woods upgrades

So I bought my 96 kx250 with all new crank, bearings and seals, hodrods rod and bearing, piston and ring. I am not steering toward engine work but other woods applications. I am putting a kickstand onto it (already have it), and I am in the process of finding good metal handguards. I believe my gearing is decent where it is, nice grabby bottom end that pulls through the range better than I at first expected it to.

Here we come to my very small problem. I ride woods/cross country. In the woods the bike handles alright, but the cross country part, not so much. I am already equipped with the fmf powercore2 silencer, and was wondering if the combination of an fmf Gnarly pipe and dropping a tooth or two on the rear sprocket will solve my problem. I am just looking for a little more out of each gear at no expense of bottom end. An experienced racer that I ride with is always telling me that a flywheel weight will remove some roost power and get my tire to bite, thus making an easier ride. How do these upgrades sound?

Sorry forgot to add that I got it with pro-action suspension. My suspensions all set up.

No trouble with handling, stock pipe and fmf silencer. Not sure about gearing.The problem I have is I ride in both tight woods and in the wide open. I'm always topping out on the long runs when my friends in front of me are just getting out of 3rd gear. The handling is like night and day when compared to the bikes stock suspension. I am just wondering if I'll retain the grunt by countering a taller gearing with the gnarly.