2008 Yamaha XT250 review blog

[xcel]

Yamaha XT250 – Rated at 73 mpg

Hi All:

___Yamaha is supplying me with a brand new XT250 for a week starting next Tuesday. Is there anything that anyone would like to see or hear about other than the std. maximize her capabilities on local IL and WI roadways?

___I am kind of excited and am really glad I kept my IL M-class license up to date all these years

___Good Luck

___Wayne

[PaleMelanesian]

This should be interesting...

[2008Mazda3i]

I'll be interested to hear what you can do with this

[hawkgt647]

Could you comment on ergonomics and over-all comfort? - seat height, is the single cylinder kinda "thumpy"?
How comfortable is it when riding all tucked in?

Thanks,

[c0da]

How about off-road mpg vs. paved road mpg? Since this vehicle is mainly used for recreational purposes, I'm curious to know.

[xcel]

Hi Don:

___I have to admit I am a somewhat inexperienced rider as it was almost 16 years ago when I lost my Hurricane 600 to a 14 year old drunk kid in a junk bomb crossing my path. I have ridden bikes whenever I get the chance since then but I can tell by looking at the XT that it will be a more comfortable ride than the Rice Rockets I used to enjoy

___A short story… I took a trip for a motorcycle race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI in 1990 or 91. Temps were in the 95 to 100 degree range and after about an hour and a half, I knew I made a mistake running that kind of distance in the Rice Rocket’s crouch. Do you remember the movie “Gumball Rally”? There was a biker competing while running through the higher elevations or something in below freezing temps. I distinctly remember him driving into a gas station and simple laid it over because he was literally frozen to the bike and couldn’t move (the most hilarious part of the movie that I remember ). I remember feeling the same way when I arrived at the Road America track and it took over an hour to begin walking normally

___Back to your point… I certainly will. I am also really interested is the engines NVH to the rider as it should make for a very interesting ride over many miles of wringing her out.

___C0da, that would be a very good idea. I do not know where a 1-mile or longer dirt road or trail is near me anymore, if anyone does know of one in South Eastern WI, let me know and I can do some off-road/trail FE testing as well!

___Good Luck

___Wayne

[xcel]

Hi All:

___The bike(s) are ready but I have to wait until tomorrow so the dealership can verify which of the two bikes they received is the review one and which bike the dealer is supposed to be able to keep for themselves to sell off their showroom floor

___Good Luck

___Wayne

[xcel]

Hi All:

___A little update.

___The bike was ready two days ago but no temp plates Today, temp plates were over nighted but FedEx tried to deliver them at 07:30 AM when the Yamaha dealership did not open until 10:00. Plates are on the truck so the dealer will pick them up on his way home after the shop closes at 08:00 PM CST this evening. Tomorrow it is supposed to be ready

___Good Luck

___Wayne

[xcel]

Hi All:

___The 2008 Yamaha XT250 is home for a week

John Covell (General Manager) and Jim Parpan (Service Manager) of Lake County Power Sports.


Spec fuel tank capacity: 2.59 total gallonsUS cap including the .5 gallon reserve.
First Fill up actual: 2.326 gallonsUS on top of another ~ .45 gallons of reserve still left.

Picked her up with .8 miles on the odometer. She ran out of fuel in the parking lot at 1.1 miles as I was driving back and forth behind the shop while getting used to her. I drove 4.0 miles on reserve and added 2.326 gallon topped off. Total cap is more along the lines of 2.75 gallonsUS. There is a tank and carburetor Evap canister so it is the CA model vs. the non-CA model with no EVAP canister.

A dual purpose an on/off road bike so why take pics only on the pavement

Tire pressure specs

Manual Spec
Front Tire Pressure: 18 psi
Rear Tire Pressure: 22 psi

Manual Max Spec (for those of us that weigh over 198 pounds)
Front Tire Pressure: 22 psi
Rear Tire Pressure: 25 psi

Max Sidewall
Front Tire Pressure: 32 psi
Rear Tire Pressure: 32 psi

Oil sump cap: 1.27 quarts w/out Filter replacement. I think I will head over to Walmart and pick up some manual recommend Mobil1 10W-30 Synthetic after I run the first tank through. After consulting with the dealership of course

Engine Break-in

0 to 600 miles -- Avoid prolonged operation above 1/3 throttle. I do not think that will be a problem
600 to 1,000 miles -- Avoid prolonged operation above 1/2 throttle.

After 1,000 miles, the engine oil and oil filter cartridge or element must be changed/replaced.

1000 miles and beyond -- The vehicle can now be operated normally.

Starting Emissions

To avoid the possibility of excessive exhaust emissions, never leave the Choke on longer than necessary. The time necessary depends on the ambient air temperature as shown below

Above 50 degrees F requires about 7 seconds of Full Choke.
Below 50 degrees F requires about 35 seconds of Full Choke and about 2.5 minutes of ½ Choke.

Warm Engine requires no Choke.

Right at home in the large open off-road spaces.

Quick impressions

You have to be in 5th gear by 25 mph for FE so she is geared really short. Commonplace for any bike actually let alone one with just 249 cc’s.

There is this little button called a kill switch that I renamed the FAS switch

Instrumentation

No tach unfortunately but does include two trip odometer’s and a clock.

Mirrors are a bit on the small size for view to the rear.

Suspension

Soft first 2 to 3” of travel to absorb the little road imperfections. Off-road tires can be a little rough as you can feel one knob to the next on the pavement vs. a road bike tire. Expected of course. Surprisingly comfortable for the novice rider actually.

Ergonomics

Yamaha gave the XT250 plenty of off-road ground clearance (11.22” unloaded) but in doing so, the pegs to seat distance place your claves to thighs in a sport bike bend even though you are sitting upright. I will let you know about this one after a few more hours.

FE

I have no idea yet but oh how I wish this had an OBD-II port to plug in some FCD instrumentation. She practically idles along at 26 to 30 mph so I suspect there is going to be some big numbers available given the size of the ICE at maybe 1,700 RPM (total guesstimate) at those speeds? I have internal ratios, sprocket teeth and will do the rear tire height for the RPM calc’s at various speeds later.

The full review will be a while but to start the blog, the above should suffice.

Individuals behind the scenes

I would like to thank both Michael Schmitt and Meredith Penrod of the Yamaha Motor Corporation for pulling some very large strings to have this bike shipped out from CA and setup for the review. I would also like to thank John Covell, the General Manager of Lake County Power Sports for picking up the temp registration last night and taking me to his dealership to pick up the bike this afternoon. And of course the working setup of the bike including the walk through by Jim Parpan, the Service Manager of Lake County Power Sports.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

[xcel]

Hi All:

___Day 1’s ride is over.

___I was riding around the Northern Chicago suburbs to visit relatives plus took a 35 mile steady state slow speed cruise to Racine, WI and back on the frontage roads. I kept speeds down but variable per the manuals break-in procedures. With instructions asking for less than 1/3 throttle, there was enough power to take you to speed without undue stress in traffic even with that little throttle. The one issue where you can tell the smaller engined bike needs that lower top gear is while running at highway speeds. Anything over 50 mph and the Cd with rider is so high (estimated at ~ 0.50) that she really needs the coals applied to keep accelerating.

___First fillup complete with a 97.826 mpgUS showing over 54.0 miles.

___Now its time to take the fight to our level. Anywhere from 20 to 40 mph P&G’s using the Kill-switch to see if a bike can be manipulated like our daily drivers. Although it was only a 17.3 mile segment from the previous fill and was only a touch over 17 ounces (I actually spilled some on the tank lip during the fill ), the numbers from top off to top off look pretty good at 129.104 mpgUS. This is such a short fill that the FE achieved cannot be reliably guaranteed but I have an idea it could in fact be a nice boost over slow speed steady state cruise.

___I will try and pull a few more miles tomorrow and lock down a type of rate/range even though we are flying literally blind with no tach, no load based parameter and no i or aFCD.

2008 Yamaha XT250 - FE Data

[Date	Odometer	Trip A (miles)	Fuel Fill (gallons)	mpgUS		Total Miles Traveled (miles)	Total Fuel Consumed (gallons)	Total mpgUS	Notes
7-023-08	5	0.0	NA	NA		0.0	NA	NA	Picked up and first fill.
7-03-08	59	54.0	0.552	097.826		54.0	0.552	97.826	Steady state cruise around the suburbs.
7-03-08	6	17.3	0.134	129.104		71.3	0.686	103.936	P&G’ing w/ a lot of work.
7-04-08	156	80.3	0.709	113.25		151.6	1.395	108.674	Slightly heavier throttle, higher Speeds and higher speed shift points w/ P&G.
7-05-08	192	36.0	0.330	114.55		187.6	1.725	108.75	Std. ride out to a gas station 9 miles from the off road trails.
7-05-08	233	40.9	0.494	82.793		228.5	2.219	102.974	18.4 miles of off-road slow speed trails and 22.5 miles on-road.
7-08-08	311	77.7	0.640	121.406		306.2	2.859	107.1	2.2 miles of Horse trails and 75.5 miles of suburb to suburb city travel.

___Good Luck

___Wayne