I'm falling in love with this bike! I'm finding it to be a really capable, easy to ride dirt bike. Since I haven't ridden a dirt bike since I sold my 1980 IT125 about 20 years ago (when I was 17), I find the friendly, forgiving nature of the KLX250 to be the perfect tool to re-introduce myself to dirt riding. I've been riding street bikes for about the last 4 years, 3 of those on a '05 Suzuki Vstrom 650. I had a lot of fun on the Vstrom, it's a great street bike, but I kept wanting to go off road with it, but whenever I did, it just made me nervous. It felt top heavy and there was so much body work to get damaged...yikes! I traded the Suzuki in for this KLX just about four days ago. Although it's been fairly chilly out, the weather has been dry this week, so I've been putting the KLX to good use.

On Friday afternoon after work, I went up into the Oregon coast range west of Eugene, put in about 20 miles of gravel logging roads. The roads were steep, and some of the gravel was fairly "chunky", making a bit of an extra challenge, but the weather was clear, and up on the ridge, I could see for many miles. The bike was so much fun, it felt stable in the rough conditions, I remembered to just let the bike move under me when things got gnarly, and reminding myself to get my butt off the seat, stay loose and not tense up. The bike is also really fun on tight twisty mountain roads that are in this area, so light and flickable compared to the 'Strom.

Up on the logging roads after work, a cool, sunny afternoon, no mud (yet):


On Saturday I had a chance to try the bike out in some real trail riding. I trucked the bike up to the Huckleberry Flat OHV trail area near Oakridge, OR. This area has a mapped trail system with one way trails. Even though it hasn't rained all week, the trails were still very wet and some parts were snotty, with many large mud puddles. Some of the puddles hid unknown rocks and ruts, requiring a loose, let the bike move, riding style. The KLX handled all with ease. At one point the "easy" trail I was on ended and became "more difficult". Since this was a one way trail, I didn't want to turn around so I decided to give it a go. The trail got very rocky, wet, and dropped steeply down to a small creek with a decrepit looking wooden foot bridge with missing boards. Very hairy for me, my eyeballs were popping out of my head, but I survived. The trail then of course had to climb back out of the ravine just as it dropped in. I got up on the tank and gave her the whip. We made it about 3/4 of the way up when a snotty rut dumped me off on my right side. I shut off the bike, got it righted, mounted up, and really had to flog it to get some momentum going to finish the climb, but I made it. Okay, so now I am officially impressed with the KLX250S. What a great bike! I had so much fun, feeling like a kid again! I finished out the moto session with a few more trail and some blasting around the play area til it got dark and had to go home and have some pizza and beer.

 

OMG, you're gonna give Deej a heart attack.....

 

Uh oh. Whad'd I do?[sm=nerd.gif]

 

Deej is the "cleaning" OCD owner of a KLX. We suspect he actually owns 2 of them; uses one for riding and the other as a highly polished lawn ornament. (He's not a pink flamingo kind of guy.) We only get to see theclean bike on this site, though. Seeing your dirty bike might give him an infarct.
Deej? Deej? Are you OK? Somebody get the paddles!!!! CLEAR!!!!

 

[sm=funnypostabove.gif]

 

Actually I have had my bike dirty, I just choose to keep it really, really clean.

 

This is as dirty as it gets, I guess my fender extensions are working better than I had hoped for.[8D]

 

Sorry Deej, I couldn't resist.

 

I think that sums up my feeling about this bike. For those who never rode as a kid, I feel for you for what you have missed but the feeling you get now is what it's all about!

Enjoy!

 

they always look better when dirty.... its just the natural look.