different matter El but the green lanes are pretty much closed to motorised vehicles with new regs our fab government brought in a few years ago... unless your on private land your a bit knackered in blighty.. but i will ask a mate of mine who was into it big time but now competes in enduro/trials
depends where you are....plenty of green lanes round here...but they are being closed at a rapid rate. join local TRF to find more info, prob best place for bike advice too. i'd advise getting a bike with electric and kick start. i bought an XR400, great simple bike, kick start only - then broke my knee!
Get yourself a nice little 2-stroke but decide which engine size you want and what you want to do with it. I've got a KTM 250EXC which is mental to ride but I wish I'd gone for the 300 which has much more torque and is a lot easier to ride. The smaller bikes are good but if you need to use them on the road to get between lanes you'll be screaming the nuts off it and will soon get fed up. If you're not bothered by lack of power (as if) then a road biased 4-stroke like a Suzuki DRZ will be ok but if you decide to race it you're going to be sorry. The competition biased 4-strokes are a lot more hassle because of the frequency of oil and filter changes plus new pistons, valve clearance checks etc etc. The smoker needs a new air filter when the old one gets dirty, a new spark plug every year, new gearbox oil every year and a new piston/rings every 50 hours of running. I change wheel, steering head and swinging arm bearings and brake pads on mine every winter plus get the forks serviced at the same time. I run mine with tyre mousses so they have to be removed, cleaned and lubricated at least every 4 hours depending on use (how hot they've run) and if you don't have the kit to do this it's a shit of a job. You'll want different tyres for mud and rocky surfaces and they need to be road legal so cheap race tyres are out. Mousses are also illegal on the road but I leave a valve stem sticking out of the rim so plod don't realise unless they take the cap off and check if there's any air in there :wink: Once you decided what you want to ride and what you want to do with it (race the bastard!) you need to join the TRF so you can get help finding out where you can legally ride without risk of your bike being turned into an expensive cube of plastic and steel. Do it, it's great fun.
I forgot to add the most important bit..... Buy the lightest bike you can find because you'll be picking it up a lot and those big old adventure bikes weighing over 200kg are a pain in the arse when you've thrown it into a ditch or dropped it when what appeared to be a 6" deep puddle that actually has 2' deep ruts hidden in it and you've got to stand the bike up vertically to drain the water out of the exhaust
+1 Andy My mate lost his entire XR400 on Strata Florida, down a 4ft rut (the left one as we were travelling) i was in the right side rut and it was indeed 6" Spent the next 3hrs offloading water from the bike, including the cylinder, it did work in the end mind you
this should just about do you..... View attachment 19095 slightly more seriously, x country MTB is the way to go......
I think your argument about the 4 strokes is a little out of date. Maybe 8-10 year ago they were a pain in the arse for needing valves and piston but I've had 2 crf450's and now I'm on a Ktm 350 sxf and as long as you keep the oil and filters in good nick the rest hardly needs touched.
+1 they are no bother compared to 2 strokes. through norm use and care my mate has never said he has ever had to replace pistons and rebore unlikw 2 strokes
all modern enduros are good, depends how tall you are terry, ive had ktm400exc, yam wr450f , Honda crf250x and gas gas ec250 , all quite tall bikes, im 5,10 a Honda crf230 is lower ( 33 inch compared to 38 inch seat height I think ) and a good capable green laner for someone 5.5 etc , don't worry about power, lanings more about getting where your going, not about how fast, general lane speeds are only 20 to 40 miles mph and you will have tyre pressures of prob 10psi in the back anyway so you wont be going nuts, as said before, go electric start, personally Id go 4 stroke rather than 2 stroke, youll understand if you go down steep slopes where engine braking is mighty handy, and dabbing the brakes might well put you on your arse
I have a Yamaha TTR250 and I can't recommend it enough. It is totally bullet proof, nice and torquey, not too tall for me at 5' 8" (with a lowering link and cut-down seat), enough power but not too much to get yourself in trouble, and light enough and easy enough to start (electric and kick) when you do :tongue: Most importantly it is very forgiving and easy to ride - important if you only ride off-road occassionally like I do.
I'm only going on what the guys I ride with say about their 4 stroke KTMs (they all worship the orange God) and without fail they bitch about the additional work to keep them fit for abuse compared to a smoker. It's mainly down to time spent on routine jobs that you don't need to do with the more basic 2-stroke engine and if you're using top quality 2-stroke oil they don't wreck engines. Mine's done over 130 hours now and while on a road bike that's not a massive amount it's a lot on a competition engine and it's on it's 2nd piston, 3rd set of rings and original bore. I'm not anal about how I look after it so it only gets a gearbox oil change in the winter and I've spent more time changing tyres than any other job on the bike. I don't do many races because I'm crap so I save myself for the Welsh rallies with 50 mile laps but apart from that it's only used for green laning where I behave and normally stick to 25mph but it does get held flat out in top on proper roads if I'm nipping from one lane to another. The only mods it's got are SXS billet brakes, different reeds and a bigger fuel tank because at race speeds it won't do a 50 mile lap on the standard 9l tank and even on the 13l I've fitted I have to refuel every lap if they're over 30 miles. And yes, the lack of engine braking on steep downhills leaves you on a terror trip and the reason it's got SXS calipers is because they're more progressive but even then I've gone flying when it's got out of control and tucked the front on loose rocks.
I have to say from all the dirt bikes ive had, I change oil and filters every 4 months, clean the air filters when they are dirty, get the garage to check valves once a year when its MOT time and new plug and that's it, never had any mechanical problems, just clean it after every ride with pro clean and lube chain, change tyres prob twice a year,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,my first KTM though, but it seems fine agree with dave, TTR250 a good starter bike / all round enduro with electric start
I have a ktm 400 exc and had it around 5 years. Apart from having to rebuild the engine after a drop in a river bent the conrod there hasn't been many issues. I change the oil after 3 or 4 rides and air filter when it's dirty, valve clearances when it starts to get a bit tappy. Lots of torque for challenging trails but plenty of power for the odd motocross day. Of you want more reliable then a ttr250 or xr400 is the way to go. Just bare in mind if the Honda does go pop then it is mega pricey!
I would avoid an xr400, unless its had a leccy start conversion. Kicking one over when in a river/bog after you just stalled is a pig. Apart from the lack of leccy start, the xr400 is a great green laner
The XR400's are bomb proof. My mate has got one of the early '97/'98 R-plate kickstart only ones and over the years its been raced, green laned, crashed, dropped, cartwheeled etc, and yet it still kept going! Been mostly parked up now for a good 5 years so probably looks a minger. The XR250's are great starter bikes, much like the Yam TTR's.
