10 Years (or more) of the KTM 250 Four-Stroke
Ever look out in the future and wonder where bikes will be in ten or so years? I do this often and in the present I wonder how good bikes can become. There are the obvious changes we see looming on the horizon but the path to those improvements takes a lot of twists and turns.
I have a 2003 KTM 250 EXC RFS. This was not one of KTM’s better bikes but it was a way for the manufacturer, then still trying to prove itself against the mostly Japanese competition to get in the competitive 250cc four-stroke game. KTM was pushing the now accepted four-stroke engine as hard as Yamaha at the time. Honda was playing catch up in the smaller displacement. Looking back, the 250 RFS was nearly identical to the 520cc and 400cc versions except for the changes inside the engine to downsize it. Over carbureted, heavily overbuilt and kind of slow it was in a lot of ways better and some ways worse than the Yamaha WR250F, its main competition. Honda had still not released the CRF250X, still hanging on to the XR250R. The whole concept of off-road 250Fs was still a bit of, “are they play bikes, entry level or are riders going to race them?” KTM’s path was safe and calculated and looking back has obviously helped put them in the place they are now.
But you can see where things started going. Lighter more agile 250s started to appear. KTM was getting heavily invested in motocross and a specially built engine was necessary to compete with the Japanese brands who owned this market. Looking at the weight and searching for power the head designs and cams evolved and the reliability stayed. The 2003 250 RFS is nearly indestructible, that was a strange trait for 250F engines of the day, especially those that were raced. KTM’s motocross technology trickled over the off-road bikes a lot quicker than other manufacturers. In fact they have been through a few completely different revisions of the 250cc four-stroke engine since the early 2000s. By comparison Yamaha has just this year released its only update and Honda has not changed the CRF250X architecture even once since introduction.
As you look down the features list the big changes that really improved the 250F are fuel injection and major improvements in chassis and suspension component design. But it is the little details and small changes that evolved over time that collectively lead to the bike we have today. Manufacturing and materials have become so much better as well. The only downside has been the closer looks at cost savings that sometimes rear an ugly head and produce unintended consequences. How much better is it?
There is no comparison, really. But that also depends on the rider as well. They both start via electric starting, which in 2003 was a bonus in the class. They ride fine, both of them. But most riders can instantly tell the newer bike is lighter, has more power over a longer power curve and would you believe the 2015 bike is 15 MPH faster? The new bike is sharper handling and for most easier to ride. A racer can appreciate the newer bike’s suspension performance but for a trail rider that may not be much of a concern. Looks are in the eye of the beholder and the older KTM and its then futuristic shape and look have really not fallen that far out of flavor. The new bike does look sharp. It is strange all the colors seem to be inverted, but you are getting that comment from a self-proclaimed Neanderthal of design and style. Hey, I don’t look at what I’m riding, I just ride it.
KTM is on top of the game and driving the speed of development in the off-road motorcycle world. Even the new Factory Edition motocrossers will trickle over to its off-road bikes sooner than can be reacted to by the typical pace of other manufacturers. We’ll have a full test of the 2015 KTM 250 XC-F in short order and compare it to the Yamaha YZ250FX we like so much when we have all the details sorted. The one thing we can confirm, as a consumer you are getting great bikes to ride and looking back just confirms that.
