2019 Yamaha WR250R Rally

The first event attracted 38 owners, while the second event saw 60 riders of the versatile Yamaha trail bike congregate at Cessnock, NSW, for a two-day 500km adventure ride. Now Greg Yager and the Ride ADV team are aiming to entice the biggest ever collection of WR250Rs to congregate in one spot.

“To be honest, we have no idea what the world record number of WR250Rs is so if anyone knows, please get in touch. Otherwise, we’ll be claiming this as a world record,” jokes rally organiser, Yager.
This year’s event will once again be hosted by dirt bike legend, Chris Watson of Chris Watson Motorcycles in Cessnock, NSW, on March 22 to 24. There is still time to enter here. The Rally covers prime trails around the Hunter region including the Watagan, Olney and Yengo State Forests. Prizes are awarded for a number of categories, including best bike and furthest travelled. Now in its third year, the event attracts a wide range of riders from teenagers to octogenarians and of both sexes.

Why the WR250R?
The WR250R Rally is the brainchild of Greg Yager from Ride ADV and ADVWorx in Dural, NSW. After experiencing the capability of the small bore adventure bike on a double Simpson Desert crossing and a number of other adventures, Yager started preparing bikes for his customers. “People tend to underestimate the WR250R. When they join a Ride ADV adventure and see how hard they go is when they change their minds. We now have a really good ADV set-up dialled in for the bike with our partners Adventure Moto, Pirelli, Barkbusters and Teknik Suspension,” explains Yager. “We’ve clocked up over 350,000km on these bikes and have never had an issue with any of them. One of our WR250Rs has 57,000km on it, including seven Simpson crossings, and we haven’t even had to adjust the valves. It’s still running the original spark plug,” says Yager. “These bikes can take an unbelievable amount of abuse. I’ve never come across such a reliable machine of any capacity.”