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I do that all the time just getting my leg over the damn things.

 Im 6'2" so thats not much of an issue, but ya they are tall.  

Im still getting use to it, 4stroke is a bit more work in the tight stuff...

I’m finding the exact opposite. I’m way faster on my 501 then I am on my 300 it feels like.

The dirt has been pretty fantastic around here the last two weeks. Traction everywhere.

I need to possibly change the gearing.  This bike does not like to do anything slow, which is cool but i dont have unlimited amount of land to play on.  So, its brap, ok now what

I'm a pretty new rider. I've been out about a half dozen times. Have the "fabled" street legal 2018 KTM 300 XC-W. Got it out this past weekend for the trout opener here in PA. I'm looking for folks who want to ride slow and teach a new guy how to ride - if there's anyone around!

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No offense, but if you're a new rider and want to ride slow, a 300 2-stroke is the wrong bike for you.

No offense, but you don’t know what your talking about.

300 xc-w is an excellent woods bike and a grown man is more then capable of learning on one.

Sure, for an experienced rider it's a fantastic bike.

Only a fool thinks age has anything to do without ability to learn. Maybe that's you since you seem to know it all.

According to the poster, that's not him.

I bought my first bike at 36 and it was a 300 xc-w. I started riding slow. So yeah I know exactly what the poster is talking about.

I received quite a bit of advice that this was the bike to buy for a 270# grown man learning to ride at 28. I have experience riding ATVs and in the street (Harley Davidsons), which doesn't translate a ton aside from clutch control. I've looped it once; trying to learn to wheelie, and really it wasn't that big a deal. Since then, I've had Racetech do the suspension, unplugged the map wire (putting the bike on the mild setting), and put the green powervalve spring. Nice smooth linear power.

People who don’t ride single think a 300 2 stroke is a fire breathing dragon. Yeah, they can be, but they can also be a super mellow trail rig that you can ride the fuck out of.

I’m like you, 260# grown ass man. Can my 300 kick my ass? Hell yeah it can, but I can also ride it like it’s a one eyed Honduran hooker with daddy issues. They are the Swiss Army knife of bikes. You can Moto them, ride an xc race, and if your a sadist do some hard enduro, all on a bike you can trail ride on Sunday and rebuild for under $300.

I Wish you lived in oregon, I would take you for a ride.

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The little Yamaha XT250, great for the sand and swamps around Northwest Florida.

Nice! Love the 250’s.

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I am a similar boat. I have been riding on the road for years, but just got into dirt.
I went from an XT225 to a 300 xc-w, it is an amazing bike.

where did you get the info on unplugging the map wire and doing the powervalve spring.

I am thinking of swapping out my sprockets as I am getting more into the single track and I have never gone higher than 4th gear.

Got out to Rothrock State Forest and rode some of the gravel fire roads there! Did a little over 50 miles! Had almost a half tank left. Bike does better than I would have expected!


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@virgilc1984 - what year is your XCW? I can provide assistance however you'd like

It is a 2016, thanks.

Nice bike btw

@virgilc1984

Map wire:

The CDI/ ECU whatever you want to call it on your bike, has two maps. The stock map, and a "mild" map. The mild map is intended for slippery or extreme hard pack conditions. Some guys (like me) like the super mellowed hit of the mild map, because it makes the bike build power in a more "predictable" way.

Theres two ways to do it. One is the easy and cheap way. The other is the money and time way.

If you take your tank off - there is a black/grey wire with a connector in the harness spot. If it is currently plugged in, the stock map is active. If you unplug it, the mild map is active. A simple SPST switch can toggle the map. For now, I simply unplugged mine, taped it up so water can't get in, and placed it back where I got it from.

The "money" way, is to order the factory KTM power parts map selector, which mounts to your bars and can be toggled any time the bike is below 3000 RPM. The factory switch is (IIRC) $80 - but it's indestructible by the looks of it. Trailtech makes a plastic version, that works the same way - and I think it's $40

The power valve spring is another thing entirely.

Red - the "demon" weak spring; makes the bike much wilder. The power and hits harder and faster

Yellow - the stock spring

Green - the "mild" stiff spring. It makes the bike more "tame", the power hits later and comes on slower

Heres two good videos on the subject.

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There is also a blue spring that falls between yellow and red. You can also tune your power valve using the dolly adjuster on the spring cover.

Yes. However I wanted to start with baby steps lol.

Couple of bolt ons added today. Hope they work as good as they look!

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I've been enjoying my new Yamaha, just wish I could get out more. It's got a tall seat, my favorite bend Pro Taper Evo bars, a one tooth smaller rear sprocket, and a MX skid plate. I've set the sag and played with the tuner app a bit, but otherwise it's stock. This thing is so easy to ride compared to any motocross bike I've had before.

This. The 300s can be lugged all day long. I'm 51 and 150lbs and have ridden one without ripping my shoulders out of their sockets

I'm seriously considering on a CRF300L (or Rally) for a fun bike/weekend adventurer.

No more Kawi? All my Kawi buddies down here switched to BluCru too.

I almost bought a new KX, but Yamaha's power tuner app won me out. Makes my phone the tuner and I connect to the bike with WiFi. The KX tuning tool is $700 or you pay $100+ to get the bike tuned by someone with the tool. I can play with this in the pits and it was free. That and you can store two maps on the bike and switch while riding with a button as opposed to the coupler system Kawi uses. On a 250F being able to tailor the bike to be either a screamer or a mid range grunt is handy when you ride a variety of tracks from tight to wide open. That and the awesome suspension stock. This bike is so good off the showroom floor.

Did some trail riding with a couple friends at one of their places. It's a pretty fun loop with some small jumps, and a mixture of faster sections and tighter technical stuff. It's tough riding a full moto bike with stiff suspension compared to something a little softer, but it was still a ton of fun. My buddy on his Husky FC350 was chasing me around for a bit. We are pretty evenly matched on a MX track, but he is always a little faster in the woods because he rides woods a lot. I almost never do. Maybe once or twice a year.

Tight single track with no bark busters. Good times. This makes me want a WR250F as well.

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Just got this. So far, it is a blast even with my fat ass on it.

Nice bike!

You're silly.
That's a 300 XC-W.
It's the perfect bike to learn on.
You can adjust the exhaust valve to have it open later so there's not a real hard bottom end hit, you can disconnect the map wire to access the mellow map, you can change out the throttle grip to the slow turn adjuster and then you have a real mellow bike that's great for a beginner.

What he needs is seat time and to go riding with guys with more experience than he has.
A riding school can't hurt.
I went to a Shane Watts Dirtwise school here in Washington back in 2011.
I had a great time and I learned a lot even after riding for 40+ years.

Explain. How do I tell which throttle grip I have?

If I were you I would mess around with the mapping and the springe before I changed out a sprocket.

You need to get to KTM Talk and to the 300 two stroke forum in Thumpers in Adventure Rider.
https://www.ktmtalk.com/
https://advrider.com/f/threads/the-ktm300-thread.540791/

Google up "map wire KTM 300".
You can buy a map switch from KTM or an aftermarket map switch from Sicass Racing (for example).
There are two powervalve "springs" you can adjust on the KTM 2 strokes.

One adjusts the "carriage assembly", this spring determines when the powervalve opens up.  
Adjust it in and the power valve opens up earlier in the RPM range, adjust it out and the power valve opens up later in the RPM range.
The sooner the powervalve opens the sooner you get power to the ground.
You don't get that "1981 Suzuki RM 125 power band hit" you get almost instant power in the lower RPM range without the hit.
The later you open it up the "mellower" the power is off of the bottom end.
The trade-off is that the power valve opens up later in the RPM range and then you do get that old school power hit.

The other spring is the power valve spring.
KTM makes 4 different colored springs.
Red is soft.
Yellow is medium.
Green is stiff.
Brass is a progressive wound spring (it's the spring in the fuel injected 300's).
If you want the powervalve to open earlier in the powerband and open up faster you put in the red spring.
If you want the powervalve to open later in the powerband and to open up slower you use the green spring.

The spring rate (green, yellow, red) determines the RPM range over which the exhaust valve opens.

The preload adjustment of the spring carriage determines the RPM at which the flapper begins to open.

The "spring preload" is set at the factory to allow the power valve to open at 5800 RPM's.

If you turn the preload adjuster Allen head adjuster out one turn it will allow the valve to start opening 150 rpm's sooner.

If you turn the preload adjuster Allen head adjuster in one turn it will allow the valve to start opening 150 rpm's later.

The longer the power valve is closed the harder the hit will be since the engine has built up more RPM's.

The red (soft) spring allows the valve to open quickly while green (stiff) spring makes the valve open slowly.

The auxiliary springs (Red, Yellow, Green) determine how fast the power valve opens and at what RPM the valve will be fully open.

The green spring is the stiffest of the three (all things being equal and the engine is the way that KTM set it up at the factory) the green spring allows the power valve to start to open at 5600 RPM's and is fully open at 8400 RPM's.

The yellow spring is the middle stiffest of the three, it allows the power valve to start to open at 5600 RPM's and is fully open at 7900 RPM's.

The red spring is the softest of the three, it allows the power valve to start to open at 5600 RPM's and is fully open at 7200 RPM's.

You can also change the pipe.
An FMF Fatty will give you more bottom end than the stock pipe, a lot more midrange and top end.
An FMF Gnarly will give you a lot more bottom end, a lot more midrange, but will sign off on the top end really early with no overev.

On my 2019 XCW 300 I have an FMF Gnarly with the carriage adjuster turned in 2 turns, the red spring installed and a GET ECU set up by Slavens for my riding and altitude.
I have a switch for the two loaded maps.
I also run the quick throttle adjuster.
I went back to stock gearing after I had gone up two teeth in the rear.

What year 300 do you have?
Starting in 2017 KTM included two different throttle tube adjusters with their two strokes.
You have to have the ODI lock-on grips.
There is a black reel and a gray reel.
On thee 300 the gray reel was installed in the bike at the factory, while the black reel is in the briefcase.
The outer diameter of each reel determines how much throttle cable is pulled per rotation.
The larger the diameter of the reel, the less the rider has to twist the grip to open the throttle body’s butterfly all the way open.
This is called a quick-turn throttle.
Conversely, the smaller the diameter of the reel, the farther the rider has to turn the throttle to get full power.
At the KTM factory, the preferred reel is snapped onto the ODI throttle tube via the heptagon-shaped cutout.
The 300 gets the small 36.5mm gray reel so that the low and midrange power can be metered better.
You can install the larger 39.5mm black quick-turn reel so that the power can be accessed quicker.

Go look at a KTM microfiche (Like the one from Munn Racing or RMATV).

I have a 2018 XCW, in the briefcase there wasn't another cam like listed on the microfiche. I'll check tomorrow to see which one is in. Grey is the "milder" cam?

Yup, grey is mild.

Rode South Fork MX yesterday. It was a hot one but my buddies and I had a blast. We haven't battled together like this in a long time. The track was excellent.

I got my 2021 300 XC earlier this year and then my wife got the KTM itch so we landed her a 2022 150 XC-W last week, she came off of a TTR-230 and couldn't be happier. I'll be honest, it's a sweet bike. It screams on the pipe and I suspect that it has a lot of low end power bottled up under the power valve setting from the factory, but I'm not going to touch that unless my wife starts asking for more power. She knows we can adjust the preload on it when the day comes that she wants the power. Our girl also has the little Stacyc 12" KTM model, so it's a family thing now!

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Next time you plan to head to SFMX let me know, I'll meet you there.

Yeah, will do.

Some footage from Saturday at Breezewood Proving Grounds. The track was really good in the afternoon.

I'm 50 and just bought my first motorcycle.
I got a CRF 250L Rally. I'm digging it so far!

Nice.  Perfect first bike.  I ride with a guy who has one and he takes that thing into some pretty hairy situations and the bike performs flawlessly.

How are you digging the new #BluCru?