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

Get booking, this is a top event and you will be riding the very best lanes devon have to offer!

The venue, the ride leaders and organisers are the best

This event gets booked up fast, you have been warned

Riders for this year's A2E event staretd arriving on Friday 15th, just as the recent rains had drenched the Devon lanes as a welcoming.

Today is the start of the rides - and surprisingly the rain stayed away as the sun shone brightly.

Here is run leader Brian on his TTR

and here is his TeC brother, Trev

To show how enjoyable riding a TTR can be, here is the ever smiling Bozz on his machine

and here is Run Leader Steve on his TTR - seeming to be chasing an errant dog-walker on the lanes

Martyn

Oh dear about the lass and her leg, hope she makes a speedy recovery. I was looking through your pics Martyn, very nice work.

Looking forwards to leading a group out tomorrow, hopefully Steve's tired them out today for me!

Nice photos Martyn - thanks for posting them!

From L to R - my son Matt (WR250R), brother Trev (TTR250) and me (TTR325) - ready for setting off from home on Saturday morning - notice the sunshine 

I had a lovely group to lead who were very patient with me thank goodness. Matt rode second man and did the gates and Trev rode shotgun at the rear as TEC.

I think we had nearly 60 guests booked in to ride at the weekend. The photo (Martyn's) below is of the riders gathering for the pre-run briefing.

Bit of a hiccup at the beginning of the day when I turned right out of the gate instead of left. My excuse is that it was the first time out with a new SatNav and I hadn't realised that it wasn't in "track up" mode. It gave event photographers Steve and Martyn a laugh anyways 

Off we go! Me at the front with Matt behind me on "gate duty" today and brother Trev riding shotgun - officially known as a TEC (Tail End Charlie) 

and on the way back up the road having realised my mistake 

We had an off on the tarmac just after our first lane which resulted in Alison snapping her Serow's right footpeg. We did the rest of the lanes in that loop before she cut back to Castle Brake - the event's base camp for the weekend. 

Alison decided she could ride a few more lanes on the footpeg stub on the way back to camp.

One of those lanes was the Crealy Bike Wash. We had some heavy rain recently and the brook looked a lot angrier than when Trev and I rode it last weekend so everyone opted to take the chicken route around it. That is until we got to the other end and Matt decided he wanted a go. He got absolutely soaked from head to toe 

The group taking a breather at the top of a tricky lane out of Aylesbeare.

The puddle in the Venn Ottery lane was still pretty slippery!

Event organiser Chris kindly welded up Alison's footpeg and she caught us up at our Royal Oak (Stockland way) lunch stop - well done Chris!

There are some lovely lanes and scenery up around the far east of Devon - this photo is taken at the top of a long lane near Dalwood.

Matt getting a bit enthusiastic on the WRR!

Although not on the route, I had heard that the bike swallowing holes on the ford at West water had been filled in (thank you Devon County Council!) so we diverted through to check it out and it is now perfectly safe and ridable.

It is amazing how the time goes and we decided that Gays Farm would be our last lane and then main road it back to camp else our guests would miss their dinner!

That is where it went a bit pearshaped.

After our discussion, Trev's TTR refused to start - battery as flat as a witch's whatsit  It wouldn't bump start or kick start.

I carry jump leads (the WRR hasn't got a kickstart) and it would start instantly after running my TTR alongside for a short while. However it would stop again after only a short while. After this happened half a dozen times it was decided I would take the group home leaving the boys to work it out.

A phone call from Trev to me at Castle Brake resulted in me setting off for home for the trailer.

On the way home I thought about it and the symptoms indicated a stator failure and that Trev had ridden all day with just the battery providing power. I rang the boys (still sitting at the top of Gays Farm lane and getting colder by the minute) and suggested swapping batteries. They did that and were soon back home. So that's a replacement stator needed for Trev's TTR then 

I hope it didn't spoil our guests' day - I enjoyed mine!

80 miles and 56 lanes ridden 

Brian

Was a great event, always like seeing you photos martyn. Shame I did not say hello to Matt, maybe next time.

Will post up a full report soon.

I have added some photos and videos to my earlier post.

Looking forward to hearing about your group Steve 

Brian

PS I thought I had introduced Matt to everyone - sorry I missed you Steve 

Ah - you're welcome, Simon.

I've scanned all my pictures and that particular shot of you is the best of all seven shots I've found with you on.

I had to search hard to find this one     

Martyn