Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Its not worth £2500 when you could get a Serrow, XT, KLR or a DR200/250 for easily sub £1500/2000.
Keep your eye on Pughs auctions as loads of stuff goes on there cheap. The older trail bikes have come down a bit.

They’d take £2k and it is minty and 8k miles. Struggling to find a better LDT option for similar money in that condition.

People want £2-2.5k for old TLR200’s, and I can’t find any 4RT’s for less than £3k.

Serrow, XT etc all good options but similarly thin. DR250 would be too close to the 350 in weight, I think.

Do you want a trail bike or a trials bike with a seat?

Best cheap crossover is a Pampera. 4rides are expensive but you have the Sherco for that stuff don't you? Ossa do the explorer which pop up from time to time. Most LDT stages aren't that hard though that they need that crazy a bike.

Well, the LDT run locally has a rep for difficulty!

I have the Sherco ST300 with the bigger tank/seat yea. I used it the other day and felt awful range anxiety. Felt like it just didn’t suit trails to get to a section to practice (the idea behind buying the seat unit).

The DR350 is my trail bike, but it’s a bit heavy.

Someone but a 4RT engine into a 4Ride but they want more than £3.2k. For that I could buy an enduro.

Pampera was on the list, but I had some reluctance toward it for some reason. Can’t remember why.

Edit: ah yea because 2T. The Pampera I’d be worried for all the parts issues and that it is likely ragged.

I assume the difficulty comes more form the mud?

I thought the 4ride and 4RT were similar apart from the odd tweak to suspension pegs and gearing? I stand to be corrected though. Surely it would ride very very similar to the Sherco?

Pampera spares are easy enough to find as its a TXT/JTR underneath.

Yea mud, and the actual flag positions. Sometimes it’s about forcing a particular line which is nigh on impossible after someone else has chewed up a hole in the hill.

Ha… considering the shopping list a friend went through with a mid-00’s TXT Pro trials bike… maybe it’s the Gas Gas I’m avoiding more than the 2T!

4RT/4Ride has different gearing yea. 4RT is better range they say.

Apparently 4T trials bikes ride different to 2T, more difficult because none of the smoker overrun avoiding a stall.

Yeah more engine brake obviously but it's not a bad thing most of the time. Normally more grunt from the bottom is nice, although you know even a two stroke doesn't lack torque, but it's more linear delivery as they don't come on the pipe. I have ridden modern and pre65 2t and 4t and honestly I like them all. Pre65 4t takes the most adjusting to as they do have a lot of engine braking. You would be fine on any.
Pre 03 gas gas are super reliable. As soon as they went to pro quality dropped then it picks up again in 07. I think Pampera might not have got the pro engine even though they ran to 05 so you should be sound with anything pre 05 on them.

Hmmmm. I’m tempted to go view the local Pampera. It’s similar money to the SL.

YZ125 but if when we do it again I’ll do it on the 95 CR125 I’m building.

After a sand race bikes are pumped, Weston I think wouldn’t be worse

FWIW, I learnt to ride on an SL230 ex farm bike and it was the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned. It was awesome. Low seat for the style of bike which is great when you're my stature. Good fun off road but not much to compare it to except a DR250. I sold it for £1500 with 10k kms and have major, major regrets over 10 years later.

I know bugger all about trials but four stroke enduro and mx bikes definitely seem to find grip easier than two strokes. It's not the torque, so much as the gap between the power pulses. They're a lot easier to ride if you're feeling lazy. I still love the two stroke hit though, and the ability to break traction so easily.

@number21 may be similar to people’s experience of the DR350. I’m sorely tempted by the SL. It seems daft to buy something so close to the DR though.

@Jung very interesting thanks.

Well, compared to my brothers DR250, the SL was waaay smaller, a bit lighter, and an awful lot slower.

For me it was more fun to ride because of the size of it, but the DR was so much better on the road. It was the Djebel version.

On the lanes the speed isn’t such an issue, but yea. It might feel a bit pants after the DR. Maybe I should hold out for something more trials-y.

Anybody need one of my kidneys?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/116364657934

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Damn I'm tempted by that SL. Got a pic of it? It's almost for the nostalgia in my case.

In other news, the RVF400 is now running fine after oil, coolant, new thermostat, new coolant pipes, rad cap, new hose clamps (it had a bit of a leak). Fan isn't working but it isn't getting too hot any more. Bonus is the radiators were already nearly new. The rear shock is utter rubbish but I found a 2 way second hand Nitron to go in.

Still don't feel super confident out on the road though, even though it's an un-intimidating bike, it's my first sport bike and I feel I have a bit to learn to ride it properly. It takes a while to get out to decent roads, living central as well.

Awesome - get some pics up!

I've never ridden the RVF but spent quite a bit of time on the NC30 in my youth. Thrash that puppy and get used to hanging off like a gibbon! They're not very heavy but the weight is quite front biased, so need a bit of muscling to turn.

Been a bit lazy taking pictures of it considering I've had it for months now.

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That's superb. I'm jealous!

UK or JDM?

I think all the RVFs were JDM only, but a whole lot came in as grey imports. It's definitely ex Japan anyway, but was imported when it was quite young.

Are the fairings oe honda? If they are remove and fit a set of cheap Chinese copies as the honda oe ones are valuable and increase the value of the bike

Sadly, I think only the nose cone is OG honda. They're quite good quality though - the tail isn't great fit but everything else is not bad. The front V bit doesn't have mesh, just holes punched into the plastic, which is a bit shit.

Cut the panel open, install a mesh for cooling.

What are the rads like?