We since I have a little experience here I will chime in.
Leaning to ride a two Yamaha TZ or Honda RS WILL make you a better rider and beat up on some liter bikes (actually all bikes) for sure.
The TZ250’s are starting to get expensive to run…depending. An example is cranks are 1,700 or a tad more and now some of the parts have gone NLA. Also, many of the two stroke gurus are retiring and don’t dispense there years of knowledge. They have moved on.
Another thing, and what some consider a negative, these bikes require a completely different mindset to own and ride. Believe it or not, some hate them, as they require you to ride it like your ass is on fire, they require a strict maintenance schedule and you will miss a session here or their due to jetting issues to maybe having to change gearing. Most of that gets solved over time if you keep a detailed note book on jetting and gearing, which again people don’t like because when their buddies are talking about that last session you are sitting their writing down information on your session. Simply put they are work. Work to ride, work to keep reliable and work to keep track of LOL!
Oh yeah, they are push start only…so enjoy running down pit lane on a 90 degree day! And then you sit on it revving it up getting it to temp (you cant go until a certain temp and they do not idle). If you time it wrong all your buddies have left and you are sitting their revving away missing parts of your session.
Ok, now that I have covered a few negatives here is the great!
Simply put, there is nothing like these machines. You can break so much later and carry so much more corner speed it seems to defy the laws of physics. When you are running and having a great day I have a perpetual smile in my helmet. What an R1 is on the straights is what you can do in turns. What is scary is the limits are hard to gauge. I am slow on my TZ125. I watch USGPRU racing videos and talk with 125 racers. I cannot believe the difference we have in lap times on the same equipment! The two stroke community is very tight knit and owning, maintain and riding one of these machines makes you part of, at times, an almost fanatical cult.
There is a much to cover so I am going to PM you my number, please give me a call and I get give you way more of the meat and potatoes of these bikes and what you would face in riding one and also bring up some bikes you may want to consider.
PM sent!
Peace,
BZ
