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

Good luck.

I hope everything goes according to plan for you.

I've been reading the information pack and it seems to be quite daunting (and expensive) for entrants.

Martyn

Any news guys?

I received this pic from Rupert Shaw this morning headed "7,100kms in 14 days with 80% offroad" - he looks pretty pleased with himself - and his TTR 

yeah Brian, some news from me..

I didn't complete the rally (back home on day 10), as my GPS unit popped out of its mount on day 2, and couldn't be found with hours of searching. The GPS is the "sine qua non" in this rally, and as I was not in a group (the other 2 possible starters in my area not starting due to injury), I had nobody to follow so I made slow progress.

However, I did have my own home developed android phone app which was an emergency backup, and had the rally track loaded on it, so I continued with that. This made for slow progress though, because some sections required lots of position checks (as the rally route often went into forestry areas with lots of tracks, and sometimes dived off into "single track"). Instead of just glancing at the GPS unit, as on day 1 and most of day 2, I would have to stop, find neutral, drag the phone out of my pocket, and press a button on the screen to get a fix - but it did work and (with cell radio etc off) consumed very little battery power (it could work for days).

Navigation was also made "interesting" by, eg, a track which went past signs saying "private - locked gate ahead", followed by an apparently locked gate (on a road which had uncertain status as a power line access road coming out of a little trafficked national park via private property), which could, however, be accessed by lifting the locked chain over the gatepost.   

The riding was great - lots of nice tracks, fantastic scenery, some great views, often no other vehicle seen for hours.
some little country pubs were great - eg $20 for a night at Moonan flat, including coffee, breakfast with real milk, room heating and convenient bike parking. It would be a wonderful way for a foreign visitor to see a "different" and beautiful Australia (except for the rushed schedule!).

My TTR, fairly standard and with pretty light load, was easy to ride and confidence inspiring.
The bike showed its abilities in recovering from "hmm, this steep downhill can't be on the route", and "I'll just follow this little track here for a bit".

Slow going due to navigation led to 2 unplanned nights camping out (one with rain), and contributed to hitting a suicidal wallaby one evening - no damage to bike, but same couldn't be said for the wallaby.

In one part of the rally route it rained heavily - over 100mm in 2 days just when I happened to be there. As I had relatives nearby, I wimped out and had an enjoyable 2 days staying with them. Heading off when it cleared, I was never going to finish the whole rally, so I did 3 more sections and then had 2 long days on inland highways to get home early.

THE BIKE AND GEAR

TANK: I already had a 22l acerbis tank mounted, and for the rally I just renewed the foam packing.
There were no issues with the tank, and I can confirm that the spark plug can be removed and replaced using the standard yamaha tube spanner without having to remove the tank (I had a weird starting issue on day 2 and replaced the new plug with the old one that I had for a spare). I first sloshed some water in and blew it with a siphon hose to avoid getting dirt into the cylinder.
My tank is translucent so it is easy to see how much fuel is remaining. The tank uses yamaha rubber bushes in the 2 forward mount points and after a while these wear due to the greater fuel weight but mine have yet to be replaced.

TYRES AND SPROCKETS ETC: Dunlop 606 tyres and 3mm tubes, no problems. I use chain gang sprockets and x ring chain, and as an experiment did absolutely no chain cleaning or lube. after nearly 4000km, no adjustment was needed. I was happy with the 13/47T ratio which gave enough grunt for any difficult slow stuff but would still enable 120kph. I made sure that I added some balance weights when I installed the tyres, and I got a smooth ride on bitumen as a result.

OIL AND AIR FILTER: I topped up the engine oil a couple of times (less than 0.5l total). Air filter was reasonably ok but had a fair bit of dirt accumulated on it near the snorkel intake area.

SUSPENSION: I left it as I had it setup for normal dirt riding without luggage. standard springs and shocks and oil. It was nice and comfy. Bear in mind the bike was not carrying a huge load - ie myself in thermals and full riding gear 70kg plus a backpack weighing 5kg loaded, and a giant loop coyote bag weighing 10kg loaded.

LUGGAGE SYSTEM: I had a coyote saddle bag (heavy duty inverted "U" shaped thing) and this fitted very nicely over the front part of a B and B aluminium rack - because this rack nicely follows the seat/fender contour. For anyone installing this rack, I would advise making sure that all the bolts are tight (wiggling while tightening evenly), and getting it as tight as possible, using loctite and double up on nuts just to be sure, and be sure about the bolt which also holds the muffler. I filed some of the slots in the rack to provide smooth strap routing points and to enable the taillight to be accessed without removing the rack. The coyote bag had back straps that went through the rack, clips that just miraculously fitted into a couple of side slots in the rack, and lower down straps which I ran through brackets I made that bolted onto the pillion peg mount and were retained by a extra jubilee clip. This luggage system was great and they coyote bag could quickly and easily be removed from the bike for overnight. Packing the coyote bag was a bit of an art, but easy enough - eg sleeping bag was put into a dry bag which was bigger than the standard compression bag and allowed the bag to be formed into the right shape to fit nicely. The coyote bag sat worryingly close to the exhaust but no problems. A bit of extra heat tape would not go astray though. The coyote bag left plenty of room for shifting about in the saddle, standing up, footing etc, and I strongly endorse it.

CAMPING STUFF: 1 man tent, torch, lighter, sleeping bag, mat, water, toiletries, spoon, pre mixed oats+milk powder+ dried fruit, random fruit purchased en route. (plus light pants and sandshoes for camp/pub wear)

WEARING: klim goretex jacket, old MX type pants and boots, simple light knee pads (mainly for warmth due to wind protection), wool based socks, couple of layers of thermals, ordinary mx gloves, rubber over mitts (used one day, didn't really like them), plastic pants for rain only, light balaclava/neck warmer, earplugs, shoei hornet helmet (really comfortable - but I wonder if a "pin-lock" anti-fog lens would have been an improvement).

TOOLS AND SPARES CARRIED: I had 3kg of tools in 2 tool rolls, enough to change a tyre, fix or adjust most things, siphon hose, plenty of tape, zip ties, nuts and bolts, string and liquid steel stuff. I carried a normal 21 inch front tube, spare plug, oil filter and chain link.

THE HANDLEBAR AREA: I used an italian made handlebar sold by barkbuster, in a KTM bend (slightly wider and straighter). This meant the clutch positioning was tricky, but there was a sweet spot. I had large barkbuster VPS touring handguards which were great. I had some foam grips. If doing it again (and I'm thinking of next year), I would probably take a "throttle jockey" thing to slip over the throttle grip for the longer days. I had a nice mirror mounted on a RAM ball which screwed into the right hand yamaha mirror bolt - I cant recommend this mount as it just cracked and fell off one day (from bumps/vibration - not crash impact). I replaced the blinkers with smaller ones, although this was more important for the rear blinkers which needed to be relocated to give luggage clearance.
by the way, I have a later model ttr which has the standard 60W headlight which was definitely useful.

GPS: the garmin montana 600 was optimal for this particular rally. apparently they don't often come adrift from the garmin "rugged AMPS" mount, but for me sadly it did! in hindsight, an extra security tether on the unit would be sensible. I wired it to plug which went to a twin wire cable twisted and soldered directly to the yamaha clips that go onto the battery (a tight fit there), with a small fuse near the positive terminal. I had the unit on the steering stem area, although the optimal position would be exactly where the stock speedo is located (hmm, next year maybe remove that speedo and replace with gps mount plus bicycle speed/odo?). some riders attach the AMPS mount to the bars via RAM mounts, but these have a habit of becoming loose and needing clamp re-tightening (especially if using the cheaper all plastic RAM components). Also using those RAM mounts means that the front brake cable is a bit close - but maybe if I had used such a mount it would have reduced road shocks? 

ODDS AND ENDS: the bike was remarkably stock. exhaust, carb etc nothing cut off, no "restrictors" removed, just needle one step leaner. performance was fine from sea level to about 1300m (maybe losing a bit of edge by being slightly rich for the very highest altitudes). fuel range was about 17 or 18 km per liter. seat was standard, footpegs standard, no heated grips, no 3rd party bashplate (but a home made plastic one), no accessory number plate holders etc (but some of the standard plastic trimmed back), no windscreen or other rallye adornments. And really, I wouldn't change much if doing it again.

OTHER TTR ENTRANTS: you can get some info by googling or binging "apc rally 2013" and selecting the advridermag forum link. Also lots of rider reports and photos etc. I think Robin Webb must have had a defective spot tracker (a thing which reports your position via satellite every 10 mins, subject to battery and reasonable view of sky). There was some mention of a TTR with a clutch problem (high gearing and steep hills?) and minor tank bracket issues. Speaking of the spot tracker - there's no privacy on the net - on the way home, someone with an interest in next year's rally noticed from the tracker maps that I was heading home probably via his town, and collared me at a service station, and bought me a meal at maccas in exchange for info about the rally.

SOME PHOTOS OF BIKE: