Page 30 - Australian Motorcycle News (January 2020)

quickspin

Yamaha WR F

Indie was now acting like she owned the
thing, sitting herself on it whenever I wasn’t
and patiently waiting until it was her turn to
have a ride – often when we had to retrieve an
upside-down sibling…
Midway through yet another riding session,
play was halted when an echidna wandered onto
the track. The kids spotted it early and came to
a stop, but not before the echidna picked the
best corner on the track to bury itself in the
middle of. I tossed up moving it, but the kids had
soon mapped out an alternative line and we got
back into it. Not long afterwards, the echidna
emerged and then ambled away, checking back
occasionally until it was out of sight.
As adept as the WR250F is at playing farm bike
and tearing up a grass track in a paddock, its real
home is deep in the bush, bouncing bars off the
trees as it snakes through tight single track.
The throttle is probably a bit too ‘motocross’
for this going – I’ll be interested to see if
Yamaha has tamed that abrupt initial throttle
response for the 2020 model we ride soon – but
the bike’s narrow, firm chassis makes light
work of relatively smooth single track. If it’s
really rough, I find the bike too firm to feel
comfortable on, and I’d honestly prefer the old
low, stable chassis of the older 2010-spec WRs
in that way.
But when the clock is on, or your riding
mates have the hammer down, the WR250F is
a scalpel that feels better the faster you go, if
you’re up to it. If you want to just cruise in this
situation, the bike is sharp and bitey. It wants
to go fast, and watching one of these weapons
having its neck wrung by a pro-level rider is
always a pleasure. It is totally up to it. For mid-
forties weekend warriors, though? It can be a bit
too much of a one-eyed race bike.
Interestingly, the 249cc engine did suffer
from some altitude sickness at my Snowy
Mountains getaway, feeling a little breathless

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30 amcn.com.au