For anyone looking at two-stroke dirt bikes,
there's plenty of choice and variety of engine sizes.
Take a look at what KTM has to offer in the 200 to 300cc bracket.
The 200EXC gets a lot of rave reviews but is surprisingly overlooked by many dirt riders.
As any experienced rider knows, outright power can actually slow you down.
And some of the biggest fans of the 200 are those who know they
can ride these faster and better in tight terrain.
The 200 has a completely different engine design to its bigger brothers,
which makes it significantly lighter.
Prior to 2009 it also had a smaller and lighter frame making it around 4 kg lighter,
and a real weapon in technical terrain.
Now that it shares the same frame as the bigger bikes, it's only about 2 kg lighter.
But it still feels much lighter, in part to less 'rotating mass'
but mainly because the power is easier to handle when riding hard.
This bike is great for tight difficult terrain. And for the rider who enjoys
riding 'on the pipe' with plenty of gear changes to keep the engine singing.
The low-end grunt is surprisingly good for such a small bike, and it can also
be beefed up with mods like shaving the cylinder head and an FMF gnarly pipe.
The 250EXC is pretty much identical to the 300, except for the top-end and CDI.
The surprising thing is it usually sells for close to a thousand dollars cheaper,
which also just happens to be how much it costs to buy the 300 conversion kit!
So some riders buy a 250, knowing they can get a 300 conversion kit if they want the extra grunt.
The piston kits are also significantly cheaper for the 250 then the 300.
The 250 definitely has more power than the 200 across the rev range.
But it's particularly noticeable at low revs and the power valve
springs transform the power characteristics.
The green spring results in a nice flat power curve, while the red spring
sees the bike leap into action with a motocross type power from 5700RPM on.
The yellow spring is in between these, and tends to be the favorite choice for the average rider.
The 250 has more than enough power,
and in fact there are riders who find the 300 too intimidating and may downsize as a result.
However, there are also very experienced riders
who prefer the 250 as it's easier to rev and ride like a motocross bike.
Like most two strokes, you can 'lug' the 250 around at incredibly low revs without stalling,
but it simply can't have the lowdown grunt of the 300.
It's true, there's no replacement for displacement!
Like the 200, you can pick up improved bottom end and mid-range power through mods such as
the FMF gnarly pipe, shaving the cylinder head, or fitting the SX headfrom the motocross range.
But seriously steep hills will usually see you changing down
a gear or slipping the clutch when the 300 probably still grunt away.
The 300EXC! This is definitely the torque monster.
It's got more grunt than the 250 but about the same top end power.
As already mentioned some riders find it a bit intimidating,
but it does come down to riding style as well.
Quite a few 300 riders simply lug the bike around like a four stroke,
keeping the revs low and not changing gear as often.
It has been said 300 works well for the lazy rider, and to some extent this is true.
But of course it's also the most popular engine size in extreme enduros because
the top riders have the skill to make the most of all that power.
Tt=he suspension on all three bike is pretty good if you are around 70 to 80 kg.
But after that you'll probably be making changes to suit you.
It would be hard to really make a wrong choice on these bikes as
there's so much you can do to set them up the way you want.
For example if you buy a 300 and find it a bit too powerful you can always use the soft map,
install the green spring, and even lower the compression if needed with bigger gaskets.
In the end you'll probably just need to get a test ride to know for sure which bike will suit.
And don't forget while KTMs are still very popular there are plenty of other
awesome enduro bikes coming out from the other European brands nowadays.