chance as anyone or I should scrap the idea and buy a TRX450R? Either way I want to do my best.

[JAKE YATES]

I BELIEVE THE R WOULD DO FINE IF YOU CAN GET IT TO RUN IN THE STRAIGHTS!!!!!!!!!! THATS WERE THE 450 DOMINATES.

[LT80]

Whatcha yellin about Jake (caps)? LOL

I have a R and I've raced a 450.
IMO, in the straights is where the R will shine. The R will take 3x as many shifts as the 4 strokes will pull in a gear forever it seems.
The 4 strokes excell in the corners as they need no clutch fanning.

I love my R but the 4 strokes are so much easier to ride. Stick em in 3rd and go anywhere. hehe

[Flynbryan19]

You'll be fine. There would still be many more out there today if all the sponsorships didn't reward people with thumpers. If its what you have and your comfortable on it you'll be fine. Take a look at the bike gncc's. The vast majority of the pros are still on two-strokes.

[xcracer416]

if there wasnt a production rule and all the sponsers bill ballance would have won all his championships on a 250r. imo there isnt a quad that rolled off the assembly line that can out handle an R. My 450r is the closest thing to handling as my old 250r was.

[HippieMcgrath]

I figured there would still be alot of them out there but haven't been able to find any results to show what the guys were riding. I gotta be honest I started thinking about giving up my R plans and trying for a 450r after speaking to a few builders out there. But then I remembered I'm doing this for fun. I want to do as good as possible, but it will be on a R. I now have two I'm building. This is what I want to do and I'm doin' it. I am seriously wanting to race some of the 6 hour races and maybe even the 12 hour race. I always wanted to race the baja 1000. Might never happen but I can race 12 hour adventure. All on my R.

[snacob14]

I raced mine in the C class for the first time last month. I had more than one guy tell me I was on the wrong bike for XC. Well, I tied for the holeshot and took fifth out of a bout 30 guys, and it wasn't because of the bike.

[chawness]

The mighty 250R can still be competitive in any type of racing. I know, I've done it, and do it. Most guys (who I can now call kids) don't even know how to properly ride a 2 stroke. Although rare when you do see a 250R at the track, now a days there is usually some kid riding it. He knows the bike is awesome, but doesn't quite know how to make it work. Therefore making the 2 stroke look bad.

Oh, and the guys that tell you you have the wrong bike for whatever, they've prolly only been riding since the 4 stroke took over.

[matt1106]

This is a late jump in, but i just did the unadilla gncc and matt smiley came out of retirement and raced a 250r against all the 450's and came in 1st in his class and 26th overall for the P.M. race. And that being my first GNCC race i feel like i learned alot. I raced a 400ex and when i got there i was looking at all the 450's and i got pretty nervous, but honestly. unless your racing at a professional level, its def more about the rider than the machine in that particular type of racing. i didnt feel my 400 was outgunned at all. but some people did make good points about the 250r as far as having to shift more and clutch more, it is tougher on you and will make u more tired. back in the day every1 was using 2-strokes so every1 had to deal with it. but now that every1 is using 4-stokes they're gonna have 1 up on you, so you r just gonna have to train a little harder to make sure you're prepaired for the extra work that comes with racing a 2-stroke in the woods