Having loved and cherished my old Raid, I needed to go some further distances and it wasn’t pactical any more. I got a Bandit 650 then after my circumstances changed I ended up having to sell that to make ends meet. Happily for me, I have finally pulled things round and now am in a position to buy a bike. Also happily for me my new partner enjoys being a pillion. With this in mind, I thought that since the Bandit lacked a bit of power I’d go bigger and more powerful. After reluctantly discounting a Hayabusa on the grounds that I couldn’t handle the position over long distances, I came to the conclusion that a Blackbird was what I needed. Here she is, £2,800 and 30k miles. Only £200 insurance too! What I will say is this; if I am ever in a position to afford two bikes, I would get another TTR in a heartbeat. Preferably a Brian Sussex special!
Enjoy the Blackbird. Never owned one but i rode a mates on multiple occasions and can testify its a great bike. Comfortable and reasonable relaxed riding position (more so than my YZF thunder ace, which wasnt too bad compared to more modern sports bikes) and did i mention FAST. I had my ThunderAce at 280km on the dial and him on his Blackbird just seemed to cruise past me, must have been doing close to 300.
I dont ride that fast anymore. The TTR rarely gets over 40km on the trails and i enjoy it just as much or more. Plus it Hurts too much when I fall off.
Thanks guys. It’ll be a few weeks before it goes anywhere so in the meantime I’ll move seamlessly into the ‘what else can I buy for it?’ phase of ownership!
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Pete Brown
Keighley, West Yorkshire
'94 Yamaha TTR 250 Raid (with Open Enduro headlight, grrr...)
