2008 Yamaha XT250 review blog

Hi Sean:

___You have a memory like a savant and that useless information just never goes away

___WhatIs, this bike might feel a little tall for you? Not when you sit on it as the suspension compresses about 2 + inches (as it should) but to get your leg over it can be a challenge. Fortunately, the turn signals masts both front and rear are rubber mounted so when your leg hits the ones in the rear, they flex out of the way. I have hit them a few times already A problem for the lengthier inseam folks is I am really cramped when on the seat and the pegs. I mean Rice Rocket cramped and after 30 or so miles, I feel the need to get off and stretch.

___Today’s ride and she seems a little more broken in. I changed some items as I thought the .25L ICE was not loaded up near enough to get both the performance and FE out of it during any P&G routine. The owners manual shift points follow:

0 to 10 mph in first
10 mph shift to second
15 mph shift to third
20 mph shift to fourth
25 mph shift to fifth

___These are great speeds with a shallow throttle to steady state cruise!

___What I did was rolled her up to an approximate ¼ throttle point but took the higher gear shift point speeds up 5 to 7 mph. My suggestion.

0 to 7 - 10 mph in first
7 - 10 mph shift to second
15 - 18 mph shift to third
24 - 26 mph shift to fourth
31 - 34 mph shift to fifth

___Depending on traffic and terrain of course.

___FAS’ing when ever she does not need any load coming into a stop sign or light of course.

___Some twists about FAS’ing a bike. There are no headlights/side marker (turn signal) lights off switch so even though there is no fuel pump, you have lights running and the little 12V in this bike cannot take much more than maybe 15 minutes of P&G w/ 30 to 45 second glides in between. She simply does not have enough juice to pull you up with the electric starter at a stop sign or light. Fortunately, you will not be P&G’ing for that long a period ever but I wanted to know when the 12V would run and that is what I found. A push start to about 5 mph, hop on hard in first and you can bump start in case you were wondering

___The 30 mph, extremely light loaded .25L ICE yielded just 97.x mpg yesterday. I was running a higher speed range in my errands today with maybe a 35 mph average vs. yesterday while attempting to maintain a higher load on the ICE in the mix if that helps.

___For clutch starts after avoiding an impediment, no lower than 25 in fifth, 21 in fourth and 17 in third. The XT is actually very smooth if you follow the higher speed starts. If you get stuck under 17 mph, you better have your butt in the air and a quick bounce to load up the rear wheel or she will skid before starting.

___80.3 miles on .709 gallons top off to top off for a 113.258 mpg segment today so she is starting to wake up from the slumber she was in on that first 54.0 miles yesterday.

___Comfort … Well she was comfortable for the first few miles but my rear end is starting to hurt. Besides the short pegs to seat height causing knee joint stiffness as described above, the seat itself includes a very thin foam layer and boy do I wish it had another two inches. Tomorrow I plan on going off-road for quite a few miles and I just know what that is going to do

___Comfort at speed. Although I do not have a tach, this thing is really revving when at highway speeds. It is also relatively easy to be blown around by passing cars and such due to the light weight, lightly sprung suspension, off-road and light weight tires, and no aerodynamics to speak of. I would not want to travel at 60 + mph for any length of time. That being said, anything below 50 mph is great with the stability concerns disappearing somewhat. Anything off-road and she feels a lot more at home as there is a sure-footedness that she lacks out on paved roads. The Off-road knobby tires are the reason for the Jekyll and Hyde nature as it should be. I was running a few ditches today to get used to her off-road nature and it was a lot of fun

___Good Luck

___Wayne

 

Hi All:

___Off-road trail riding day is complete…

___C0da, I did some calc’s to come up with a close to the mark FE while off-road. Because the trails were 9 miles form the nearest gas station, there was 9.0 std. road miles on the tank when I started the off-road segment. I traveled 18.4 miles on the trails. These were not fire roads or a std. Motocross track but a beginner loop of about a mile, two deep rutted ATV trails and the final was a nightmare of cat tails, deep grooves, pegs scraping along the edges in many places and lots of rocks. The going was very slow on that last trail with tops speeds of maybe 18 mph and the bottom at 6. That last and longest trail was treacherous to say the least. Once back on the road, I filled at a station another 13.5 road miles from the off-road trails.

I actually did start on the beginners trail ---------------------Taking a break with the real action going on behind.​

___Here is the math …

From the fillup prior to hitting the off-road trails, she was sitting at 108.75 mpg over 187.6 miles.

9.0 miles of std. paved road before hitting the trail and 12.5 miles of paved road after leaving the off-road trail site for a total of 22.5 miles. If I was averaging what the total review was calc’ed at (108.75 mpg which seems reasonable), that means 22.5 mi/108.75 mpg = .207 gallons were consumed for the paved road portion. From the on and off-road FE fill or .494 gallons over 40.9 miles, we are left with .287 gallons used on the 18.4 miles of off-road trails.

On-Road: 22.5 miles/.207 gallons = 108.75 mpg
Off-Road: 18.4 miles/.287 gallons = 64.11 mpg

Last tank with those lousy off-road miles came in at just 82.793 mpg.

A little dirt and mud plus a lot of dust to show for the day.--------------------------This is what the top offs have looked like.​

___I did update the tables on page 1 so she is still easily holding above 100 but that short 18.4 miles put a huge dent in her lmpg

___Off-road, the XT-250 is competent. It is no Yamaha YZ250 but that is not its mission. It will take you both on-road and off-road with few compromises. While achieving excellent FE… Just the way it is supposed to

___Good Luck

___Wayne

 

Hi All:

___Great ride today while running errands around the far Northern Suburbs. 2.2 miles of horse trail riding and 75.5 miles of city riding yielded a really nice 121.4 mpg over 77.7 miles.

___Short peg to seat is still bothersome for longer rides but with < 15 mile rides between stops, it was not really a problem.

___Camaraderie. I still enjoy how other riders still give the left hand under the bars wave to one another. Even Harley riders offer a type of kinship to the non-Harley riders and this is not found in any other vehicle.

___Safety. I am in the habit of using the Hi/Lo beams and cycling them when coming up on intersections to make sure those ready to cross or pull out know a motorcycle is coming.

___Lowering high idle trick when stuck at a stale red (short light) or sign. Release the clutch a touch to grab and pull it back in and the idle will settle down at a more reasonable 1,500 R’s or less vs. the 2,000 + after warmup is complete.

___The only thing left will be some higher speed FE runs out on the Interstate tomorrow, a quick wash and then it heads back to the local Yamaha dealer. A bike I will be sad to see leaving my drive for the very last time

2008 Yamaha XT250 - FE Data

Column1	Column2	Column3	Column4	Column5	Column6	Column7	Column8	Column9	Column10
Date	Odometer	Trip A (miles)	Fuel Fill (gallons)	mpgUS		Total Miles Traveled (miles)	Total Fuel Consumed (gallons)	Total mpgUS	Notes
7-03-08	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	76	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	108.754	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	107.100	2.2 miles of Horse trails and 75.5 miles of suburb to suburb city travel.
7-09-08	338	27.9	0.404	69.059		334.1	3.263	102.390	27.9 miles of 60 mph speed testing.
7-09-08	355	17.4	0.114	152.632		351.5	3.377	104.086	17.4 miles of competition level P&G -- 17 to 36 mph using 3rd, 4th and 5th.

​

 

Hi TheRider:

___This is only a back of the envelope calc (it could be wrong at that?) but here are the rev’s to a mph from the internal gear reduction (3.083), transmission gearing in fifth (0.821), external gear reduction via sprockets (3.200) and the 18” rear tire with an ~ 25.5” diameter. I just eyeballed a tape measure to the rear tire for the 25.5” diameter.

1 Rev of the crank = [(Pi)*(Tire diameter in inches)]/[(Internal gear ratio)*(Transmission fifth gear ratio)*(Sprocket gear reduction)]

1 Rev = [(3.142)*(25.5”)]/[(3.083)*(0.821)*(3.200)] = 9.89 inches

1,000 RPM = (9,890 inches/min) * (60 min/hr) * (1 foot/12 inches) * (1 mile/5,280 feet) = 9.365 mph
2,000 RPM = 18.73 mph
3,000 RPM = 28.09 mph
4,000 RPM = 37.46 mph
5,000 RPM = 46.82 mph
6,000 RPM = 56.19 mph
7,000 RPM = 65.55 mph
8,000 RPM = 74.92 mph

___First gear is really low so a larger front sprocket would probably do the bike wonders as her .25L ICE does not really begin to struggle until after 60 mph. There is a light throttle flat spot between 34 and 39 mph in fifth that I could never get my hands around but a little more throttle always pulled her through it.

___For the 18.4 miles of off-road FE testing, I was using second and third in the real technical trails (what trail???) so there may be a slight issue with an additional 2 teeth to the front but that first gear could still pull you over anything I would dare be messing around on with this dual-purpose bike.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

 

Hi Jim:

___I do not have an answer for you wrt your Shadow but a manual is a manual. There is no pump so it is a slinger type system and the bottom of the gears are sitting in the sump. I will try and remember to ask the service manager what is going on inside the drivetrain when I turn it in this afternoon.

___A FAS at a light. This one is a bit tricky because of that darned carburetor. On stale red’s, I would FAS into them and assume they were going to be short with a bump start and idle. If this is anything like the old days, that blast of fuel out of the float bowl being vacuum dragged in sounds like a lot of needless fuel to waste. 2-years from now, carburetors will be a thing of the past so this issue will not be important. What will however is starting current. I was stuck twice during the heavy P&G segments at a stop sign on the frontage roads with not enough SoC in the 12V to turn her over. Getting off, a quick run to 5 mph, hop on and release in first to fire her up was fine but you have to be really careful as it is like FAS’ing an automobile at night and the charging system (12V and Alternator) is undersized already.

___For the longer stops, I would shut her down while driving through the suburbs as an example knowing the 12V system was strong (more than 3 to 4 minutes between any ICE-Off time) but I would also shut off the key once stopped and boxed in from behind so as to remove the ancillary and total load from the electrical system in its entirety. In other words, shut down while waiting the light and hope it was longer than 30 seconds or the whole exercise would probably have been in vain as a guess?

___About bump starting… Below 16 mph, I never felt confident as the rear wheel would break loose once in a while whereas anything over 20 mph, let loose in fourth or fifth and she would spin right up. There was always a little fall off in speed but it was minimal above 20 vs. the low speed stuff where you would lose upwards of 5 mph without any brake lights showing during the rapid loss in speed during a bump!!! I suspect it has more to do with the rear wheel’s own inertia vs. any kind of traction issue because that rotating mass adds a fair amount of cranking power all on its own.

___No tach and no OBD-II for feedback was tough.

___The motorcycle community is still close as ever. This is Harley territory given some of the rides occurred throughout much of South Eastern WI (Milwaukee is home of the Harley). I would speak with whatever Harley or Sport bike rider was next to me at the gas station or light and it just goes to show the camaraderie that exists between riders no matter the bike ridden is alive and well.

___Winds and the highway… She is stable enough but her light weight, tall Cg and our tall stature definitely adds to the experience. I would not say I was being moved from lane to lane as the higher speed traffic was passing on I-94 in WI but every time someone would pass, I was moving around in my path about 3 to 6 inches. The high speed FE testing was performed on an almost calm portion of the day so heavy cross-winds would be definitely something I would be watching out for.

___This bike is not a highway cruiser so I stayed away from the highway whenever possible. The XT250 is an excellent short distance commuter (< 15 miles) with any amount of stop light to stop light and slower speed suburban roadways to contend with. All the while returning exceptional FE in the 25 to 35 mph speed range. I was pushing the miles and extended time the first few rides and both my knees and my butt were not happy about it. As the week wore on, I was lowering my actual seat time to less than 30-minutes between stops. That is when I really started to enjoy the XT. I suspect its design philosophy was specifically focused towards the shorter and lighter weight rider who also wanted to have a little fun in the dirt if need be. For me, that shallow padded seat and the seat to peg distance was something I was always mindful of but with the shorter segments, that issue seemed to go away. It is raining here so the bike is still in the garage but before I take it back, I will take some pics with my son on it (29 to 31” inseam) so others will have an idea as to its actual size.

___The enjoyment of a dual-purpose shined bright three times during my week long adventure. When nature called in the middle of nowhere, I traveled off the beaten path a ways. The second time was when traveling to the off-road riding trails last week during which I crossed over a brand new Interstate with the road closed barriers at this particular overpasses on-off ramp. In a car or on a highway cruiser or sport bike, I would have had to pass and wonder. On the XT, I headed off road, around the barriers and I enjoyed a few miles of absolutely empty Interstate in the middle of nowhere while exploring. The third time was when heading home for her final P&G fill. With all the construction going on here, the WI DOT closed down a 1.5 mile section of brand new frontage road just before the IL/WI state-line. What did I do? Well let us find out what they did to the road Into the ditch and around the road-closed barriers… Sure enough, about 1.25 miles up, they had busted the road to smithereens. The XT was built for that kind of roadway and she took it on without nearly a hiccup. That experience occurred during the competitive P&G segment at over 150 mpg too!

___Overall, it was the FE achieved plus the fact it was a bike that made it so enjoyable. Although an Insight might match its FE under similar driving scenarios with a Prius just a stones throw away, an Insight and Prius are not a bike by any stretch. With the off-road and road less traveled experiences, that should answer the question about why anyone would want to own a bike like the XT250. I had a great time enjoying both the on and off-road utility even though I was pushing her for FE every chance I got. The FE achieved was not just respectable but almost guilt free knowing it would take one heck of an effort to work an Insight to this level and it would not have been nearly as fun in the process either

___Good Luck

___Wayne