Friday, October 15, 2010

First Test: 2011 Kawasaki KX250F

2011 Kawasaki Kx250f First Test Right Side Profile
When the call came to come roost the 2011 KX250F around Maryland's legendary Budds Creek Motocross Park, Dirt Rider was all over it. After countless laps around the National track and additional testing back in Southern California, we now have a pretty good idea of how this machine ticks.
We initially tried to evaluate the KX250F first as a complete bike, but right away it was hard not to focus on the fork action, which is startlingly...normal. That's right, no odd binding of the axle, no twisting of the front end and no out-of-whack rebound to send you flying off the track. Really, the SFF operates just like a normal fork, but with slightly smoother action and a borderline soft stock clicker setting. One thing we did notice was how huge of an effect each individual turn or click on the new style fork really has. One click on the rebound or compression makes a notable difference, so much so that you'd have to go two or three clicks on traditional forks to achieve the same effect. It didn't take long to chase the clickers into a somewhat stiffer setting, one that worked on two hugely different tracks for a variety of rider abilities. Overall, the damping was great and the front end felt balanced with the rear. It has an active, stable and progressive character in chop.
2011 Kawasaki Kx250f First Test Chris Green
2011 Kawasaki Kx250f First Test Kris Keefer





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