General Chat

[Peter r]

Hi Snakeears, do yourself a favour and get a trailer, it's not a good idea to ride to a ride.
What bike: Yamaha WR250F then when you get off ya P's buy a Husaberg Fe570!!!

[sjkermode]

WR250R pros: mellow easy to ride, shorter, larger maintenance intervals, could be ridden on road for long distances.  cons: lower performance, more of a trail bike, could be a bit boring after a while.
WR250F pros: more performance, better suspension, an enduro bike as opposed to a trail bike. More exciting and fun to ride.  Cons: much more maintenance, not suited to riding on road for any distance 

[Zeb Colic]

So here's my story after years of not riding I've decided to get into it again, I grew up on a Yz80 then an IT250 then chucked it all away when I moved to Melbourne, now i'm a 40 something getting my L's and starting riding again, very interested to join here and ride with you guys, so i have narrowed the choice of bike to WR250R or Wr250F, I dont have a trailer,so I would commute to the dirt  but I only live about 1/2hr from Kinglake, Healsville, Warbarton etc,
Salesman pushing WR250F at me,  I found it a little tall I'm only about 5'8" with short potato picker legs, so what bike would suit the kind of rides AMTRA put on?
Cheers

The 250s are great dont get me wrong but having been through the same process as you not so long ago , think longer term and what you will want to ride terrain wise 12 - 18 months from now when you develop some skills , mid capacity is something you should have a think about like , TE310 HUSKY , Sherco 3.0 , these are all light well powered bikes that handle great and are forgiving as you learn the ropes . I know everyone will say ride them first but when you havent been on one for years how do you know whats good and whats not becasue you cant ride hard enough to tell .

Good luck with it and dont rush it , if in doubt do nothing casue you will be stuck with your mistake for a long time   

PS A trailer is a must especially as you start to venture further form home .... and you will want to venture further from home quickly

[DanJ]

I'm about the same height and was concerned about how tall the bikes were before I bought one, but got use to it after a few rides and don't notice it now at all, so am glad I didn't spend the money to get it lowered as my confidence solved the problem..  I have ridden a couple of lowered bikes and they do feel great, but found I put my feet down more which is a no-no anyway.

I bought a WR250F, they're great and reliable bikes.  Zeb is right that a mid-range bike is worth considering as well, but really unless you like to ride flat out, or on open roads, then a 250cc is fine.  There's plenty of great WR's on the 2nd hand market, maybe that's worth considering for your first bike back into the sport, then if you find it's under-powered in 2 years time, you sell it for almost what you paid for it..  Selling a new bike in the first 1-2 years is going to loose you a lot of cash.

A motorbike carrier like these might be a viable alternative to buying a large trailer that you need to store, I've never used one so can't comment, but they atleast take up no space at home.  But a trailer of some type is essential, riding home on the road after one of Pete's Eildon rides will be the end of you..   

http://www.hitchmate.com.au/motorbike.php