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

Thought it was time to put up a build thread on my TTR.   I got it as a low km tidy stocker with a GYTR pipe..  I bought purely as a trail bike for my then teenage kids to ride in the bush.   I had recently downsized from a series of 250 2 strokes and 400's / 450's to my first  Yamaha, a WR250F.   250 four strokes are fun.   No more arm pump and seriously fun to ride in the bush.   The WR soon got tweaked with a 290cc Big Bore kit and pipe etc, but that's another story.

Pretty soon the TTR was deresticted, stripped to its essentials and rejetted with the airbox snorkel pulled out.   It ran pretty good like that with the GYTR pipe but the suspension lacked a bit of rebound control.   So much so it spat me off a track straight at a gumtree at about 60 kph.   End result was a badly bent frame and bent shock absorber.

So I had to fix my son's bike which I had all but demolished.   I ended up re framing it in a black powder coating frame and getting a used shock and having that shock and the forks professionally rebuilt and revalved.  New heavier front springs too.

As a result the bike handled well and my son who was now 18 was riding the wheels off it.   I often swapped him for the WR to ride, usually because I wanted a soft seat after a long ride!!

My son bought himself a WR250F like mine and we put the TTR up for sale last year.   It didn't sell so we decided we would hot it up a bit and keep it as a spare bike.

It was still a very tidy low km example with the powder coated frame.

First off was an USD front fork conversion.   I had a set of 48 mm WP's complete with the front wheel and Brembo front brakes and 270 mm rotor.

We got this grafted on, it took a bit off mucking around getting the right bearing sizes and getting them machined to fit. 

P.S.  If you want to do an USD swap use the Yamaha forks, much easier. But the result was worth it.

Those forks were always good and plush, they never bottom and the bike steers even better than before.

I put fat Magura handlebars with bar risers on, that allowed me to pull the forks up to keep the geometry almost the same as before.

The Brembo brakes are very strong too.  With the WP forks and revalved shock you can hit the rough rocky stuff flat out or jump the bike and have smooth controlled landings.

By now my son was working and had some cash so I went half with him and we put a 263cc big bore kit in it.   We got the head ported and decked for a bit more compression.   The stock carby got tuned to suit and the pumper timing tweaked too.

End result the bike was stronger right through the rev range.   Still not modified WR fast but it doesn't really get left behind.   Wheelies in 1st and second are twist the throttle, third stand up lean back and throttle on.   No way it could do that previously.

Now we take the TTR out often in lieu of either of our WR's.   It is a seriously fun bike to ride, especially in the tight twisty single track we seek out.   On technical hill climbs its nearly unstoppable with its stronger but old school tractor like power.

Because its getting ridden faster now the front feels great, but the shock felt like it was letting it down.

I recently ordered a Wilbers shock from Germany and fitted that.

On my last ride it was very, very good.   Plush but I was launching it higher and higher off erosion jumps and it's suspension felt great, like a new model bike.

Its cost a fair bit of $$$ but it will stay in the shed forever.  Its one of those bikes I'll hang onto.

I have a new WR250f with only about 800 km on it.   I figure the TTR gets ridden every second ride, so it should halve the wear and tear on the new WR so that should last me twice as long. ;)

I'll try and put some pics up.