Two Stroke Motocross
Two Stroke Motocross Forum => Non-Moto => Topic started by: mj4trax on January 15, 2011, 10:49:04 AM
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I'm new to this forum, so think I'll start with a small introduction.
I've been an 3 and 4 wheeler rider for the past 24 years. I've done some harescramble racing been successful enough at it.
I was a die hard 3wheeler guy until my brother bought a trx250R in 1992. He still has the same quad (1986 model) and I have my own. The ATV world has been without race-worthy new 2-stroke quads since 1989, last year of the trx250R.
Anyway, my love of the two-stroke powerplant in that machine eventually led me to yearn for something else with a two stoke. .... something newer. . .. two years ago I bought a 2003 RM250 and absolutely love it. .. since then I bought into another (2004) RM250 and recently picked up a 2000 yz125. The trx250r is now relegated to family trail riding duty as any time I have a choice, I've been swinging a leg over the bike instead.
Anyway, over the years I have gathered quite a bit of knowledge about the trx250R model, and I'm always up for a conversation about them . ..
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Oh yeah. I've been debating over building a trx up, or simply buying a yfz450 and yanking the motor out for a trx250r/banshee motor.
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A 1987 TRX250R with white plastic and red/blue graphics and gold wheels to this day is the only ATV I would like to have in the garage if I had room for a collection. Those were nice :) .
(http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f190/SVCoop/Trx250r.jpg)
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When I first bought my 250R, it looked kinda like that one... I've ridden the wheels off since... now it looks more like this:
(http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z241/mjmisek/250R/TRX5R/DSCN2241.jpg)
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Heres mine before I got rid of it.
When I first got it
(http://i52.tinypic.com/2lkcg3s.jpg)
After:
(http://i56.tinypic.com/b5fj7m.jpg)
Amazing what brake cleaner can do.
I kind of regret getting rid of it, but there is always other bikes.
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Selling off a 250R and buying anything else with 4 wheels is just plain wrong. .. though I'd have to say that if it came down to it and I had to sell my trx to keep my RM250 . .. that would be a tough call.
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Exactly, the reason I sold it is that it needed quite a bit, and I wanted to get back into trikes for a bit.
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Trust me, I've learned in the past two years just HOW MUCH cheaper it is to ride a bike than a quad. ..
Heck, I spent as much $$ buying an aftermarket 310 cylinder for that quad as my RM250 costs, and the bone stock bike motor runs harder. ..
I put as much $$ into the suspension on my quad as the entire bike cost. .. and never even got close to the same level of suspension action as the bike. ..
In the two years since I've bought the bike, I guarantee it's saved me more $$ from not buying replacement parts for the quad than it's cost me from it's own purchase and maintenance.
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Have you seen the new designed ESR cylinders? Their non powervalve 310 is now $599, and they are about to make quick change clutch covers. As for prices, its because of the age of the quad, and the fact it was only made for 4(oops) years. I will probably get a bike, but there is always temptation to go get another TRX/ATC250R.
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Yep. .. I bought one of the new ESR 310's ... though I got the Powervalve on it so it was more like $850 . .. on my comment earlier, I was lumping that cost in with some other changes I made at the time and exaggerating just a bit. ...
To me, it's more of a deal with the quads just simply having more wear items as I got pretty good at finding deals. .. they may have only made the quad for 4 years ('86, '87, '88 and '89) but it was the only quad worth racing until the YZF450 debuted in 2004. .. so there is just a TON of aftermarket companies that make parts for the 250R. ..
Other than the center cases for the motor, EVERYTHING else for the quad can be purchased aftermarket . ... don't think there's any bikes out there we can say that about. .. though that's a good thing as they never stopped making race bikes.
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Even then the 450 is debatable. The only thing I don't like about the 250r's is the left side case.
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there was one on my local Craigslist last week,I just tried to find the listing, must have sold.
Personally I hate quads, they are the reason for every riding spot in my area getting shut down.
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I'm talking trails folks, not tracks.
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Trails? meh, its the big 4x4 quads Cough "jeeps" that destroy riding area's. The average 4x4 weighs over 700lbs, now add that with 500-850cc motor, and you get two monster ruts.
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Before I threw my leg over a bike, I never understood where that animosity came from. .. I never had anything against the bikers. .. why did they all seem to hate quads. :o
I now have a different perspective and understand the viewpoint, but at the same time I can say that they are NOT going away, no matter how much anyone wishes for it. .. and all recreational riders have the same common enemy. United we stand, divided we fall.
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I once had the opportunity to ride a heavily modified Lt250R Suzuki quad. It was extremely fast and pulled like crazy to the left,to go straight ahead you had to steer to the right! :o
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Something was wrong with the lt250r... :o
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I once had the opportunity to ride a heavily modified Lt250R Suzuki quad. It was extremely fast and pulled like crazy to the left,to go straight ahead you had to steer to the right! :o
I've owned two quads in my life time, one was a 1989 LT250R (one was a blaster I bought for my wife and she hated it). It was definitely fast. But I agree with factoryX, something was wrong with the one you rode. I am just not a quad guy and I didn't keep very long and went back to bikes. This was around 1998-99 I'd say.
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I once had the opportunity to ride a heavily modified Lt250R Suzuki quad. It was extremely fast and pulled like crazy to the left,to go straight ahead you had to steer to the right! :o
Sounds like the lt either had the tie rods adjusted wrong, had a bent frame or both.
The round tube frames (which almost all new sport racing quads have, and the LT250R's had) bend to the side very easily when hitting stumps or trees with the front wheels.
The old honda 250R's had a rectangular tube frame. That design was a little bit heavier, but allowed the chassis to be much more rigid (which can also lead to lots of frame cracks) and durable against bends.
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"I now have a different perspective and understand the viewpoint, but at the same time I can say that they are NOT going away, no matter how much anyone wishes for it. .. and all recreational riders have the same common enemy. United we stand, divided we fall."
You are right there, I wish that more quad enthusiasts would find that same outlook.
and yes it is mostly the big 4x4's that tear up the trails. But it's the guys on the racing quads that take out the baffling in the muffler to make it faster, ??? and drag race or spin donuts in the parking area w/out helmets, and want to ride in the open areas near houses that get the cops called.
The place near me, i've been riding for 10 years, it was super secret, and been ridden daily for over 20 years with no complaints and no cops. it is in the woods behind what used to be an airport runway which is now an industrial park, and has a subdivision nearby. the trails used to be fast tight single track. well bout 5 years ago someone let it leak, and next thing you know quads started showing up, they couldn't get through the trails so they would drag race on the tarmac and haul ass down the fire roads that ran through the property. We marked all the trail crossings at 50, 25, yards before and at the crossings. They were ignored and people ended up getting hurt, two people died out there in the same year. the first year the quads started coming out. then the cops started staking the place out on weekends and running people off, after two years of not riding out there I went back and the quads had taken the place over, all the trails were deeply rutted twin track. During that time there was a huge fire out there that destroyed 75 acres, it was confirmed by the fire marshall that the fire was caused by a hot four stroke quad that overturned into the scrub brush, the exhaust pipe ignited the dry scrub and the fire spread.
they pretty well shut the place down after that and the trails have settled and the brush has grown back, I have been pretty lucky the last several times I've been out there to not encounter the fuzz. My buddy that cut all those trails back in the day, was out there Sunday and encountered the fuzz, he was warned not to come back, that the next time he was caught out there they'd arrest him.
Bunk Deal
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That is officially the first case of a fire being caused by an ATV that I have heard of.
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I know the exact crowd that you're talking about.. ..
A lot of the problem with quads is that the initial skill investment to move one from point A to point B is ZERO skill vs. some balance and agility that is needed to get a bike from the same point. This scares most of the irresponsible recreating public away from bikes. .. but not quads.
I will contend that to ride a quad at a high level takes a multitude of skills and strenghts that is very comparable to the bikes (though it's just "different". .. so they really can't be quantitatively compared.) but a VERY small % of quad riders are ever serious enough about it to lean these skills. So many just want to go fast in a straight line or find a mud hole to dig up. I can't even count the number of times I've seen other quads unload in the same parking lot as me and get all ready to ride down the road. .. not the trail.
Anyway, the point I'm trying to get to is that my riding buddies and I always felt like we were completely against the grain with other riders. .. that is until we stumbled into the world of dirt bikes. Now we're unloading in the parking lots for the single track stuff and everyone else that shows up is there to ride the trail as well. . . not to screw around in the parking lot or run down the fire roads. I've found my home ;D
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More ATVs are sold in North America then motorcycles.They are a cash cow for the manufacturers.
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More ATVs are sold in North America then motorcycles.They are a cash cow for the manufacturers.
Absolutely true. .. Manufacturers sell ATV's for significantly more $$ than bikes, but do no where near the R&D on them.
For example, since putting out the trx450r in late 2004, Honda has only updated it once (in 2006, they gave it a toned down version of the '05 crf450 motor, changed some geometry slightly, and added an option for electric start) and has rested on their laurels since. . .. just raking in the $$$
Yamaha left the banshee and blaster alone for 15+ years and sold them like hotcakes the whole time.
That's pretty much the definition of "cash cow"
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I agree many on quads are not technically capable of riding a bike. The 1000cc engine, and four wheel drive have given them a false sense of rideable talent. True at a higher lever, the talent rises, and the rest are left to wallow in the mud. Lets not forget, there are also idiots on bike too... I was at a park which is only open to riding 2 times a year, (Powerline Park in Ohio) and they also have a GNCC race there as well. I was running the GNCC track when I came upon a father and his son who's quad had broken down and was blocking the trail. I stopped to give them a hand to get the broken quad to a safe area where it could be repaired, when a fellow dirt biker showed up... He claimed he had been chasing me for miles, that I blew by him like he was standing still. Here I am in all of my safety gear, and him with shorts no shirt, hiking boots (untied of course) and lastly of course no helmet. After I heard the word "DUDE" 5 times in the first 15 words, I don't think I heard another word he said... I helped the father get the quad into a condition where they could limp back to camp, he was very appreciative and got a good laugh when I said please excuse the "dude" he's an idiot... and then proceeded to blow the doors off the "DUDE" again... the only thing he had going for him was he was on a RM250 smoker...
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Looking at your signature line, I think you need to get the son a trx250R. .. so he can at least be a two-stoke "quad turd" (your words) :P
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Dude, I totally know what you mean bro, we have Dudes like that all over here too man. And let me me tell you Dude, they are the last Dudes I'll ever tell about my totally bodacious riding spots. huh huh huh (<< Spicoli laugh )