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

Back in January my wife bought me a days off road training with Black Desert for my 50th birthday.  My eldest son was going to accompany me.  After much deliberation we decided that rather than try and ride down from Derbyshire, do the course and ride back, we would book a family holiday for a week. My wife and my son's girlfriend would drive their cars down with my younger children and we would ride the bikes (My TTR 250 and his CCM 404) down.  The intention was to do the training one day, grab a few evening rides out and do some family stuff the rest of the time. 

We rode down last Saturday through absolutely torrential rain on the M42, at times I felt like I was riding along a stream.  Thankfully we had excellent direction from the cottage owners otherwise I would never have found it, down the lanes in the dark with the TTR's excuse for a headlight.  The next evening we decided to go for a ride and the TTR would not start, I bumped it and went anyway. We found a local wood with a nice mix of fairly wide fast fire roads and some boggy trails through the woods.  The cottage owner lent me a battery charger as I thought I might somehow have drained the battery riding the lanes with the lights on full beam and the heated grip on.

Unfortunately it turned out to be the starter motor.  I rang up Brian who gave me some excellent advice on how to get it out and where I might get a possible replacement, I also checked with him about a misfire (popping and banging) that had been getting worse and the clunk from the sprag clutch.  We managed to strip the starter and found the brushes were stuck after we cleaned it up it seemed okay.  We rode down to Desert training the next day which was about 35 miles away but the bike was still popping and banging and cut out a couple of times.  I decided in the end to hire one of their bikes and too out a CRF 230.  This proved to be a great bike although I binned it in a deep puddle after the first ten minutes. 

The training was excellent, Craig who took us out is a highly experienced enduro/trail rider and has completed the Paris Dakar several times.  He used to work for the BMW training school but then set up his own business with his partner Tamsin. http://www.blackdeserttraining.com/  Having talked to mates who have done other courses this seemed much more suited to what we wanted, they listened to what experience we had already had and areas we both felt we could improve on and tailored the day to suit.  The machines and kit were not sparkly new but were serviceable, we felt we were treated almost as mates rather than just another customer. They run a variety of courses and also do an Coast to Coast Wales run which sounds fantastic.

After the training day we rode back and after a family day out the next day went out again to the local woods.  On our return, as my son opened the gate to the farmhouse, his CCM toppled of its side stand and the gear lever punched a hole in the alternator cover.  We phoned Craig as he had already given me some advice about local dealers when we thought we might have to get bits for the TTR.  He said that a mate was breaking a CCM and he would get the cover of him and we could pick it up in the morning which we did. After another family day out, which involved my son's girlfriend clipping a rock at the roadside and wrecking one of the alloy wheels on her car, we got back and tried to fit the cover.  Unfortunately there is a difference between then CCM motor and the standard DRZ400 one and the covers aren't interchangeable and it transpires that my son has a DRZ engine in his bike.  He rang his insurance company, MCE, to get the bike recovered, they informed him that his recovery cover is only for mechanical cover and not for accidental damage!  They could arrange recovery but it would cost about £500.  What kind of moronic insurance company offers recovery cover for motorcycles that does not include accidental damage.

We have ended up leaving both bikes in Wales and I will hire a van and bring them back later this week.

Despite all the set backs it was a great week.  Lots of weather as you would expect in Wales but incredibly helpful friendly people, including the tyres place in Llandovery who swapped the wheels on the car for nothing.  A big thanks to Craig for the training and his help and Ian and Carol who owned the house we stayed in https://www.breconcottages.com/cottages/brecon/buttercup-barn and Brian for his advice about the starter etc.

Hopefully we will get the bikes back and sorted in time to do the Taffy Dakar.

Cheers Jak