2015 Yamaha YZ250FX–Cliff Thomas

Having never ridden a 250 four-stroke before I was a little worried how well it would haul me around. The six speed gearbox spreads out the power perfectly. I first rode it with my fellow Checkers club members laying out our National Hare and Hound coming up in February. First gear is low and just perfect for that extremely rocky steep hill. You can lug it down really low and it never even thinks about stalling when you need to get out of a  tough spot.  Shifting through the gears is a blast. It loves to be revved out and pulls really strong. It seemed a little loud with the stock exhaust but after installing an FMF power core 4 slip on it only blew out 92 decibels at 5250 rpm.
I raced it in the Adelanto GP which consisted of flat loaming wet sand turns, long straights and an Endurocross section. The low first gear and high sixth gear was made for this course. I will never have to change the gearing on this bike for any kind of race. The start was live engine on pavement. I just happened to be starting next to a 2015 WR 250. We both opted to start in second gear and had no problem staying with the pack of 19 other assorted 250s. I thought the two-strokes might get a jump on us racing down the start straight into the first turn but we stayed right with them. The power delivery in the sandy turns was very smooth and predictable. I could easily pick my line, hit it and stay in it. After the 32 mile sprint I had approximately 3/4 gal. of fuel left in the power robbing wet sand so there is no need for a large tank to go the distance on a 45 mile or  even longer race.