Chris's Bike Blog » TTR250

Another "incident"

chris — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:02:14 +0000

Out with the TRF again and the TTR was performing brilliantly – so well in fact that my riding was definitely entering the exuberant category. Unfortunately, I chose the moment to be particularly exuberant as I skidded round a bend on a forest track only to encounter (would you believe it?) – a tree! Classic object fixation followed and I hit it. Bike not hurt, tree only lost a bit of bark, I damaged my right wrist in a manner as yet unknown. I did carry on riding for a bit but I am not sure this was sensible (two weeks from now and I am still hurting!). Still the riding was fun and the TR guys are good value so no real complaints. This accident has caused me to add “Injury” to my list of categories for Blog Posts!

Ride with Kent TRF

chris — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:25:34 +0000

I went out for my first ride with the Kent TRF guys today. I took the TTR250 and had a great ride that covered 140 miles. The work that Perry Leask did on the bike proved its worth. The front end handled very well and the bike felt much more controllable.

Suspension work

chris — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:40:07 +0000

The TTR has been with Perry Leask at HM Racing for the last couple of days. Earlier rides had shown the front end to be a nightmare – bouncing all over the place so much so that I wondered if the forks were completely buggered. Well, Perry sorted it out perfectly. The work involved new seals, oil and adujsutments plus a lot of measurements but no great drama with new parts etc. Perry’s workshop reminds me of the suspension shop at Lotus – it has the necessary pressure vessel for nitrogen charging etc. and is very clean. I have aprintout of the various settings before and after and to my untutored eye, it doesn’t say a great deal apart from the fact that I could have messed around my self or ever without getting it right.

The service wasn’t especially cheap but it has turned the bike into a usable machine which it wasn’t really before and in my view it wasn’t just money well spent, it was vital.

And the week started so well!

admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 06:14:26 +0000

With the new bike in my garage, I submitted it to a very close inspection – something that seemed both unnecessary and difficult to do with the Goldwing and the F800GS. In the case of the Goldwing, everything is hidden under acres of plastic and even the BMW needs quite a lot of stuff removing to get at things – try changing a spark plug! Plus of course, I bought these bikes new. By contrast, the simplicity of the TTR lends itself to care in the home workshop – even when the owner is not that experienced a mechanic.

Things seemed pretty good. I had the covers off the starter and rotor to check the starter gears for wear but couldn’t see any so that relieved me from worrying bout the slight noise the bike makes when switching it off – something I had been concerned might indicate wear in the sprag clutch. The rear brake pads looked as thought they could do with replacing so I ordered both front and back sets from Moto-Ward which arrived by post on Thursday. The day before, I had received another item – a bike lift with which I can lift all three bikes clear of the ground. With the TTR I can do it single handed but with the other two bikes, I need help. I steady the bike whilst dearly beloved pumps up the bike lift. Thus on Thursday, I was in good shape to change the brake pads, a task that proved very easy. I also got to test the alloy tyre lever cum ring spanner I had bought for the F800 as the rear wheel nut is the same 24mm size. The alloy lever had no trouble undoing the nut and appeared to suffer no distortion in the process – so perhaps it was worth the rather high price.

Yesterday, I was keen to bed the new pads in so went for a ride around the neighbourhood, taking in a few unsurfaced roads – they led me to think the front forks could do with some attention but I shall await the first real offroad experience (planned for the coming Sunday) before fiddling with them. All was going well until on the way home, a van did a u-turn in front of me with signaling. I slammed on the brakes but the front wheel locked and I went down hard. The van driver did at least show concern and claimed he ws a biker and said he had signalled – frankly I don’t think so. In any event, I managed to ride home OK but with a very sore hand, knee and ribs. It was the hand that hurt most and X-rays taken later at the A&E department of our local hospital showed I had broken my little finger. This was strapped up to a splint and I was sent on my not very merry way.

It has put paid to my weekend plans for sure. No doubt if I was 20 years old and a MotoGP star, I’d be out on the track ignoring the pains in hand, chest and knee and just getting on with the job – unfortunately anno domini has decreed that ain’t gonna happen. I just hope I’m back in shape for my next Wales trip planned for the middle of next month.

New bike!

admin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:13:10 +0000

Yes, I got another! The new one is a Yamaha TTR250R bought off the bay expressly for greenlaning. So far I have only ridden it home from the seller’s house but I plan to go off-road to Salisbury plain next weekend so it should get a good workout there. The bike is a 2004 model with 3000 miles on the clock and although 25 kilos heavier than the Honda CRF230 I was initially looking for, feels light enough nonetheless. It’s quite a tall bike – the same as the F800 GS actually but I hope much easier to deal with on some of the more difficult trails. At this stage, I guess my only reservations are whether the bike will have enough power and if I shall outgrow its capabilities before old age diminishes mine sufficiently as to need an even smaller lighter bike..

The design is pretty basic – air-cooled, carburetted with no fancy electronics, just what one needs if a bike has to be fixed in the middle of nowhere! Thus far I have adjusted a few things here and there, topped up the brake fluid front and rear (the pads need changing but as it’s Easter, I can’t order new ones before tomorrow. I had a side cover off to look at the starter motor shaft and idler gears (these can wear badly once the sprag clutch gets worn apparently) but everything looked pretty good to my relief. I have not adjusted any suspension settings and will wait until I’ve had my first off-road experience before touching them.

On the 100 mile ride home with the new machine, it managed 55-60mph on the motorway fairly readily so it will be good for getting to local trails not too far away. For going further afield, I shall be getting a trailer however as I don’t fancy riding all the way to say North Wales on this bike. Apart from anything else the seat is hard on the bum! I am going to try fitting the Airhawk to it for the ride down to Wiltshire and back. I can stuff it in my rucksack when actually riding the trails.