58 |JUNE 2017 http://www.adbmag.com.auENDURO TEST I 250 T SHOOTOUT
enduro
250
SHOOTOUT continues to pull right from
the bottom to the top of the
rev range.”
Of course, if you’re after
more punch out of the
motor, you can play around
with the differentpower-
valve springs and fine tune
it to your liking. Whether
you’re doing extreme
enduro or out blasting up
fire roads, there is plenty of
options to personalise the
EXC to suit you.
But the Kato was the only
bike in the test that didn’t
come with an ignition map
switch as standard. Like
the rest of the EXC range,
the 250 gets WP XPlor
suspension front and rear
and it offers a nice ride.
The 48mm USD fork isIn this dayand age, it’s
hard to believe that KTM
has gone out and rebuilt it’s
proven 250cc two-stroke.
The new engine is very
linear and produces very
rider-friendly, usable
power. The bike comes
with a new starter motor in
the bottom of the crankcase
and is much stronger and
more reliable than the
previous bolt-on.
For any diehard KTM
fan, there is one thing that
the 2017 two-strokeshave
that could have almost cost
it any chance of being a
contender and that is thejetting. For reasons that
perplexed our testers, they
changed from PWK36
Keihen to TMX38 Mikuni
carbies. The recent
announcement that Katos
(andpresumably Huskies)
will be injected next year
may have something to do
with this but the Mikuni
carbs are difficult to tune.
We spent the best part of
a morning fine tuning the
EXC’s carby, playing
around with different
needles, main and pilot
jets. It took a while but we
finally came to a setting
that worked well aroundour loop. Apart from the
carby, one of the most
notable features of the new
two-stroke Kato’s is t he
addition of a counter-
balancer shaft.
It’s thanks to this new
balancer that the 2017
250 EXC has almost no
vibration through the
handlebar. All of our
testers were impressed
with that. The new DDS
hydraulic clutch is also a
nice touch, and has a great
feel. Marty was surprised
with the power: “It’s not an
overly powerful engine, but
it is so smooth and just