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

After numerous 100 mile day trips on my recently rehabbed TTR250, the time had come to pile on the camping gear and take a week to head out on dirt roads and loop out and back from my home in Missoula Montana USA. The  BLUE LINE  on the maps approximates the trip through South West Montana.  The goal was ride  as much 20 MPH dirt roads and minimize paved road travel, so some of the tracks look crazy but Dan and I were sight seeing and soaking up country we often motor by at 70 mph on the way to somewhere.

Day one was  187 miles from Missoula to South of Butte Mt into the heart of the Highland Mtns, just a few miles of secondary pavement. We ended the day on the roughest 3 miles of road of the trip,  MOOSE CREEK TO THE ROCHESTER ROAD.

Day two was another 150 mile day with some bike repairs thrown in and  grizzly bear activity/ wounded grizzly bear in the camping area for good measure which diverted our ride late in the day out into desert sage brush country.  No bears, but coyotes  howling all nite long and lots of mosquitos.

Day three was welcome light rainl and overcast ride through barren grassy hills, saw moose and deer as per normal and into Dillion Mt by noon, then on to Ghost town, WE HAD  TO ABORT A 25 mile ride on dirt due to washed out roads,   Bannock Ghostown and onto camping on BLOODY DICK CREEK just below the resevoir.   Bear in camp at nite, but our food was hoisted up in a tree,  camper down the road fired warning shot over bears head and brought us to attention at 5:30 am.

Day four through Bloody Dick station area , out into the BIG HOLE VALLEY, and destination Jackson Mt.  Local hotel owner checked our maps and hoped for route and we had to abandon one of the off road section we were looking forward to,   some roads closed in the area due to ownerrship disputes.  On to Elkhorn hot springs for a dipand needed washing,   Coolidge Ghost town for an intense summer rain storm and great camp on the Wise River by 6 pm.

Day five was some secondary pavement into Anaconda Mt, so that loop without gas was 294 miles, we had water bottles filled with gaas stuffed into our paniers  to make that,  Georgetwon lake/ East fork resevoir, down ROCK CREEK,  5 miles of  4 lane highway at the end of the day, and  a slow dirt section and back to the house.

752 miles, 5 days, average speed was 22 miles per hour, we had ridden our intended loop quicker than anticipated due to throwing out more riding and camping in the grizzly bear problem area and closed back road East of Jackson Mt.

TTR 250 with aftermarket carb ran right along at 75 Miles to the gallon,   14/44 gearing maybe 40 lbs of gear to start and lighter as we ate our way through the dried meals we carried.  We passed on campgrounds and pitched our tents when we were tired,  we boiled water for coffee and dried meals and ate pizza and hamburger as we passed through towns.   A bigger gas tank would be good, we carried gas to make our loops but only had to turn to reserve on the last 5 miles of our loop from Sheridan Mt and into Dillion Mt.

The bike quiet as a mouse and ok at 9200 ft,  not quite  as crisp at that altitude but ok.  While shopping for a speedometer last fall  I realized mounting my GARMIN GPS might work as well, works better and trip notes and altitude changes are interesting as you travel the mtns   9200 ft altutude as our highest point, most of the trip was 5-7000 ft   After getting back home I will try next leaner main jet and I am pretty sure over performance will be better. 

-- Edited by sledman 1 on Saturday 28th of July 2018 04:00:32 PM