TE/TC Trail Rider Magazine TE250 Test

Trail Rider is way more "real" world/core than the the big SoCal based mags.
I feel the need to renew/support, it's been a while.

after just a relatively few hours ( but 2 hardcore rides) on my TE300 I feel zero need or desire to tinker with the thing, especially the engine. Its just sooo nice friendly and good-zero fatigue factor riding. So only my bling thread has my stuff on it, just a minor location/temp/alt type of riding jetting change, and I will also need to get my spring rates corrected, all my other stuff is just personal preference stuff. Minor PV turning, smooth and torque is my style. The bike really is as KTM says "ready to race".

Kelly re-read the test and you'll see that they talk about how the stock bike performs, in the first part of the article..... They did ride it stock. Then they talk about the well established mods for KTM products.

On your other post about a 250/300 not needing mods... It's really no different than putting CR ignitions on WR Huskys or Lectron and Keihin carbs . A stock WR250/300 with a Mikuni is an awesome bike, but you can make it better. Same goes for Husky or Husaberg TE250/300, KTM 250XC-W...awesome out of the box, but human nature says it can be more. My Husaberg TE250 needed to be re-jetted for local conditions, which was only raising the clip one position, installed a Rekluse EXP and rode it stock for a year and a half and it was awesome. Then some tinkering came...
I lowered the gearing from 13/50, to 13/52 to close the gap from 2nd to 3rd. Made it better. My Keihin works so well, every time I think about a Lectron, I stop. XC head with Cycle Playground mod, just made it better. I ended up with a FMF Gnarly by default, as a stump killed the stocker and it was hanging on the dealer's rack and it was better down low. Curious about what the XC CDI will do and have to try it. Do I need any of this? No, as the bike was awesome stock, but Human Nature prevails!

Notice the mag article talks about the advertised weight being 230 lbs. The only place I've seen that is other mag articles, the manual states the weight is 234.6 lbs w/o fuel.

I'm gonna say something kind of weird...but what the heck. I think this bike feels a LOT like my souped-up KDX220 originally manufactured back in 2001. I've upgraded the suspension with well-sorted KYB usd's and such, and the handling is similar, as is the engine power curve (of course the 250 has more HP, but not that much). Believe it or not, the KDX puts out a little more torque at low rpms...but I've only got about an hour on the TE, so that might improve.

Something else...my TE250 after a nice long painful ride in stutter-bump wonderland yesterday, now has a seat height of just slightly over 37 inches. That's not bad, and is only about 1/2 inch over my KDX seat height. I'm thinking that is quite a bit lower than the PDS equipped bikes, and is really a plus for tight nasty single-track stuff, especially for old sore guys like me. Electric start is cool too.

I'm still fiddling with the suspension settings, but the bike seems right on for rugged tight trail work. It is a quick turning bike for sure. I just wish california let me ride it all year... red sticker means four months mid-year I can't ride. Eh, that's why I'll never get ride of my KDX's.

Oh, I'm gonna bitch about one thing...why are these bikes, and the KTM enduro models, sold without a spark arrestor? Virtually every riding place requires them, at least out west, and the Jap brands all sell theirs' with the units. So the price goes up $140 or so, and a bit of our earth's resources are wasted. Doesn't make sense to me.

Husky website lists TE250 as 104.4 kg, which is 230.16 lbs. I'm guessing the mags are getting weight from press info. I'm not surprised you say it feels like a well sorted KDX220, with upgraded forks. Enduro Engineering makes a nice spark arrestor end cap, for the stock silencer. Pricey at $90, but less than a whole SA silencer and you get to keep the quiet stock one.

i will get a real accurate weight for mine once all my bling is in place

I think they list some wierd deminsions for the Huskys. I went with a PDS Berg because it felt much lower when I sat on both at the dealer. If you compare a link equipped XC vs. the PDS XCW on KTM's sight the PDS chassis is over an inch shorter, is lighter, and has less ground clearance. The Berg basically mirrors the XCW it's based on, but strangely, the Husky only inherited the link and weight of the XC chassis it's based on, keeping the same height and clearance as the PDS XCW and Berg. I know it has the plastic sub frame, but that shouldn't change the ground clearance.

I like PDS bikes when they're set up right, and you can put in an x-bushing to lower it almost 1 more inch without the ill effects you get from lowering links.

I agree with you on the missing spark arrestor and the similarity to a nicely set up KDX. I got a flat on the TE300 on Saturday and rode the KDX on Sunday and it is almost as fun, quite a bit slower in the open but can hold it's own in the tight stuff.

jeez, i had to look for myself...you would think the ground clearance on the TE would match the XC...over an inch diff. Your right tho a PDS ktm (xc-w) has the same ground clearance as a TE..Maybe a typo?