This guy has obviously insulted the wrong guy with his views on motorcycles.
When you talk with people on the Internet about motorcycles, especially when it's the same model of bike that you own, you can count on some very much wildly different opinions on the bike.
An excellent example of this is the WR-250RX that I owned last year.
90% (I estimate) of the guys and girls on the forums that ride this bike think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, and they pretty much take any kind of criticism about it as some kind of a put-down or insult.
I really get a kick out of the discussions where somebody posts a question like, "Hey, I want to buy a new bike, either a WR-250R or a WR-250F. What's the difference? What's better for my riding? Blah, blah, blah..."
Naturally, because the question was posted on a WR-250R forum, the responses will basically say to the guy that getting a WR-250R will be the best thing he could ever do in the whole wide world.
Then, just as the forum members think they've got yet another completely biased WR-250R rider in the making, I come on and give my honest opinion, the one I formulated after owning and riding both bikes a whole lot.
Basically, I'll tell the guy that the WR-250R is a dual-purpose bike meant to split street and dirt riding, which means that it won't be as good as a WR-250F off-road (and not by a long shot, which the other forum members do not want to hear because they take this as an insult to their bikes).
However, it will be much better than a WR-250F on the street.
See how that works?
That's what happens when you expect to use one bike for two different kinds of riding.
Considering that dirt and street riding have different requirements (basically smooth and fast pavement versus slower and much bumpier off-road terrain), I think the WR-250R does a good job of it since it does allow you to ride in either area with the same bike.
So, where does the insulting thing start?
When the other WR-250R riders take my opinion as a way of saying that their bike sucks for off-road use and has cheesy suspension and weights way too much and is a slow dog in engine performance.
That's not really my message, but they take it that way because I had the nerve to say something other than the WR-250R is the best bike out there, when all I'm really doing is pointing out the differences in the two bikes.
Fueling this to a large degree is that, as far as I have seen, read, and experienced in real life activities, the vast majority of guys riding bikes like a WR-250R dual-purpose bike are very much casual off-road riders.
Even more casual than me, a guy who rode his WR-250FY off-road in the Pachaug rock pile for fun as the No. 1 goal, not to try making a loop in world record time.
Catch my drift?
Basically, these guys will stay firmly seated in the seat all day without standing on the pegs once, riding down smooth dirt roads (or narrow trails), and if they come upon a stream that needs to be crossed, they'll all stop and watch each other tackle the obstacle as if it were the main event of the day.
In other words, they are riding slowly and very casually.
Riding at this casual pace, I can see why somebody would wonder why I'll point out that the WR-250FY is a million times better at off-road riding since they aren't trying to push it in the least.
Another offshoot of these discussions is when the topic turns to how well the suspensions work.
Maybe I'll touch on that one later.
Off to another free-bee Saturday at jerk,
-John
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