27 sounds good to me for going through the woods. I know I don't use the 40 something my bike has and would guess I'm using at best 10-20. If you "feel" comfortable going 20 mph through a section of woods and any bike will do that, you aren't going to use/need 25 more hp to go 30 mph. I think at least I know for me in the woods I have a comfort level I ride at and no amount of HP is going to make me go faster. Bike and rider comfort/control will but not HP. I'm old and don't race so other views my be quite different.
The only competitor for this bike is a wr250r. The wr is street legal but costs 700 more, 50 pounds heavier, and has crappy suspension and brakes. With all that being said, i felt faster on my wr then my te. Mostly because the power was easy to use and not all in a limited rev range. On the wr no matter where you were with rpms it was good to go. The pr5 is a bargain and fixes all the shortcomings of my old bike and retains the good points.
surprisingly useful 27hp at that. Kinda ideal for woods riding, enough to get it on but not so much you are fighting it. - I'm going to race this bike next years at the Idaho City ISDE Qualifier 2 day. I plan to do well on it. I look forward to the suspension and handling for that long ass race. (230 miles)
Would that I could but another bike in the garage wouldn't sit right with the wife. The reason I ask is that my secondary bike is an xr 250. For all of its faults as a race bike, I can go surprisingly fast on it. The downside is that I can actually use all of its 20 horses in most situations and fall behind my riding buddies on hilly terrain above 3rd gear. I dont use nearly the hp my yz 295 has, and frankly I find the smaller, slower bike more fun. Even 5 more ponies on my xr and I think I could embarrass a few KTMs that I ride with. It sounds like the PR 5 already fits that bill nicely.
Maybe, but I doubt it. The husky wasnt going to lose 20lbs very easily and I enjoy the xr much more for many reasons, speed not one of them. I have a hunch that when Im done with the yz, it has a chance to be a very, very good bike, and with the wonder of craigslist and ebay, its there for the same price I sold the husky.
