Decent WR250R parts?

[XenoVibe]

I was entertaining the notion of converting my CBR125R to a dual sport after reading a thread about another member converting his/hers and watching Rad (1985) film. I've been considering my next bike to be a either a YZF-R6 or WR250R and figured I'd try off-roading to form a better opinion and idea of what I want.


That being said, I also like to be organized and ahead of schedule, so I am putting together a keyboard build. Search function didn't yield a lot of helpful results, so I was wondering what are some decent aftermarket chain and sprocket setups for the WR250R. I've read a few threads but a lot seem subjective and people basically keep contradicting each other and erupting into flame wars. So far EK, Tsubaki(moto), RK and D.I.D. have been listed with suggested with Renthal sprockets; light weight steel for off-road and aluminum for more asphalt oriented riding.

Any real help is appreciated.

 

[WudzRydr]

Cheap steel sprockets and whatever chain you can find on sale. If you do any amount of real offroading you'll burn them up fast anyway. The amount of sand in Ontario is really hard on chains.

Don't worry about lightweight. The 1/4HP it may free up for you isn't going to help get a 300lb dualsport bike through the woods any quicker.

 

[Ash]

If you're still on the fence between a 600ss and a dual sport then it's way too early to worry about sprockets. Try to get out to some demo days on any dual sport next year, and book a day with TrailTours or CMTS. That way you can start to narrow down how much on road versus off road you think you'll want to do - a dual sport is a good compromise, but you might like the dirt so much that you'll just get a proper dirt bike and keep your street bike for the road (I did!)

 

[XenoVibe]

Cheap steel sprockets and whatever chain you can find on sale. If you do any amount of real offroading you'll burn them up fast anyway. The amount of sand in Ontario is really hard on chains. Don't worry about lightweight. The 1/4HP it may free up for you isn't going to help get a 300lb dualsport bike through the woods any quicker.

Ah, it wasn't for performance just reliability but I will go with steel just for peace of mind.

If you're still on the fence between a 600ss and a dual sport then it's way too early to worry about sprockets. Try to get out to some demo days on any dual sport next year, and book a day with TrailTours or CMTS. That way you can start to narrow down how much on road versus off road you think you'll want to do - a dual sport is a good compromise, but you might like the dirt so much that you'll just get a proper dirt bike and keep your street bike for the road (I did!)

Yeah, I was thinking of just going with off-road tires when I can source them for my CBR125R then getting a WR250R next season when I see a decent price listing and leaving the R6 on the back burner for another two or three seasons. I want to progress up the cc ladder slowly.

The reason I was asking about chain and sprocket setup is because I talked to a guy about it at college and haven't seen him since. He said that the OEM chains are good for riding on asphalt but poop off-road and would need 21/18 rims for off road tires. Since I don't plan to do a lot of highway riding (if any), I'd happily sacrifice top end speed for more low end torque so, I figured might as well find a good compromising chain while upgrading the sprockets.

Yeah I will hit up demo days next year, thanks for the advice. TrailTour and CMTS seems too far at around 2-3+ hours away but I'll try some local equivalent. I live near ski hill with lots of dirt/gravel trails so I was planning to ride around there with my CBR once I get tires and maybe go to gravel pits once I upgrade bike.

 

[nokturnal]

looking for WR info? www.advrider.com

 

[Torontorocko]

My WR on, likely, my last offroad ride of the season.
I use it for my commute everyday in the city all year long. Take it on rally's, and loads of offroad and dual sport. Even took it to the Motocross track.

Love the thing...

Sprockets are 13/48 JT steel, and the chain is a Renthal. All from Royal distributing.

 

[XenoVibe]

looking for WR info? www.advrider.com

Thanks, google has led me to threads there quite often as it once did with GTAM before I signed up. Sounds like its worth registering.

My WR on, likely, my last offroad ride of the season.
I use it for my commute everyday in the city all year long. Take it on rally's, and loads of offroad and dual sport. Even took it to the Motocross track.

Love the thing...

Sprockets are 13/48 JT steel, and the chain is a Renthal. All from Royal distributing.

Ah looks nice and fun! What is your top speed limited to now?

 

[Torontorocko]

Not 100% sure about the top speed, as the speedo registers wrong (normal for the WR) even more with the gearing change and the tire size difference.
I believe I cruise about 105km comfortably on the highway though. I don't care about top speed because I ride the city streets daily and only ride the highways to get to my next off road destination. Top speed rarely comes to matter when riding on the trails and city streets.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[XenoVibe]

Not 100% sure about the top speed, as the speedo registers wrong (normal for the WR) even more with the gearing change and the tire size difference.
I believe I cruise about 105km comfortably on the highway though. I don't care about top speed because I ride the city streets daily and only ride the highways to get to my next off road destination. Top speed rarely comes to matter when riding on the trails and city streets. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

yeah I just wanted to know if it could cruise at highway speeds if needed, I forget how overpowered vehicles are compared to my CBR125R lol well thanks.

 

[Terence]

Not 100% sure about the top speed, as the speedo registers wrong (normal for the WR) even more with the gearing change and the tire size difference.
I believe I cruise about 105km comfortably on the highway though. I don't care about top speed because I ride the city streets daily and only ride the highways to get to my next off road destination. Top speed rarely comes to matter when riding on the trails and city streets.]

I have a WR250R that I've put over 20,000 km on myself and have playing with gearing. Stock gearing is 13/43. Top speed downhill with the wind is an indicated 162 km/h which is only 148 km/h on the GPS. Typically you can expect to pull a real 130+ km/h in all but mountain passes with head winds. The 13 tooth front sprocket has the chain very close to the swing arm. Unless you're extremely diligent about checking chain tension, the chain slider gets eaten through about every 8,000 km. I put a 14 tooth sprocket on front which makes the speedometer accurate to within 1 - 2 km/h, decreases chain slider wear and reduces vibration at cruising speeds. Unfortunately makes sixth gear unusable for even slight grades or head winds. I'm planning on putting a larger rear sprocket to compensate for the larger front. 14:46 is fairly close to stock gearing although I'm doing more off-road now and as such, planning to change to 14:49. Steel sprockets last a lot longer than aluminum and I seriously doubt you'll notice the weight difference even in a race. You can have the best of both worlds if you have deep pockets though -- Renthal makes aluminum sprockets with an outer steel ring for the teeth.