value for money ..this little bike is hard to beat

[moto al]

That's my next purchase , a cracking bike . (thumbs) (thumbs) Al

[nethen1]

Braaaaapppp (thumbs)

Looks like very exciting times ahead Steve

Congratulations (thumbs)

[scoobydidler]

I was out yesterday with cowling on his 250l. As catcitrus said, the seat height must be wrong its a diddy little thing, so narrow as well which makes the difference. Good looking thing too.
On that topic minky, have a word with cowling, he has a substantial rear rack incorporating x2 tool tubes plus a small rear bag to carry all you need.
That surprised me minky, i thought theyd be much much dearer than that! How much are they new?


Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

[minkyhead]

thanks scoob gettin a rear rack is easy enough ...getting pannier supports is not so easy ..i cant put too much of a pack on the back as its loading up the suspension ...going down steep bumpy stuff the bag keeps hitting me in the ass :woohoo: ...it is indeed a small bike but it quite comfy especially now ive got raisers on it to stand up

list is4199 best i could find was 3795 new

clean 14s 32 to 35

clean 13s 27 to 3

[Daymo]

I've got one too and really rate it for a "real world" adventure bike.

I've recently added a rear rack and intend to fabricate some pannier arms from the rack and then mount to the rear peg brackets.

Currently trying to justify to myself the price of Adventure spec Magadan panniers....

Oh and also found someone to modify my seat as i find it murder.

Other than that it's magic (thumbs)

[SteveW]

I had a short go on Minkey's bike today. We were on a gravel trail.
I really liked it, I didn't push it, but it felt nice, light, comfy, quiet and refined.
I'd say it could be a very useful light weight all road travel bike.
It was shifting along nicely on the B roads to the trails.

[minkyhead]

nice to see you steve ..good day was had ..little factfinding shakedown

bike was great on the road .no problems at all on gravel tracks low speed hits and even on the rolling rocks it was ok

after you split off we did some little tracks ive done before it has grassy base with round and sharp stones and pebbles sticking out so no give all high speed abrubt edges and whooo it really showed up on here the front was deflecting sideways and the rear was badly awful even going slow it was kicking out badly ..i was thinking for a while ill get away withthings ..but that little trail showed up a fairly big problem

the abrupt choppy hits cause a lot of kicking out especially at the rear on washboard type surfaces .. but when it kicks you out from a rock sidways on to wet grass its interesting hmy:

weird on big rolling roacks it did ok but sharp fixed hits watch out :S no rebound and woefully undersprung ..its going to have to have some work done on the front ..valves and springs ..but the rear shock has to go ..light trails gravel roads its ace but the uncontroled suspension really did show up today ..if id took down there on the test ride i probably wouldnt have bought it to be honest

theres no doubt that a drz or dr ttr is a better trail bike but i like the idea of a new one ..it may make sense to sell her on and go that route to be truthful

but ..i think im going to stick with it as for the most part it did well ..the soft delivery low ist gear good balence nice road delivery et ect

so its not really looking so cheap now as im pretty sure ill have to throw 600 or 700 quid at it ..
.but if it gets done right it will be not far off a modern fuel injected xr and thats what i hope to get from it (thumbs)

..the litte monkey fooled me for a while ..it does pretty well on some tough trails of a certain type ..but on some little trails she was borderline dangerous :woohoo: grrrr

oh well back to the drawing board for now

[minkyhead]

it fooled me a bit....as i say on some trails it really is quite good ..but it got found out today ..cant say any different ..

so the plan is to get it suspended properly ..not half baked good quality valves and a decent rear shock and have a modern xr250 600 miles old for 3500

theres enough in the bike that i like to make it worth a punt for me ..if i cant make it work ill sell the bits half price and the bike and take the 600/700 quid hit .. there is enough to like in the bike to take a bit of a punt i think (thumbs)

[Chris S]

The KLX250S was much better off-road

I thought so too but the price of them used in the UK seems crazy compared to a newer L.
I went through the same process looking for DRZs recently. Good ones are hard to find so I skipped onto the next on my wish list.
You can't loose much weight on an L but I reckon some suspension is all it takes.
Then, like you say, suddenly not so cheap but a sorted trail bike.
I actually prefer the Brazilian XR Tornado (v. rare in the UK). Same poke and mpg but less weight and old school tech. A bit tall for some perhaps.
On my AM website the L pages are by far the most visited. People love them all RTW and Steph J (now in Central America) is getting on to 40k miles on hers with nothing but leaking fork seals iirc.

[minkyhead]

i did consider the klx i have ridden one but not off road ..i did prefer the crf on the road
i was aware that the suspension was budget but it does now show up more im taking it places ..
the other thing that swayed me is that you can get just about anything for the crf
it reasuring that you say sort the suspension to be good ..that is the only real critisism i have ... it must have been a real bumpy ride with all the luggage at times from your pictures



in amongst all this i have to confess i do like a lot about the bike so that kind of seals the deal in the direction ill take hopefully she will do good afterwards ..the other thing i could add althouh it was awkward in certain places ..and in fairness good in others the bike is so easy to manage it will certainly get there (thumbs)