First topic, need a bike now

[Tonibe63]

I can't see many going to France or Spain this year so you might aswell find your feet in the UK on a trail bike. Buy right, you won't lose money and you'll gain a lot of experience ready for a possible bike change next year.
Welcome to ABR, it might get expensive .

[MotoCP]

Well done Ian for finding this lovely CRF250Rally.

604596AD-1D91-4936-A6C5-7065118D3F51.jpeg (184.93 KiB) Viewed 1679 times

You can now tap into the wealth of knowledge from the numerous CRF owners on here.

[johnnyboxer]

I nipped out on my XR400 this afternoon to fill up the tank at the garage 4 miles away, not ridden it for 3 months
Just in a jacket & jeans, trainers & open face helmet
I felt 17 again !
Just great whizzing along on the lightweight XR, no frills bike ...Really refreshing

Then took out my new T700 this evening and whilst more complex bike, so relatively simple - but the XR400 is just so old school

[Longshanks]

Thanks everyone one your some sound advice.
As you can see I got myself a really nice CRF rally, don’t know what I was thinking when I thought I could handle a KTM 790. The Honda feels plenty fast enough for me right now. Unfortunately the previous owner drilled the baffles out so a little loud. If anyone can recommend a good Replacement that not too loud, that would be good.
So some good practice time now.
Thanks again
Ian.

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

Sensible choice...I always think that by the time you've paid for the damage you'd do having a big adv bike as your first experience of 'off-road' you could have got a 250/350 fo the same price and had fun learning rather than struggling.
those folk you see doing the impossible on big bikes are nearly always semi-professionals with levels of skill and fitness that us mere mortals will never attain. Invariably those people learned everything in years on small bikes, then transferred their skills over to the big ones.
Even the likes of the Marquez brothers hone their skills messing about on little Honda trail bikes.

[johnnyboxer]

Sensible choice...I always think that by the time you've paid for the damage you'd do having a big adv bike as your first experience of 'off-road' you could have got a 250/350 fo the same price and had fun learning rather than struggling.
those folk you see doing the impossible on big bikes are nearly always semi-professionals with levels of skill and fitness that us mere mortals will never attain. Invariably those people learned everything in years on small bikes, then transferred their skills over to the big ones.
Even the likes of the Marquez brothers hone their skills messing about on little Honda trail bikes.

Most have been Trials riders so their bike control finesse, is measured in spades