L ate last year we got the call to attend a Yamaha offroad ride day in the Makarau area . Makarau is about an hour north of Auckland city ( when traffic is light ) on the eastern side of the Kaipara Harbour . Yamaha ’ s Ben Townley was running the show and he marked a fun track . Both Ben and Paul Whibley were there for model information , insights and general chat – great stuff . This was not a motocross day , so the dirt models on offer were the WR250F / WR450F and YZ250FX / 450FX . The riding terrain was open hill-country farmland , tracks with clay-based soil and also the opportunity to explore tight bush for those keen . Happily , KR got the jump on most attendees by going up a day early and being able to ride the WR range exclusively , our main focus for this story . While the bikes were not out-of-the-box
new , they were still relatively low hour machines in good condition , just perfect for this ride impression . We even managed to talk Paul Whibley into being our WR250F photo model while I got to grips with the 450 .
WR250F Regular KR readers will know I ’ m not a huge fan of 250 four-strokes . At my size I ’ m a fairly serious challenge for a 250F to haul around , being a good 35kg heavier than the ideal rider weight for this machine . But … I have to say the WR250 did an admirable job . The power delivery , the all-important thing for any engine really , is very well suited to enduro . Smooth and linear with a searing top-end , but , importantly , with just enough torque and flexibility in the mid-range to make keeping trail-time reasonably effortless .
48 KIWI RIDER