Good fun riding in Tasmania. Lots of good tracks, very lucky.
Had so much fun on the ttr in the 2 years I've had it, nearly finished work and its been raining hard all day. Bet it starts fine and doesn't miss a beat. Sits in the rain and sun outside at work every day.
So many drops and minor accidents, accidentally threw it down a gravel road at about 50kph once (that was a lucky one - looking at the awesome view and hit the soft gravel on the side of the road) still looks good (few scratches obviously) and has never been any trouble. Just love it. New carby boot to the engine and new slide are the only real things that made it play up a bit. Even then it still ran all day on a trail ride with a 1 inch gash in the carby boot. Wouldn't idle though.
This site has been the best thing, such a good help, great people and Brian your knowledge is excellent and has been invaluable to me. Saved me a fortune and increased my mechanical skills no end.
The ttr will be with me till it dies, then I will resurrect it and start all over :)
Yes hit a rock hiding in the grass. So glad I could bend the shaft back, very lucky it wasn't a $2000 mistake to get if fixed. Yes very lush, bit of track that had a tree down over it and hadn't been ridden for a while - actually got very overgrown and had trouble finding the track!
Mate was filming from the side of the track I think.
Thought I'd post some more photos. First time camping on the TTR. Carried everything I needed for the weekend, felt good. Didn't seem to weigh me down and can't wait to do it again now.
Fun weekend on the bike. Nice little camping trip around the lakes. Hot weekend loaded up with camping gear etc. on some tricky single track and a lot of log jumps. 463klm for the weekend. Such a good way to travel. Adventure touring on a budget. A few hundred dollars worth of setup. Question is, we didn't visit any coffee shops, is it still adventure riding? 😄😄 I usually put the bike on the ute for riding at Mathinna and so on. I'm keen for more touring like this though, great fun. Me on the TTR 250 and mate John on the DRZ 400.
Travelling on the bike for 5 days = best road trip ever. Just another reason why I love the little ttr. Works well as an adventure bike. Only negative was crashing halfway through the first day. So annoyed with myself, just a straight gravel road, hit some wheel ruts front and back wheel in different ruts and down I go. Couldn’t get control of the bike with all the gear sitting up on the back, a simple thing with no gear. Anyway, gave me a wake up call and learnt a very good lesson. Having said that I suspect the TTR will be a write off. Cosmetic damage but bent the rear subframe when it hit.
1450 klms all up, didn’t use a drop of oil after the rebuild and I gave it some hidings on some twisty roads. Hurt myself at the 150k mark so over the next 1300k I was very careful! My wrist, sternum and ribs were not doing real well. After I got home (of course) I went to the Dr and had xrays - wrist is not broken and the rest will sort itself out. Interestingly my face got a fair hammering from the internal sunvisor in my road helmet. I think my next helmet won’t have one of those.
Added a homemade top plate to my B & B rack, screen and USB plug – use D605’s on my second set of rims and they performed well. Bigger tank one day will make it a little easier, but otherwise not many mods done. No BMW $$ here. Having said that, I will sell a kidney and buy a moskomoto wreckless 80 before future trips. All the weight up high makes the bike to unstable offroad. Fine onroad but not happy with it offroad, great on a budget but want to be safer.
Sounds like it was a great trip Leigh - apart from the off piste excursions that is.....
Thanks for the ride report and photos - love it
With regard to the rear subframe, it really doesn't have anything attached that requires it to be totally symmetrical. The swing arm, engine and forks all attach to the strong central core of the frame.
I helped an owner bend his rear subframe back down with a long bit of 4" x 2" after he looped his TTR. The frame hadn't cracked, the mudguard fitted right back on and it looked "right" again
It would certainly be worth having a go before writing it off.
I'm guessing the screen is a home made hobby, there was a huge thread on one of the adventure forums about how to make one up.
What happened to the rear subframe? If it flipped and bent the hoop up, you can always bend it back, or chop it and reinforce with some steel bar internally. Long live the TTR!
I totally agree Brian, I had a hard time making a decision to claim or not. I did, but I've just cancelled the claim. I couldn't trust that I would be able to buy my bike back at the end of the claim, mostly they get auctioned off these days in Aust.
So out with the long pry bar tonight to fix the frame. Its bent down one side more than the other and shifted to the side a little. Shouldn't be too hard to fix.....well see. Cosmetic damage to the bike is less than my excess but the frame means instant write off, no matter how small the damage. I dropped the bike on the left and the bags hit first, shunting the frame down and over a bit. It didn't move a mm more over the next 1400klm, and I hit a few bumps! I stupidly in the past have also done some jumps on the bike with the gear on the back. Frame didn't move then either. Having said that after re-bending i will add some bracing.
It also bent my B&b rear rack, not sure how that's going to go back on, may need a new one - and I suspect the mounts will need to be cut and re-welded to match the frame. Again, well see.
Its a 45l duffle bag from Anaconda - $50 on special, and a 35L roll/drybag. The 45l duffle isn't totally waterproof - they stitched the handles to the bag and water seeps in through the stitching.
The screen is a screens for bikes screen for the TTR250 - $165, now looks ****e as I slid it down the gravel using it as a plow. However it didn't break.
Can't wait for more adventures, I'd love to organise (or better yet someones else!) a big TTR gathering in Aus.
Well the bike is all fixed, took about 30mins to take the plastics and the wiring off and bend the frame straight and back up. Looks fine to the eye and my rack still fits. The rack looks a little out of shape but really not too bad.
$90 worth of plastics and it will be like it never happened....good ol TTR's.
If it was written off I'd still be buying another ttr, this was simpler though.
Tassie is an amazing place for riding. Road and off-road, I need to organize a Tassie ttr trip for everyone, if it wasn't for that stretch of water we'd probably get a few starters.
Dirt trax know what they are doing, they run some amazing rides, I ride up that way regularly, it's bloody amazing.
I like the fact that the photos are upside down coming from Aus ,😂 Some great trails and fantastic photos , reaffirm my thoughts that my ttr is going to make a great adventure bike , I love my xt660 but when it's loaded up its very heavy to pick up , so the little ttr is going to be on my next trip 😀 Is that an Acerbis tank you have?
I noticed the freestone creek! When I was a kid I rigged up a rod holder for my '70 AT1, PVC pipe and hose clamps, thought we were huck finn on 2 wheels.
Just loving the extended trips on the bike. The moskomotogear was flawless, did some pretty rough tracks here and there and the bags never moved and I didn't notice them being there. So easy to grab things out like tools and snacks and the best thing of all it handled brilliantly, bike felt amazing. Handled like it normally does but a bit heavier - hard to explain. Anyway, its waaaaay different than last time when the bags were all on the top. The ttr exhaust has to go - massive heatsink it is. I'm also changing to an MT21 on front and a D606 on the rear for this sort of riding - overall I'm not happy with the D605's - brilliant on bitumen, pretty slippery on everything else, especially the front.
This was a trip up the East Coast of Tassie - with good mates John (2009 DrZ400) and Brendon (2012 WR450). All bikes went perfectly, only issue was a captive nut that broke its weld holding the rack on the WR, it came loose and then broke the nut free, loctite next time.
970ks all up and no camping this time, stayed at pubs and cabins which was bloody nice. 80l of storage on the reckless 80, I filled it up anyway to see how it performed, I think I only used about a 3rd of the stuff I took, different story if I was camping.
-- Edited by leigh on Wednesday 2nd of May 2018 05:06:22 AM
Hey Z1g - not affiliated at all, I've been a supporter of Baz's for a long time and did get invited on the ride they did in Tassie - its a long story but I missed the message and literally found it about 3 months after they'd been - those vids were filmed November last year.
My bike was written off 2 months ago (a mates son had a fair crash on it) and I had made my mind up to buy a WR250R - I've now obviously come to my senses and want another TTR 250.
I bought it back for $200 and apart from a few more scrapes and yes, sub frame bent again, it's pretty good. However it looks like getting it re-registered will be a pain in the arse. Frame damage means authorised repairer must be involved etc $$$.
So if anyone in Tasmania Australia (possibly Victoria) has one for sale or you see one, please let me know.
I'll trsf all my upgrades over and make one bike from the 2 if needed and sell the remaining bits and probably break even :)