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

I am ashamed to admit that my brother Trev and I hadn't been out on the lanes since last September so we thought it about time we broke our 2014 duck!

We went for a short morning bimble but didn't complete our planned route having spent a bit of time clearing a route through fallen trees in a couple of places. Loads down all over the place - particularly some big oaks that looked healthy on top but had rotten roots 

The first tree down was a big oak at Dalditch Farm - wasn't blocking our way but I took a pic anyways:

Plenty of water in the lanes but most of it wasn't deep:

A small tree down in a lane near Otterton but it was easy enough to squiggle under:

Some lanes were as muddy and slippery as ever!

The first real stopper of the morning was at the top of a lane at Four Elms. Another fallen oak (all the elms here were killed a few decades ago with the dreaded Dutch Elm disease) with some substantial branches blocking the way through. We met a potential new member parked up on the corner - Rob on his Suzuki DR350.

With Rob's help, Trev and I set too with our clasp saws and after a while had cut a way through.

Trev went through first - see here - job done!

The rain seems to have done some very muddy rutted lanes (nicknamed the Lanes of Pain) a favour by taking the layer of mud off leaving for the most part a nice stony track 

"Bulldozer Lane" seems to have been badly treated by 4x4s and is not the nice lane it once was 

We found another tree blocking our path here but Trev made short work of clearing enough to get our TTRs through:

At the end of the lane we stopped for a breather and were passed by a young lad on a Honda (Robby I think his mate shouted at him when he had a wobble turning into the lane!) being closely followed by a guy on a big KTM. They were clearly on a mission as they didn't stop to chat. I hope they appreciated our tree clearing 

Having lost quite a bit of time (and energy!) on the tree clearing we cut the route short and headed back to a lane near Newton Poppleford where we found a truck and clearing gang with chain saws clearing a fallen tree. The foreman was keen for us to turn around but after a chat he relented and let us through. Good to see someone else collecting firewood - sorry, clearing fallen trees 

We didn't get far up the dead end lane near Tettington because of another fallen tree just the other side of the stream bridge - this one was a bit big for our handsaws!

We decided to have a look at the nearest lane to my home called "Muddy Lane" but it probably needs re-naming "Watery Lane" at the moment as there is a substantial lake in it.  Discretion being the better part of valour, we turned around and went home a different way!

I need a pair of waders and a shovel to see if a channel could be cut on the corner to release some of the water to bring it down a foot or so. I have never seen it like this before 

Anyways up, it was an interesting morning and good to get out again after a long break. Both TTRs ran perfectly and just needed a quick wash, dry and chain lube before being tucked away for the next time 

Brian