Hey all I'm Metalbender(Mark) from the corner of Iowa and I'm a siding guy, or more specifically a metal bender. My favorite part of the job is bending flat coil stock into a custom wrap for home exteriors. You will find me on THE other forum as well.
Last summer I got my son a 2002 TTR125 to step him up from his CRF50 and was very impressed with the little things performance and durability. So far it's been jetted, piped and suspension redone along with a CDI box. Scoots along so well I started looking at larger TTR's for myself and came across a 2004 TTR250 on craigslist for $1200. One 65yo owner that only put 370 miles on it so he claimed. IDK with the reset on it and all but it looked like new with wheelie damage to the fender and he confirmed that is what had happen and the reason for selling it. He decided a quad would better suit him. This suited me just fine. Loaded it up and have done nothing to it but ride it since. Well.. that is except allowed it to run while on the charger with the side cover hanging over the exhaust a couple weeks ago. So now I have found this forum while looking for a replacement side cover. Still no luck on it but I find myself coming back here to read more about the 250 and what else I can do to make it more ride-able yet. I see a street legal bike in the very near future.
A wise choice of machine, methinks. I've had mine nigh a year and a half now and I couldn't be more pleased. It does everything I want it to do and would do much more if I was more capable.
It's a pity they don't come street legal over the pond. Ours must have a lot more red tape and hoops to pass through but it saves us the hassle of modifying them to suit the authorities. In fact, we take things OFF rather than put them on!
Keep us posted on your side panel and success in sourcing one.
Welcome to the forum Mark. Keen to hear more - especially if you have some pics of the sort of riding you have - I am embarrassed to say I know little or nothing about Iowa
I live along the Loess Hill near the Missouri River and there are many dirt and gravel roads that are great riding. Some have curves even.
And some roads you can actually ride inside of.
Sometimes they almost grow over.
Home is straight ahead.
End of the line.
A few years back someone set the bridges along this old section of track on fire. You can see what the heat did to the rails. This is really unfortunate because locally there is a good track record(see what I did there) of turning these old railways into biking and hiking trails. Just on the other side of the Missouri River they turn them into riding trails in Nebraska and Kansas. Would love to see some of that here.
I have been riding nearly all my life and mostly street legal dirt bikes. The KLR650 has been my favorite ride for the last 12-14 years with many bikes coming and going while it stays close. The TTR250 is the smallest lightest bike I have owned since I was a kid and the only thing to capture my attention and keep it like the KLR. Something about smooth tractable power I suppose.