yz250 2 stroke or yz 426

[Guest Guest]

I already have an xr 400, which I'm converting to dual sport. Now I'm trying to decide between the 250 or 426, which will be my play and race bike at the local tracks. Any opinions on why to go with one or the other would be appreciated. Those posts on the 426 don't sound very good. I'm 36 and will be running the old man class. I caught the dirt bike bug again after being out of it for 10 years.

[426_Monster]

Originally posted by xr dude:

I already have an xr 400, which I'm converting to dual sport. Now I'm trying to decide between the 250 or 426, which will be my play and race bike at the local tracks. Any opinions on why to go with one or the other would be appreciated. Those posts on the 426 don't sound very good. I'm 36 and will be running the old man class. I caught the dirt bike bug again after being out of it for 10 years.

Hi

I have been riding two-smkes for ages,had fun at the time till I discoverd the 426. I took a mate's bike for a spin and a week later my WR250 was sold.I must say in the two years that I've been riding it I have'nt had a minutes S**T.Wonderful bike

Well lets talk about the real thing now. You have expierence on 4 strokes but the 426 is deffinately in its own class.I had a suspension mod. done seeing that we do trail riding. About 80-90 miles at a time. With the standard suspension it was a bit tireing on such a long ride but still good fun.The 426's had a fiew theething problemes but I can asure you once you have owned one you wount trade it for anything in the world.This is such a fun bike with LOTSSSS of power.See if you can take one for a test drive and decide for yourself, Be aware, you might be out of pocet soon after.

Hope you mahe the right choise

Greetings from South Africa

Dreyer

dreyer@mercdata.co.za

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[Numpsy]

Hi,

Twelve years ago I said " I´ll never do mx again" and turned to road bikes and road racing.

My father purchased an XR 250 just for joy riding and I ended up at the local track beating the craps out of my father bike.

One day a friend of mine showed up with a brand new 426 and asked me if I would like to give it a spind and I tell You: I fell in love !

It´s the most awsome thing I ever have tried and I knew that I needed one of these "rockets".

I have tried evrykind of bike You can think of, two-stroke mx, trials even a factory built world cup Super Sport 600 bike and nothing compares to this one !!!

Be ware ! If You try one out, You´ll get stuck too !!

Numpsy

[Hick]

XR Dude,

You strike me as the typical YZF owner (Vet class guy who had a 250 ten years ago and wants to get back into riding/racing).

If you want to hear about every possible mechanical problem that has ever occurred with the 426 then you came to the right place. We don’t know anything here about wimpy two-strokes ?

Actually, as I understand it, the YZ 250 and 426 share quite a few drivetrain parts (clutch and gears) as well as chassis parts, obviously, like wheels, swingarm etc. Don’t let the horror stories scare you away, the ratio of problems to bikes sold is likely the same as any other competition model, it just seems bad because all the problems are continually hashed out on this site. And some of these “problems” often turn out to be human error. Plus, if you are going with the ’01 many of the glitches I’ve heard about (and experienced personally) with the first 426 should be fixed, except the lack of grease…

Having said that, and having recently owned a pair of two-strokes (KX 250 & 500), I’ll weigh in with my two cents…

I don’t know if my opinion counts because I don’t race moto, but off-road the 426 is much easier to go fast on than any 250 I have ridden. I’m not sure why (I’ve got lots of theories), it just tracks straighter, isn’t as “busy” over choppy stuff and is less twitchy with the power on.

But what probably matters most to me is the 426 is twice as fun as any two stroke. I thought my 250 and 500 were great bikes until I rode the YZF. I’m still mad about the time I spent on those bikes (especially the 8 mo.s on that big green beast), that I could’ve spent riding a YZ400 (I bought the 500 new in ‘99).

The only downside, as I see it, is once you have the YZF in your garage you will neglect your XR. Soon you will be posting “How can I dual sport my YZ?” and “For sale, like new XR.”

[Chris_in_the_Mojave]

There are lots of good bikes out there these days and the YZ426 is one of them. Like anybike they have up sides and down sides:

Downs: Weight, Starting ( under time pressure ) and complexity.

Ups: Great power and delivery, no pre mix mess. The YZF is a good bike for "double duty" MX/OFF-Road.

That said ( IMHO ) for me it's not the "BEST" at either. I sold mine and bought a CR250 for the track and a CR500 for off-road, but that's mostly because I got into racing and wanted to set one bike up for each. For a one bike garage, the YZ426 is a good choice.

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Chris in the Mojave

'98 YZ400F