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2011 Kawasaki KX250F First Ride Photo Gallery

The KX250F comes with Renthal handlebars, black rims, petal-style brake rotors and a new gripper seat that we found excellent.

We ride the 2011 Kawasaki KX250F at Budds Creek for our First Ride on the new fuel-injected motocross bike.

It was pretty obvious that Mike had no major qualms with the handling. Henry Hill and the rest of Budds Creek was a big, rolling playground.

Whether it’s a lack of a second spring or perhaps less total oil volume, the fork does seem to have a lighter motion.

Changing the amount of preload on the fork is simple and it makes a huge difference in handling. Both of our riders preferred to back the clicker slightly off the stock setting which gave the front end more traction.

Nothing caught our boots or hindered us in any way. Bodywork allows for easy contact with the machine and the rider triangle fit both of our testers without problem.

Big jumps are no problem for the suspension. Our pro tester opted to stiffen everything up a bit and was happy for the rest of the day.

Pro tester Mike Henderson was immediately comfortable on the new 2011 Kawasaki KX250F.

We played around with the new adjustable preload feature also and it was crazy to feel the difference on how much 3mm shorter made on the front end going into corners

The kickstart lever charges the DFI system with three rotations of the crank.

Blue anodized fork
caps look trick and are simple to use. Left side is compression, right is preload.

A new header and muffler are part of the engine
upgrades, but it's still loud and raspy.

The spring
preload adjustment.

Kawasaki calls its fuel delivery system DFI (digital fuel injection). Engineers basically sourced the setup from the KX450F, though it has different settings in the ECU. This is the fuel pump.

The Uni-Trak shock isn’t nearly as mind-blowing as the front end, but new internal damping pairs it with the updated fork.

This aluminum injector flows more fuel than the one on the KX450F.

Airflow is increased to the motor with a 10% larger air boot.

Swapping the carburetor was just one of nearly 30 changes for the updated model. Plenty of internal engine mods went with the FI.

One fork controls the spring and the other
manages damping circuits

Kawasaki claims that suspension work should be simpler and potentially cheaper since only one fork could potentially need service. A revalve would only require half the shims, half the oil, etc.

When the rider straddles the bike, Kawi recommends 45-55mm of sag on the front end. From there you can tweak the clickers to meet your needs for particular track settings.

MSRP for the new model is $7299.

Kawasaki’s press material states that the new suspension is targeted at “race-experienced riders” but that doesn’t mean that entry-level or lesser skilled pilots won’t gain from the new technology.