Well a couple friends and I have decided to take a trip out to St. Anthony in June. And I will be taking my newly obtained 87' 250x. I will be the slug of the group. Although I haven't had a real chance to get to play with it yet do to the white stuff. Few questions for ya.

First off how's everyone like SA?
And what should I do to prep my 250x?
How well will the little 250x do in the sand (I will have a set of sand stars on the rear)?
Also going from 1000 feet elevation to 5000 feet. Which way should I rejet it up or down?
I've heard from a couple peaple to strip the quad down of any necessary weight. Is it necissary?
Also should I regear with droping the tooth on the front?

Current mods: Keihn carb, Uni filter, older Cobra exhaust (Looking to replace soon with trail legal full exhaust), Nerf bars

I know I have more questions but thats all I can think of right now. I can't wait!

 

Not familiar with SA, so I can't comment on that.....

An elevation change of 4,000' is nothing. We take sea level jetted quads to 11,000' all the time, and it isn't any big deal. I doubt you will notice much difference, but if you want to rejet you would want to go smaller to lean it out. Or, cut some holes in the airbox lid or just take it off.

Weight is your enemy in the sand. I would go with buffed down Skat-Traks in favor of the heavier Sand Stars.

The little X is pretty torquey. Might be fine without a gearing change.

 

Ordered a set kenda gecko's last night. I know there not everyones favorite. But they were the cheapest. And being this trip may be the only time I get to visit a sand dune. I'll probably end up selling them afterwards.

I'm looking for new exhaust. Any suggestions for the 250x?

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: STANG302

Ordered a set kenda gecko's last night. I know there not everyones favorite. But they were the cheapest. And being this trip may be the only time I get to visit a sand dune. I'll probably end up selling them afterwards.



I'm looking for new exhaust. Any suggestions for the 250x?</end quote></div>

Your going to hate the Gecko's they will dig like no other. And the 250x at St. Anthony's is going to struggle. The dunes are huge and the riding is fast. I would sell it and buy something faster if I was you if that is possible. Go get a TRX450 for around $3000 and you'll never look back. Good luck with it all.

 

I finally found the info I was looking for. There was a long thread on gecko's. And all i've heard or read on them is that there junk. With few people liking them. But after reading a post from raptorron. I feel alot better about my dicision going with the geckos on my 250x.

Here's his quote:
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>I do not work for kenda and am not brand loyal to any tire or ATV mfr. I have owned almost every sport quad or 3 wheeler made from kids quads to custom snowmobile powered quads and bring 20+ years of sand duning experience to this forum. Your statement that the gecko is "the worst sand tire known to man kind" is way off the mark in my opinion. And further to say that anyone giving such advise does not know what they are talking about is a very bold statement. I have not been to St A's yet (going next month) and have seen pics of choke cherry hill (VERY impressive).
Would I say geckos would be a good tire or not for that hill-No!! Can I give general advise about a tire-YES.
In my opinion the gecko is a very decent sand tire for moderately powered recreational quads(warriors,blasters,300ex).
I had a brand new stock '01 raptor(1 tooth smaller counter spr.) that I put 20x10x10 8 paddle haulers on, when I would ride some fast trails at Oregon with high berms I usually hit the crest of the berm, kick the back end around(break traction)...this raptor would not do this with haulers. My raptor is gone now but I have a friend with a stocker, and recomended geckos. He rides the trails and these tires are well suited for this application and riding type(they climb much better than stock tires...not as good as haulers.Keep in mind this is bone stock, NOT a built 720 !! We have several blasters with Identical motor work(pipe,carb,K&N,porting etc) ... some with haulers, some with sand sharks, some with geckos. Bottom line: the haulers climb out of steep "tree holes"(straight up-no run)better, geckos do very well and make it out of most everything, sand sharks do not do as well as the geckos. We back this up when we drag race on the flats and hills. The haulers lead by a bike length or 2 depending on the hill(haulers are alot of paddle for blasters) , geckos are very close, sand sharks bring up the rear by 1-2 bike lengths. In higher h/p machines the differance would be huge. This weekend we had 3 banshees not identical but all very healthy(1 was a 400 t-rex powervalve with lectrons) the 400 t-rex had sharks the 350 had haulers...guess who won !! the 350 did easily !! (the t-rex could not get any traction). I would say the geckos hook up a little better than sharks but not as good as haulers. Geckos should not even be considered for mega h/p machines (built raptors,banshees,ds650 etc. These are serious quads=serious traction). My point is: for the average "Joe rec rider" with a mostly stock machine they will increase your traction significantly over knobbies and many of the budget sand tires. With the lower h/p machines, the h/p vs. traction factor becomes better with geckos. Haulers are heavy on the traction and need more h/p to use them effiiciantly.
Any way... to say they are "the worst sand tire known to man-kind".... Have you ever tryed the cheng shin dune slider???
Or the old kenda straight paddle(dune runner??) ?? I beleive the geckos are better than sand sharks,devils too(for most applications).
They are a good recreational tire for low h/p sport bikes. This could also change greatly depending on how/what you
ride(wet,dry,fine,coarse,hill shooter,dragracer,trails-recreational rider).
I do not want to start a flame war, but in my opinion the gecko is a good recreational tire for 40-50% less money than a skat, same money as a sand shark !!! IF it is used as it should be...low h/p recreational type riding. Any way I will see how the kids do with the blasters at St. A's on the big hills !!! Can't wait !! Check my gallery out to see what I mean by "tree shooting".


For all you Gecko non believers..... My 11 year old son pulled choke cherry several times on a blaster with gecko paddles if you still are a non believer, I have pictures and witnesses. I also saw a predator w/ geckos pull choke cherry several times with no problems. My son also pulled thunder mtn. and did the left side of devils dune(easy route) that was one tough hill !!! This was the only blaster to pull choke cherry to the top (that I witnessed).....several had to take "the road of shame".
****What happened to all of kingraptors posts-talkin smack about gecko's ???? Looks like some creative editing !!!!*****
</end quote></div>

 

I also am not a big gecko fan. They didn't work for anything that we had but I would put them on my kids quads with out a problem. But I agree that for the price they are ok. I just don't perfer them. If I was to buy a v-paddle I would get Sand Stars they are about the same price and IMO work alot better. But that is just one persons opinion. I also think your bike should do pretty good out there I have seen many 250X and they seem to do ok. I haven't seen them on the big hills but if a blaster can make it up Choke so can you.

Good luck and have fun and be safe St.A's is a blast.

 

I have a hard time with the Blaster going up Choke story but oh well, I guess with an adult riding it's a different story. The blaster wouldn't have a snowballs chance in hell of making it up chokecherry with an adult. I have two buddies that have Gecko's. One has 2 400ex's. One of the ex's has Gecko's and one has knobbies. The one with the knobbies out climbs the gecko's every time at sand mountain and that's with me on it outweighing my buddy by at least 50lbs.. I also have a buddy with a blaster that has Gecko's and He is way slower because of them. This is just my experience with them. Like I said St.A's is way fun but way BIG!! so you might not be able to ride the big dunes.

 

Well I mounted the gecko's yesterday. And gave them a try in the snow. First off yes they are heavy! On feel alone they are close to double the weight of my knobies. And they did at times bog the motor down quite a bit requiring more throttle than normal. So I will be bringing a 12 tooth front sprocket to try in the sand.

It hasn't snowed in some time now. So theres a nice crust on top. My knobys would chew right threw would not stay on top. The geckos had good flotation but if they broke through they had a hard time getting through the upper crust. At one point riding on the snow drift along our fence line. I broke through and it darn near threw me over the handle bar. Wich latter on to day I did end up taking a spill sliding sidways on the side of the hill and hitting a ridge from my previous tracks a few days ago.

Over all I liked them. One thing I didn't like at least in the snow. Is they didn't like to be over spun, you ended up going no where. I can't wait for june to get out to SA. But for now I'm going to keep them on and hope for a good fresh snow fall. So I can give them another try.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: cynick

I also am not a big gecko fan. They didn't work for anything that we had but I would put them on my kids quads with out a problem. But I agree that for the price they are ok. I just don't perfer them. If I was to buy a v-paddle I would get Sand Stars they are about the same price and IMO work alot better. But that is just one persons opinion. I also think your bike should do pretty good out there I have seen many 250X and they seem to do ok. I haven't seen them on the big hills but if a blaster can make it up Choke so can you.



Good luck and have fun and be safe St.A's is a blast.</end quote></div>

There's no way I can believe a 250X would make it up Choke. I used to own one. I also go to St. A's every year (6 years in a row), and can assure you that some 400 EXs can't make it up.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: reconranger

Not familiar with SA, so I can't comment on that.....



An elevation change of 4,000' is nothing. We take sea level jetted quads to 11,000' all the time, and it isn't any big deal. I doubt you will notice much difference, but if you want to rejet you would want to go smaller to lean it out. Or, cut some holes in the airbox lid or just take it off.



Weight is your enemy in the sand. I would go with buffed down Skat-Traks in favor of the heavier Sand Stars.



The little X is pretty torquey. Might be fine without a gearing change.</end quote></div>

I notice a HUGE difference on the YFZ at St' Anthonies compared to the Oregon coast (St A's is around 5000 ft in elevation), and when I had the 350R, I HAD to drop down at least 2 main jet sizes, or it wouldn't run on the top end.. just blubber... lol

To me, even the YFZ feels a little doggish at St. A's compared to the coast. For instance, I can easily launch hard in 2nd gear at the coast, where at St' A's there is no chance of that happening.

To yes, one can get away with not re-jetting (at least on a 4-stroke), however, I believe that you will want to re-jet in order to get the most power possible, esp when talking about taking the 250X to St. A's.
Just my opinion,