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

My good friend Ian wanted to do a re-run of a route that we first did back in 2008 and had managed to get a day off work to do it 

So I dusted off the old route and made a few minor changes to accommodate a starting point from TTR Steve's place at Hatherleigh. 

We had four riders: Ian on a KTM, Jim on a WR450F and Steve and I on TTR250s.

The TTRs behaved impeccably other than I had left the GPS charger hooked up and flattened the battery and Steve also had a flat battery - thank goodness for the kickstarts! Once going, they started on the button for the rest of the day. Oddly enough the other two bikes were also having starting problems but more of that later.

We arrived at Steve's in a bit of a downpour so waited until the rain had blown over before setting off. 

The first lane of the day near Bradford showed evidence of the amount of rain we had recently!

Beautiful views whilst we catch our breath at the top of a nicely trick lane. Left to right - Steve, Ian and Jim.

We hadn't ridden that many more lanes before the KTM spluttered to a halt. Turns out the battery earth bolt had stripped the thread in the aluminium frame and it was all hands on deck to bodge a fix. Not a clever design IMHO 

Although Ian had ridden the route before he confessed that he only remembered two of the lanes we rode! I think that Steve said that nearly all of them were first time rides for him.

This photo shows us after crossing a ford over Marsland Water - the boundary between Devon and Cornwall. We are on the Cornish side making our way through a network of green lanes to our lunch stop.

View of the rugged "wreckers" coastline on the descent to Hartland Quay - Lundy Island just about visible in the background:

Lunch outside at Hartland Quay

It wasn't long after our lunch stop that Ian's KTM went on to reserve so we cut the route and made straight for Bideford, the nearest petrol station, to fill up. It brought home to me how isolated and sparsely populated North Devon/Cornwall really is.  The more strategic stations having gradually all closed down over the years. We can't move for petrol stations here in East Devon!

I think I had become dehydrated at this point and my head wasn't feeling too good so cut and run back to base on the main road leaving the others to finish the route.

Despite the headache, it was a great day in good company - thank you gents! 

Brian