All 2st New CR125 or WR250 for a novice woods rider?

going back to the first post which was a question of CR125 or WR250, he did mention WR125 would be his first choice BUT it was not available
now he mentioned the cost savings of being on bye-bye to Italian hello Austrian sale, so I read between the lines and see price is a factor, converting a CR125 into a WR125 is not inexpensive, that said I would recommend the WR250 as it is a WR, a CR125 is a dirt bike but not a great trail bike

Good to know! Heading out to Goons in the Dunes with the WR125 for Stupid Bowl weekend, am curious how it will do. I'm sure it will be fine especially since the sand is pretty grainy out there with lots of vegetation. There's only a few truly large classic style sand dune areas I'll have to deal with. Might need to fatten up the jetting a bit.

You should come up Kelly, its a good time. Come to think of it, I'll have to see if Lorne can make it too.

I saw his comment and I thought the opposite; if he wants a WR125, he should buy a CR125 and convert it.

What's the cost to convert? Have the suspension revalved ($400, probably would need to be done on a WR anyway), add a flywheel weight ($100), put a torque pipe on it ($200, but most guys are going to buy a pipe anyway), and maybe put a bigger tank on it? Most people are going to buy this stuff anyway, if not you're talking about like $500. That's about the price savings for a 125 vs 250 anyway.

good point if your prices are accurate, the WR125 would be his first choice according to his post

Dang Kelly, I didnt realize you were that old!

go for the wr250, as it will be a good bike to learn on and if you grow out of a 125cr then you wont have to buy another bike, your sat on it.
get wr 250 for lights and plate being able to ride to my destination to thrash and ride back is so much easyer than load up the trailer tie down worry about my car getting nicked etc... p.s. i live in uk so everything is close.

This is the best! I have never had so much fun as do on a 125 and people do look at me and think 125?

Wow, thanks for all the responses!

Money is important in that I normally never buy new and it is only the fire sale pricing that pushed me that way. The cost to convert the CR to WR spec would be manageable and I could do it over time so that's not a huge deal.

As far as size goes I've never sat on a bike I couldn't flat foot so that not an issue.

The weights appear very close on paper ~20lbs but it seems that based on what y'all are saying is the perceived weight difference on the trail will be much greater because of the heavier the rotating mass and maybe different "older" chassis geometry.

I don't have any intention at this point to go racing, rather I'd just like to get back into riding dirt because it's something that my Wife and Daughter could do with me that I think we would all enjoy. She used to ride a DRZ125L with a RM85 front end that I put together for her and liked it, and my little girl will be ready for a 50 soon.

The OTD price on the bikes are roughly $4650 for the CR125 and $4980 for the WR250.

So does a booger.

So what did you buy? You near Birmingham?

Not trying to take food off anyone's plate but I gave about $650 less than that for the 125 OTD but that was not including registration since I was out of state, either way its a great price for a great bike. Might be able to sweet talk the dealer into a good deal on some parts anyway??

Just to relate to something you know
My buddy has a KX250 and my 125 is probably 4-6" shorter in length skinnier and lighter, with the high comp 165 kit and lectron the power is very comparable. My 300 is about the same dimensions as his KX250 but he thought it felt bigger than his 250 and slightly heavier and has enough power that you need to put on your serious face when you open it up. Just my opinion but I think both bikes "old frame or new" still handle better than his KX250.

Either way you go you wont make a bad choice just go with your gut and prepare for a good time!

The length difference looked like quite a bit in the truck but I guess my rear is all the way forward and his was all the way back due to the sprockets we were running so that's why it might have looked like a bigger difference than it really is.
Wonder if having an 18 rear on my 125 would make any difference? Not sure?

Yeah, I'm in Birmingham. Trussville more specifically.

I talked to them and they are understanding about my indecision. They aren't pressuring me so I'll go down tomorrow and make the final decision, but I'm kind of leaning to the 125.

Price wise with tax they are about $200 more than the best deal I've found on the 125 but then I'd have to ship the bike. So it's still cheaper to get it from them.

I think the price on the 250 is about as good as anywhere.

Here is something to watch while you are thinking...

Don't mind the start, that was all operator error.

And the lap 2 issue was caused by the cheap Chinese petcock I put on it. Doesn't flow good on reserve...



Later,

jmetteer, you picked some odd lines downhill on those switch backs but yeh fair play.

hard to knock back the 125 especially when you get the free 144 top end-2 bikes for price of 1! id go the 125, mount the 144 to it & send the 125 off to get 165'd. bigger tank, suspension(youd do it anyway with the 250), FWW & you gotta wr125 anyway. 19" wheel is here nor there. new frame/chassis & 125 weight/feel is far better than the old design frame. 125s are fun! then again the 250/300 is an awesome donk but they do feel bigger/heavier/slower turning & when you get tired a bit of whiskey throttle can land you in a whole lotta trouble!