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

Cubber · Super Guru

Devon's A2E, 2015

Cubber · Super Guru

The Axe to Exe 2015 entries are limited to 50. blankstare

The entry list is currently standing at 30. smile

Just 20 entries left before the reserve list is started. hmm

I wonder if there will be a late flurry of TTR entrants. biggrin biggrin

We had enough for a TTR group in the 2014 A2E so why not? confuse

Martyn

TTRfan · Super Guru

Apparently there are only 6 places left so book now if you haven't already!

Anyone on here booked in so far?

Brian

mossproof · Super Guru

Awaiting confirmation, but Tiddler and I, plus 2 more, are hopefully booked in. 2 TTRs, a KLR and an XTZ. Very much looking forward to it after last year.

Martyn you can send all info via my email to save doing it 4 times if this makes your job easier! (Simon Vernon)

Cheers, Simon.

Cubber · Super Guru

Simon, I've just had a session (3 hours) doing secretarial works and confirmations to people by email - your lot included. hmm

The forms were all available on the web and could be emailed back to me. smile

Payments were accepted by snailmail cheque or BACS. (As yours were)

Currently 45 entries leaving 5 available places.

Martyn

TTRfan · Super Guru

Good to see Simon & Co booked in - great company to ride with!

If anyone needs a bit of persuasion to enter see here and scroll down to the pics and reports wink

Brian

mossproof · Super Guru

Brian, your leadership made it easy to have a great ride out! Hope we can do it again, but with 4 in my gang this year grouping may be harder to arrange (although 2 ttrs should swing it?) Glad to see our faces on the web page header too. Fame at last!

Martyn, the voluntary secretarial stuff often goes unsung. I recognise that without it nothing would happen and I'm happy to make public my appreciation of your efforts. Many thanks!

See you both in April,

Simon.

TTRfan · Super Guru

It looks like the participants are going to have a cracking weekend of trail riding with the weather forecast looking good for both days biggrin biggrin

Quote from Mario (national TRF Marketing guy) "The highlight event nationally is the Devon Axe to Exe on 18th April which remains probably the best meeting in the TRF calendar and a fantastic celebration of trail riding."

Trev and I have been checking out the East Devon lanes and they are in great condition.

I am not leading this year but Trev and I will be around for both days helping Olly and Martyn out as needed. Also we will be taking some photos if we can be in the right places at the right time! Maybe at the Royal Oak Farm tearooms or Otterton Mill at lunch time?

We were supposed to have a second day on the lanes today but got called up by a mate who is leading groups (so important to keep his TTR running!) and whose TTR had suffered a major subframe failure leaving his rack flopping about

So this morning, after a quick power wash of the TTR, we stripped off the mudguard and found the subframe had fractured on both sides meaning that only the mudguard had been holding the back of the TTR together confuse

The metal was sound so a spot of welding would fix it. We found some pipe that was a tight fit inside the frame tube and put a 3" section in both side rails which not only made it stronger than original but also put the subframe in a perfect position for welding!

Ready to weld!

Olly did a really neat job of the welding and Trev painted the exposed metal before putting the jigsaw back together again.

Meanwhile I was dispatched to fetch a set of rear wheel bearings and chain slider to bring the TTR back into top shape before its full weekend of trail riding. A happy ending biggrin

Enjoy yourselves tomorrow guys!!!

Brian

Cubber · Super Guru

The first photos of the 2015 event are HERE

Assorted shots of the first day's adventure, complete with TTR shots.

Martyn

Baggers · Senior Member

Weather looking fab, Have a great weekend chaps smile

locky · Guru

Looks fantastic, i'll have to enter next year ..

TTRfan · Super Guru

Great photos Martyn - it certainly pays to have a "proper" camera but I couldn't afford to chance one like yours out on the lanes!

Anyways up, Trev and I were on duty today to help the organisers, Martyn and Olly, as needed.

Ready for the off - not sure that I am ready for 8am starts and it was a mite chilly!

We took the opportunity to take some TTR paddock pics at Castle Brake before everyone set off.

These are the intrepid TTR group members including Simon Vernon (Mossproof) from this very forum being briefed by their run leader, David Bell.

We waited around in the cafe with Olly and Martin after all the groups had departed in case of problems. Less than 20 minutes had past and we had the first call for recovery. A KTM had broken its chain so Olly set off in his van to get it sorted. We heard later that Olly had given the rider a chain from his own bike so that he could carry on riding - well done Olly!

It was then quiet for a while so Trev and I set off to find some suitable locations for taking some photos. We met a group at the top of Tombstone Lane who were going to bypass it as its a bit nadgery. It didn't take much encouragement to persuade them to have a go so Trev and I beetled off down the lane to get ready for some candid camera shots. As it turns out the lane was a lot easier than I recall and all the riders got through no problem.

The groups must have been well spread out as we only came across David's TTR Group later on in the day and saw no-one else. Never mind, we enjoyed our ride anyways.

We stopped in at the Royal Oak Farm cafe for lunch and were well looked after. The chicken & mushroom pie, home-made bread roll and chips were excellent - all washed down with a couple of mugs of tea from the posh china biggrin biggrin

It was great to ride further afield and on lanes that I haven't ridden for probably a year. Some challenging but all good. Lovely to be out with my bro' on our TTRs on such a lovely day!

Couldn't resist taking a photo of a duck pond in one of the farmyards we rode through. Don't see many of them these days!

We came across quite a large stump in one lane but enough room to get by. That oak must have taken some hard work to cut up!

Cooling off in the first of two fords in this lane.

The second ford was more problematical in that it was well washed out such that we couldn't see the bottom in places. However we saw tyre marks that had cut through the green slime on the huge stepping stones.

I jokingly suggested to Trev that I would video him if he rode across on the steps and, much to my surprise, he just started his TTR and rode across with no dramas!

That left me with a problem as he was now the other side of the ford leaving me very little choice but to man up and follow him over. I confess that I made a real hash of getting onto the first big stone by which time I was more than a little stressed about riding over! Left with no real choice I did it and was more than a tad relieved to get to the other side without drowning either the TTR or myself

I hadn't properly looked at the route I had loaded on the GPS and realised a bit late in the day that we were at the bottom of a really technical lane at Whitford that I would have otherwise avoided. Oh dear, I made a real pig's ear of that one. I didn't fall off but was all over the place. Surprised I got to the top in one piece disbelief

We called it a day after that as we were both knackered and had a very pleasant ride back home along a nice twisty B road. The TTR is really under rated as a road bike even on full knobblies!

Great day and got to do it all over again tomorrow biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin

Brian

pug · Guru

Hat's off to you old man I can smell the fear in the room hear just looking at them crossing stones. I would have made A 360 that article you pulled up last week on a flooded bike is fresh in my mind and it gives me the williys just thinking about it and with someone with a camera there I would not stand a chance of making it across I might be lucky but not that lucky it must have been fresh in you mind too biggrin biggrin I was out today on the EX river but up the top end worst crossing was only about 15 - 20 feet and 6 inch's deep well safe. think my problem is the bike is a little high for me might have to see you about a lowering link. the ground never seems to be there when I put my foot down biggrin biggrin this was the smaller of the two crossings I did right in and out without thinking about it just the way I like it

pug

-- Edited by pug on Saturday 18th of April 2015 09:46:25 PM

Cubber · Super Guru

Some great action shots there, Brian.

Who can tell the quality difference between yours and mine? confuse
I can't. disbelief

Here are a few of the adventurers' return to camp.

And as they say, "Tomorrow is another day....."

Martyn

Trev McRev · Member

Another amazing day out on the TTR's

I'm still shaky after riding over those stepping stones... hmm
The first slip where the back wheel went sideways on the second stepping stone made me think I had made a big mistake, but with deep water each side of the stepping stones there was no turning back!
As I rode over them I kept thinking to myself, if you get this wrong you are going to sink good and proper and the TTR is going to come over on top, so no messing, just get on with it.
Phew! was I glad to get to the other side
I don't think I will be doing that again in such a hurry
Another adventure tomorrow smile
Trev

locky · Guru

more great pics and video, you were brave going over them stones, well done.

TTRfan · Super Guru

If I take the mileage up to the end of the Whitford lane where we quit, we did 32 lanes in 50 miles today. Still not bad.

PS I like the wobble on the end of the video of Trev crossing the shallow ford biggrin biggrin

peteBLUEttr · Super Guru

Ha got yourself into a bit of a curfuffle there eh Brian. It does look quite challenging going over those stones though, how deep is the river either side?

peteBLUEttr · Super Guru

You have some great lanes down there, would loved to of come down, maybe next year, going laning in Snowdonia in July so a fair bit of me dosh is being used for that.

Cubber · Super Guru

Day two of Devon TRF's A2E event - and today is very dry

We share the roads with horses and are extremely courteous to them - they can cause a lot of damage.

Keith (as seen on TV's Countryfile) happy and smiling when he's riding Devon's lanes in the sun.

Martyn

The Mancunian · Senior Member

Fantastic stuff smile

peteBLUEttr · Super Guru

Yeah quite dusty there!! That tombstone lane looks fun. biggrin Lovely sunny days both days weren't they. Went for blast on the cb1300 today as I fitted my new bt023tyres on...

-- Edited by peteBLUEttr on Monday 20th of April 2015 08:05:00 PM

Cubber · Super Guru

Well that's it.

The dust is settling and all are wending their way homewards.

The last few photographs are viewable on the WWW but here are a few gratuitous TTR shots

Bozz is leaving the site ...................

Organizer Olly resting on a trusty machine .................

TTR Steve's TTR got a little dusty wink

I'm sure there will be further pictures coming from Brain & Bro. but from me

Martyn

TTRfan · Super Guru

Brilliant job on the photos Martyn

Amongst our photos taken this morning as riders departed were these:

We had such a poor result in trying to photograph groups yesterday that Trev and I went AWOL today and took a trail ride to Tiverton instead disbelief

From the number of helmet and chest cams we saw on riders, I am sure they will have got much better results in any case...

Brian

peteBLUEttr · Super Guru

Those chicken and mushroom pies look well nice ha biggrin

TTRfan · Super Guru

Some more pics from the weekend. This was David Bell's "TTR" group which included Mossproof and Tiddler from this forum biggrin

Mossproof's bro' Chris riding his TTR325:

Chris again braving the Wes****er Ford stepping stones!

This is Tiddler unless I am very much mistaken!

Baggers · Senior Member

Looks absolutley great down there chaps, conveniently, my Bro who I have now talked into getting a TTR has a rather large van!!! So will be getting a bit further afield soon, incidentally, he is having his first trip out tomorrow, so hopefully will have another report with some piccies soon smile

peteBLUEttr · Super Guru

Nice one rick we love photeys! Thats looks a sweet little ford. How deep is the river on either side of those stepping stones then?!...

Cubber · Super Guru

Unplumbed depths, currently.

The farmer uses this ford frequently and he fills either side often to make it shallower.

Unfortunately the many storms/floods take the filing down stream making the ford deeper. hmm

I've been informed the estimated depth either side is currently 2 to 4 feet. confuse

It wasn't used by many riders on the A2E this year, unsurprisingly. wink

Martyn

peteBLUEttr · Super Guru

No way, yeah pretty risky going over it huh! smile

TTRfan · Super Guru

A video/stills from Saturday. Good to see I am not the only one to have a wobble in the Crealy Bike Wash biggrin

Also, good to see a couple of ladies in this group.

Brian

peteBLUEttr · Super Guru

Nice vid. Got to be fun when theres lots of other people around doing the same trails.

Baggers · Senior Member

Its good to see a combination of 'Sitters' amd 'Standers' Having been on one outing with Manchester TRF and with martin giving me grief I am currently trying to get my Standing technique honed as ultimately I think control will be better, but I end up sitting quite a bit especially on the hard bits and the bits where I need my feet to stop falling over and of course, and when my arms and legs are knackered!!!

peteBLUEttr · Super Guru

Definitely helps with control over bumpy and rubbly ground and up hills etc, I am still perfecting it, I am not very good at changing gear whilst standing

TTRfan · Super Guru

Standing up is good for bike control but you have to be making good progress else sit down if you are going real slow.

Standing isn't always best on ford crossings.......

Except you make a bigger splash for your mates to laugh at biggrin biggrin biggrin

Fladdem · Senior Member

I always stand, and always have but then, I've only been riding for four years but have been riding off-road for my whole biking life, after about 3 weeks after passing my CBT and getting my MT5, I was studying maps looking for green lanes. Perhaps being twenty means I can cope with standing all day, not like you old farts! wink

Conversely, when going slow I feel safer stood but going fast, I sit down. Anything above about 35-40mph I sit. I struggle braking sat down though, If I'm offroad and need to brake, I need to stand up to get my foot in the right place, but I've set my controls up so they're spot on for stood up but a bit awkward sat down, like I have to move my foot around a lot to change gear while sitting. It looks like a good day, I need to start making friends with people so I don't have to ride on my own all the time, it looked like only the back marker in orange had any machine confidence, the others all looked a bit wobbly, but the terrain may have been rougher than the camera looked.