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

Robin Webb has been busy and has just completed his latest project. This is the text from the email that accompanied the photos. Thanks for sharing Robin!

"This is my #2 bike. 20k miles and recently converted to 263cc.  

The idea was to make desert sled that was more useful on the highway too.

With a longer saddle to carry two people more comfortably. Maybe not long distance but at least not scrunched up like two praying mantises, manti? Handy also if your partner crashes badly out in the boonies and needs to be extricated on one bike. Spose it won’t be handy if it’s me that crashes.

I reinforced the subframe and made the saddle base with plywood and ali as long as poss inside the shape of the rear rack. The rear rack still is nicely usable.

Built up the seat shape with foam bed-roll mat and used softer foam over the top.

I used a breathable water-resistant microfibre faux-leather to cover the seat.

The wider platform to sit on  and the breathable material make it easier and cooler on the behind for solo trips long distance.

The seat belt webbing strap is mostly for lashing down. I have transported the bikes by road and air in crates and been upset when I have seen what has been used for lashing points. The strap is routed over the saddle and also underneath, over the sub frame. Good for the back of the van and on ferries too.

There’s also webbing on the front forks which doubles as a ‘haul-loop’.

I'm not short of leg, but the bike is lowered at the back. A lowering link and the ‘Raid’ saddle plus lacing the rear wheel onto a 17’’ rim means I can get both feet down. I got some dual sport Kenda K270s for the US which are not too tall in profile and smooth on the road.

The rear is 3’’ wide rim which I converted to tubeless which saves the weight of a heavy-duty inner tube (which is heavy!) I think this helps road speeds too as there is lass mass for the little motor to turn. Also runs cooler with no tube and is quicker to plug punctures.

Higher than usual gearing, 14 tooth front sprocket and 42 tooth rear means the bike runs nicely up-to 70mph without ragging the motor. Obviously the usual steep hills and headwinds still eat into this though.

What else? There’s a lockable custom built tool box opposite the exhaust, just hidden under the spare 1.5 litre reserve. Even with a Translucent 22 litre tank I still manage to run out. Duh. On a long trip this could be used for top-up oil and there’s enough for an oil change. The whole thing is sprung, well, elasticated, with old strips of inner tube, the idea being that it folds in the event of a crash rather than breaking off.

Other mods:

Heated Grips.

LED spot light wired into the high beam.

Frame guards.

Bash plate with HD mounts.

Ali hand guards.

Chopped clutch lever and folding front break lever

Hard wired GPS mount.

12 volt power outlet

Ball compass.

1 litre spare water

Inline micro fuel filters

Folding mirrors

Front rack. (a rear rack turned upside down).

Old style FMF Q pipe with added heat shield

Front and rear disk guards

Wavy rear disk

Micro bulb-type indicators

Engine temperature stickers on back of clutch

Ambient temp stickers in handguards

Bigger foot on side stand for soft ground

Hard wired Optimate charger lead. Doubles as jump start and powers mini air compressor

Velcro-on map case

Think that’s it

Just need to think of somewhere to go now.

Robin"