2014 250F Motocross Shootout
Cycle News Staff | January 28, 2014
As we do every year, we rounded up all the usual players in the 250F class for our 250F Motocross Shootout and asked the ultimate question – which one is best? And pretty much every year we get a different answer. Last year it was the Kawasaki, the year before that it was the Honda, and so on. Much of this “inconsistency” has to do with the 250F class being so darn competitive that the manufacturers can’t rest on their laurels for very long. If they do, they could go from first to worst in an instant. And the great thing about that is, we benefit by keep getting unbelievably great bikes to choose every year – and 2014 is no different.
Once again, the Honda CRF250R, Kawasaki KX250F, KTM 250 SX-F, Suzuki RM-Z250 and Yamaha YZ250F made up our latest, 2014 Cycle News 250F Motocross Shootout and, once again, we loaded them all up and hit as many different tracks as we could in a timely matter in hopes of weeding out the field. And it worked. The more we rode them, the more we learned about them, so when it came time to pick a winner and to rate the rest, we were quite confident in our findings and conclusions.
Our usual shootout rules were again enforced this year. We kept all of the bikes in the exact same form – just as you’d get them right off the showroom floor. With the exception of graphics, we left each bike bone stock: tires, handlebars, suspension springs, gearing, grips, levers, etc. We again also chose not to mess with ECU mapping. We have found in the past that fiddling with each bike’s ignition mapping and fueling can get very involved and, more importantly, time consuming, so our testers are only allowed to set ride height and adjust suspension clickers and handlebar positioning. Again, just ride ‘em how you’d get ‘em.
Let’s get on with it…
To read the rest of the 2014 250 Motocross Shootout in this week’s issue of Cycle News, click here
For more Cycle News Motocross motorcycle reviews, click HERE.
