A forum for owners of Yamaha TTR250 trail and enduro bikes!

I didn't realise until I checked back that I haven't been on a trail ride in over 2 months 

It has been even longer for my bro' Trev so a plan was hatched that we would spend a day fettling and servicing the TTRs and then, if everything fell into place - particularly the weather - we would take the bikes out for a ride today. Also an opportunity for Trev to test out his leading skills using the new SatNav he got for Christmas with no pressure, other than from me, to get it right.

And, so it came to pass 

First lane of the day was my local lane often called Muddy Lane as it has never been known to dry up. On the way in, there was signs of substantial work going on to clear the river bed. We will see how effective this is when we next have some persistent downpours.

Muddy lane lived up to its reputation although some sections have been repaired, presumably with stone excavated from the river bed.

However, Trev managed to find a spot that the infill hadn't reached. You might well ask why he didn't keep to the left 

Still some muddy sections to catch you out though..

And plenty of water - see vid here

The Grindle Brook looked quite rideable but rather than take any chances we gave the "Bike Wash" a miss today.

We met a young lady hiker on one of the lanes who seemed to be enjoying her walk and gave us a nice smile! Next onto The Rut where I failed miserably to get a shot of Trev anywhere near the camera. By the time I got the camera out, he was in the distance. Trev said the water in the rut was still frzoen and he was breaking the ice as he made progress.

Still some snow on Colaton Raleigh Common.

I got the clothing layers about right and the Symtec heated grips were doing their job. They allowed me to wear MX gloves making the camera work a bit easier than struggling to get the MS ColdPros on and off. It was only the finger that I use to cover the clutch that felt the cold.... oh yes, and my toes. Must remember to wear an extra pair of socks under the Sealskins next time!

After some more lanes we stopped at Woods Stores in Colaton Raleigh for coffee and pasties - my first pasty of 2013 and it lived up to expectations! We had spotted fresh tyre tracks earlier in the day and met their makers here, Matt and Gary from Talaton out on their WR250F and DRZ400 for a morning's ride. Not long after our arrival we spotted a policewoman chatting to the guys outside but it turns out to have been friendly and she was asking them if they had been bothered by anyone on their ride - what a turn up for the books eh? Nevertheless, I cleaned off our number plates before we left which made her laugh in appreciation.

The next lane was probably the most technical of the day as the slots in ond out of the river are a tad harder than they used to be! I am glad we rode the stream the easy way around.

There is a video of me dropping into the stream here  . I was going to drop in off the bank but chickened out and dropped back into the slot. All would have been good had the bank not knocked the gear lever into neutral  

We had to fill the slot on the stream exit with a lot of stones to get a good run at it. Here is Trev giving it the beanz 

Some of the lanes repaired by Devon County Council a couple of years ago have taken a beating and are returning to nature.

Some interesting icicles on the way to the last lane of the day.  

No badgers today although Trev nearly tickled a trout on the first lane of the day!

Trev did really well leading his first run and the TTRs performed faultlessly 

34 miles at a very leisurely pace, 3 and a half hours out, two pasties eaten, and 28 lanes ridden. 

Brian