I only have 30 minutes experiance on the KTM 250 EXC-R, but I love it. My experiance is limited to older CR250´s and XR250s, and this bike is by far superior. I bought it for the woods capability - you know, wide ration transmission, weighted flywheel, good bottom end power... got tired of the whole motocross deal and the danger involved with the big jumps. This bike seems very light weight once you´re riding - and seems to go any way you point it. The suspension is superb - soaking up everything without passing it thru to the rider. These are rare bikes - the 400´s are much more popular... but this seems to be plenty powerful for the woods, and seems to have near as much as the cr250 when you get up in the power band. I know 4 strokes aren´t supposed to have power bands like 2 strokes, but this KTM sure seems to.