2021 XF250 Owner Just Joined

[Ichiroku Chan]

Lurked threads for a year, just joined yesterday.

Restarted riding this year after 10+ year hiatus. Previous ride was an ancient VN750. After doing some mtb single-track for work, decided I wanted a dual sport. Years ago looked at Roketa 200 but ex always found something else to spend tax $ on. Almost picked up a KLR650 last year, but felt it was too heavy for offroading. This year decided to get a new SSR XF250 after reading about positive user experiences here. While pricier than I was expecting, was still $2k cheaper than comparable Suzuki and $3k cheaper than Kawasaki.

Purchased in March and 1st order of business was to replace motard rubber with some proper Kendas. Babied it until out of break in period by driving it to work 3-4 days per week. After that hit a trail in one of our state parks with a friend who is a much more experienced dirt rider. Real eye opening experience. Was a nice feeling riding past guys who had to trailer their rides to and from the park. Continued using it as a commuter over the summer.

Continued riding up until this past weekend, getting too cold here in Ohio. 5500 km on the clock. Only 3 problems were a broken fuel guage (haven't bothered tinkering with it), broken spoke (that took 3 months to get a replacement) and what felt like a problem in the headset, which turned out to be a lack of grease. What was in there looked like dried up old Cosmoline. Chain took forever to stop stretching. Feels like the mixture needs adjusted as well as it pops a lot when coming off the throttle and fuel economy has been less than 50mpg. Reliability has been 100%.

Overall have been very happy with the bike, to the point where I am looking online for a used one to have for my kid to learn on and/or as a complete set of spares. Looking forward to warmer weather in the spring when I hope to do some touring/camping with it.