I’ve been on the lookout for a little trail bike for a while, after asking various people for opinions, I decided the TTR-250 (or TT250R) sounded like the perfect option (in the ACT under 300cc is $188 for a years rego…) So I hit up the bikesales, all classifieds and ebay and spotted two 1996 models on ebay, one in Gladstone with a start price of $850.00 and carby probs and a fuel tank leak and another one in Sydney with a start price of $1,890.00. Well Sydney is a little more reasonable than Gladstone, so I contacted the dude, said I’d like to come take a look Saturday morning and he said fine :o)
So I messaged Kimmie to ask for a bed Friday night and rang the seller Friday arvo to confirm (no bids on ebay yet). He said that there was someone coming out later that day to have a look… I told him I was coming up from Canberra to have a look… anyway will give him a call in the morning and just cross my fingers.
Left work about 4:15pm and just rocked up the Federal/Hume to the rock show in my helmet… found a nice falcodore to follow who was setting a nice pace but unfortunately they turned off at Marulen but a V-Strom had been following me and eventually got sick of the slower pace of the next car I decided to follow so took off and I followed him through to Pheasant’s Nest where I pulled in and he kept going. (I have to pick someone to follow otherwise I end up sitting on about 150 or 160 and that is bad.)
Fuelled up, message to Kimmie to let her know where I was at then along the Northern Road and out to Kimmie’s place where she had cooked an awesome beef stroganoff for dinner. We sat around catching up (Karl was there too) on all the goss since we had last caught up before it was off to bed.
I got caught out in the morning - I woke up - it was dark. I woke up again - it was light enough to be about 6:30am… check my phone, nope it’s 8:30! The window has security shutters on it! LOL. So I got up, had coffee and rang the dude… I was in luck, the guy who was gonna check it out the day before had done a no-show! So I said I’d be out to his place in around 1.5 hours.
Chatted with Kimmie for a while (Karl had to run off early as he had to go and collect Izzy) and then geared up and headed off… didn’t get lost (hurrah!) and found his place fairly easily. He had warned me he had a long gravelly type driveway and that it was quite sandy around the back… he wasn’t wrong! The 9 bounced her way down the driveway (it was pot-holey and muddy as well) and tried to park off to the side, nope, side stand sinks straight down, okay find a concreted spot.
And there she was… the TTR-250. Bigger than I had thought, even though Karl had warned me the night before that it was likely to be quite tall for me. John (the seller) started it up and warmed it up for a bit before backing it out and holding it while I swung a leg over. I was a bit nervous and he said to just keep my weight forward as the front might feel like it’s going to wash out through all the sandy stuff I was about to tackle. Well I probably could have walked around the track quicker but I didn’t fall over! (out the back there is a sandy track that runs through the bush - I only did the short bit but apparently it was quite extensive and gets quite “snotty” further out). I did a couple of laps and then took it up the gravelly driveway (about twice the speed that I came down it on the 9) then up the road to get it up to speed… I was accelarating and going nowhere hahahaha I guess that’s what a bike with 30hp does in comparison to the 9!! Rode it up the road abit then did a u-turn trying to stay on the tar at first then… brain kicks in… what are you on? That’s right so over the grass :o) It felt quite straight and everything so I went back to John’s and we just chatted and chatted and chatted (as you do) bikesbikesbikesbikes for ages while I poked around the bike. Started it up again, checked it’s not blowing smoke or making any weird noises (well it just sounded motorey to me).
He told me about how he came to have it, he only bought it in February this year, he bought it for his girlfriend but she sat on it and said it was too heavy. So he decided to keep it and commute on it but now its getting too cold so he was selling it. When he bought it, it had been painted black so he replaced the front and rear guards and the seat with the proper white and purple parts and repainted the tank white.
Well I really liked it and decided it had to be mine so I asked him how much he wanted for it and he said he really wanted $2,000.00 which was what I had been thinking of offering him for it so a deal was done, pending a REVS check (which he let me do on his computer… also check the CR thread in case somebody had said MEL WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT BUY A TTR-250 (they didn’t) :o) I scooted off to Richmond to get to the bank before they closed then came back handed over cold hard cash, we did the paper work then more chatchatchatbikesbikesbikes (he used to race vintage motorx and used to have an SV650 roadie but just has trail bikes now). He wasn’t happy with how the indicators were sitting on the back of the TTR so he pulled them off and played with the brackets a bit (they’re still not perfectly aligned but they are better!). He offered to put the bike on the back of his ute and drive it around to Kimmie’s place (turns out he used to live in the same street - such a Canberra moment…) so we did and then it was installed in Kimmies Garage pending me figuring out how the hell to get it home.
Chat chat chat with Kimmie for a bit (I really must get up and visit them more often - such awesome people) then headed off about 3pm. Got rained on a fair bit heading back out on the northern road and got to Pheasants Nest at about 4:15pm. Hadn’t actually eaten yet that day so a quick pie was in order (note to self - do not eat pies at Pheasants Nest. $5.00 for a pie is ridiculous!!) then I just slabbed it home from there in one hit. The 9 was complaining from around Marulan as it was pretty cold (I don’t really blame her, I was complaining too but I was a little worried if I stopped she might not start again so we just coughed and spluttered our way home). Got in about 6:30pm(?), tried to bore my sister with all my excitement about a new bike then a hot shower to defrost.
Disco very kindly offered to bring my bike to Canberra for me so he collected it from Kimmies place last night and will be dropping it round to Gos on Sunday (seeing as I won’t be back until Monday).
OK now that was a long winded way of saying I got a new bike!
TTR
TTR
Stage Two of TTR comes to Canberra
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