I put the spec. sheet for the 1985 LT250R in my pictures. That and the tire gage is all I have left. I will try to put the rest of the brochure up later.

 

It is true the 86 only has 5 gears. But even with that, mine will still do about 65 mph. I like the bike. I bought an 2003 banshee and I still think I'm faster on the track with the 250r. Its a lot lighter and easy to jump. They do seem to crack by the foot peg though. I had to weld the frame around both of my pegs. Its seems to hold up well now.

 

Let me look around here I'm shure I still have the magazine when the LT250 came out. The top speed was around 50 to 55. I had put the LT250 back on the trails one last time in late 1986 when I had just got my 1987 Kawasaki Mojave. The LT was just alittle faster than the Mojave. As far as handeling and jumping the Mojave was a lot better quad it would turn faster lap times every time. If you do not belive me look in my pictures there is a picture of the two standing side by side.

 

Harw, give it a rest man. My Brother has a Banshee with roughly the same mods as my 85. I am faster around the track and most trails. The only place he has me is any kind of extended straitaway where he can bang the gears. Switch riders and it is the same thing. I have ridden Warriors and 400ex's, and my LT is definately faster, no questions asked. These bikes aren't perfect. Anything that is 17 years old will need a little lovin sooner or later. But there are a ton of these things still around. They are durable other than a few problem areas around the frame. FOr a grand you would be very hard pressed to find a faster, lighter bike.

 

Wow!!! I don't know what some of you guys are smokin but my '86 is stock except for the LRD pipe and it will walk and talk all over my friends Z and run with his 416EX at our home-made track AND B4 I switched my tires, my top speed was 72.3MPH (with the stock 22s) according to my brothers radargun.

Some of you need to go to rehab or somethin............


later
Superstar

 

I have to completely disagree with HARW. Maybe his was slow because the 85's came with a 32mm carb. My quad has a pipe, k&n, and milled head and I can easily pull away from mojave's and running against a 200x is ridiculous. My buddy used to have a 200x and on a really tight track we could have some fun races, but if there were any straightaways, I was gone. I'm running 14/42 gearing and I can just about keep up with a k&n'd Raptor. The short front shocks definitely blow, but with HSD's conversion bracket you can put on the longer shocks from the 87+ LT's. I've owned my bike since '88 and have never had any tranny or clutch problems, and it was on it's first piston until a couple years ago. The only way I can imagine that he could kill four LT's in three months was if he didn't know that you had to premix the gas.

The 87+ were definitely better machines and could be made much faster with the right mods, but the 85-86 were not the POS that they are being made out to be.

 

The 200X's I was talking about were built by Powroll and Sparks. Those two co. were the main motor builders at that time. The four of us could not keep our LT250's alive no mater what we did. The other guy that had his, left it out side all year round got washed when it rained never did a thing to it and he never had a problem. Most of the tracks that I use to run at the guys and the grils that ran the LT250 all had about the same problems. The 1987 was not alot better. Now the 1988 to 1992 was the best years for them. If you are going to spend your money go for the 1988 to 1992 LT250 you will be alot happer than if you get a 85 to 87 LT250.

 

My 86 aint no rocket, but it can hold its own everywhere except a long strait where your getting over its top speed. Maybe a stock 86 250r did 55, but mine does 65 maybe a little more. My LT is pretty quick and does get up to its top speed good. Not good enough to race other two strokes ( except on the track), but I have put a bunch of four strokes in the dust. Here is a list of quads I have beat on my lt250r, and quads that have beat me.

have beat

250ex
400ex
z400
350 warrior
blaster
300ex

beat by

banshee
raptor
yfz450
predator
92 LT250r
87LT500r

 

hey dirtbikekiller how bad did the quadzilla and banshee beat u by?????

 

I raced 1 Quadzilla and a bunch of Banshees on my 86. There were a few older less modded Banshees (possibly stock but cant say for sure) that just walked away from me. The really modded Banshees and the Quadzilla flat smoked me. Mine did around 65 bone stock, it did 60 with smaller tires (20") and mods but got there a lot faster.