WHERE'S THE WR300R?
Yamaha dropped its 250 dual sport in 2021. Is a bigger-bore replacement on the way?
Yamaha dropped its 250 dual sport in 2021. Is a bigger-bore replacement on the way?
WHERE'S THE WR300R?
Yamaha dropped its 250 dual sport in 2021. Is a bigger-bore replacement on the way?
Back in 2008, Yamaha’s WR250R brought a sporty edge to the budget-conscious 250 dual sport class. The bike’s centerpiece was a fuel-injected liquid-cooled DOHC fourstroke 250cc single-cylinder engine with a downdraft-type straight intake, high-lift camshafts, large titanium intake valves, and a forged piston squeezing out an 11.8:1 compression ratio. An up-spec’d semi-double-cradle aluminum frame and a fully adjustable suspension with 10.6 inches of travel at each end were the finishing high-performance touches.
True, the 2020 WR250R’s $6,699 price was $1,300 more than the Kawasaki KLX250’s and $1,500 more than the Honda CRF250L’s, but the WR was closer to serious dirt bike territory than the red and green machines. So you can imagine the disappointment in fans of the class after reading a Yamaha press release stating the WR250R would not return for the 2021 model year.
We figured Yamaha’s quarter-liter dual sport might be slated for resurrection in the following year or two, possibly with more displacement to compete with the Honda CRF300L and Kawasaki KLX300. But when a new WR-R model was not included in Yamaha’s 2022 press release, we were left wondering more than ever why the WR250R had been dropped from the lineup and whether we could expect a WR300R anytime soon.
So we asked Yamaha those very questions. We came away with... Well, if not direct answers, at least some information about why a bike like the WR250R was dropped.
Yamaha says “global production efficiency” is the main reason the WR250R is no longer with us. Yamaha offers 40 different motorcycle and scooter models in the United States alone, and that number is supplemented by various bikes for the global market. It doesn’t always make business sense to continue producing every model while also adding new ones, and from time to time, difficult decisions must be made regarding which models to keep or retire. Unfortunately, the WR250R was subject to that process. And as to a WR300R coming down the pipeline? Yamaha, like most major manufacturers, doesn’t speculate or comment on new models or future product. We’ll all have to wait and see, though it would certainly make sense to offer a WR300R or similar model given the sharp rise in dual-sport-bike sales over the last 18 months.
Like many, we were sad to see the WR250R go. It takes with it a unique set of qualities. We’ll keep our fingers crossed in hopes that it will return to the Yamaha lineup someday, whether as a 250, a 300, or perhaps an even larger version. Imagine a street-legal YZ/WR450F, built along the lines of Honda’s CRF450RL dual sport and competing against KTM’s 500 EXC-F and Beta’s 500 RR-S. It occurs to us that “WR450R” has a nice ring to it. For now, though, we’ll just have to continue dreaming.
Andrew Oldar
