Why aren't RMX's more popular in America?

[Gezza1982]

Just wondering because in Australia, they were the average man's trail weapon of choice. They were way more popular than KDX's, XR's and European bikes. Unfortunatly they stopped producing them in 2001, around the same time the 4 strokes took over. It's like you guys missed out on something really good. For me I had the choice between a KDX and an RMX. I was actually leaning towards the KDX, until I found a mint 99 model RMX with full road rego. I'm really glad I bought the RMX as it's good so much user friendly power. This bike just doesn't bog down! I've seen dyno's where the stock RMX is producing twice as much power at 5k rpm as a hopped up KDX. Towards the end the KDX catches up a little but the RMX still winds up with a good 6-7 more horsepower. I'm not bagging out the KDX, as I'm sure it's a great bike, but I can't imagine it's as good as an RMX. The only down sides of the RMX is the twitchy front end and a bit more weight.

 

[Matt90GT]

Most of the KDX250s and RMX250s in the states took a lot of work to get them running like they should have from the factory. They were pretty corked up. Also they added some weight to the bikes over the MX bikes. Yamaha made the WR 250 stroke from 89-98 also.

 

[placelast]

Corporate Suzuki saw their biggest market segment (CA?) in jeopardy with the enviro. regs. coming and decided not to update the bike; too bad as it was a good all-around bike. I believe it was a financial decision which killed it.

 

[tracetrimble]

Personally, I would take and RMX250 or pre-98 WR250 over any bike on the market right now for trail use. I've been looking for a nice specimen of either one for a while now, they're hard to find.

 

[Gezza1982]

It's a shame... mostly because there's no wealth of information about them on the net, like the KDX has. This bike deserved a stronger following. It's not the best looking bike out there, but once you put a sticker kit on it and replace some of the dated looking ADR gear with acerbis stuff, they look nice.

I've seen some pictures of US RMX's on the net, and they seem to come with a huge muffler / spark arrestor. I imagine that would have killed power big time. We got a smaller MX style muffler, which works ok. Some people cut open the expansion chamber and remove sound deadening for a bit more punch.

I think the WR's were critized for being a bit savage to ride. I mean they're were basically a YZ, with a flywheel weight and a wide ratio gearbox, probably a few other things too, but nothing major. Would annihilate any new wr250f in a straight line though :p

 

[SCVZRX]

I just bought a 97 RMX250ST. Its a JDM bike thats fully road legal here in california and I love it.

 

[showa]

Those bikes are huge.

 

[tracetrimble]

I saw a JDM model in NorCal pop up on the bay of e a couple times lately. Is that the one you bought? Looked like a really nice bike. Are those premix, or do they have oil injection? That's the only hassle with dual sport smokers.