MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
i've got one of those nagging ideas that won't go away...
long and short i grew up riding trials and ended up racing enduro before marriage, kids etc came along in the late 90s and bikes were sold for double glazing and stuff like that. my last bike was a mid 90s honda cr250, one of the last before they went spar framed, set up for enduro with lights, weighted flywheel etc. loved that bike.
i'm not entirely sure i want to race again, maybe just the odd local hare and hounds, but there's quite a few mx practice tracks about that look fun.
i quite fancy an early spar framed CR just to see how they ride, but that aside, with a budget of 1-1.5k whats worth looking at from the late 90s early 00? how are the KTM for instance, i've seen a couple of those recently that looked nice and well specced?
i'm thinking 250 2 stroke for ease of maintenance, i don't really want to go 4 stroke or down the evo/classic type route.
There's not much to choose between two strokes from the major manufacturers in that era. The current owner will be more important than who built it.
For enduro the ktm 200 exc was the do it all bike, or the 300 if you've got big bones.
I don't know much about them at all but based on very little knowledge at the time I really wanted one of those first aluminium beam framed CR250s. They were apparently just the absolute business at the time and probably still stands up today. Still a good looking bike. In fact, I want one again now. Thanks for that...
Whatever you buy, having been in the 'game' before you'll know what to look for and be aware of the cost of 'consumables'.
If not racing, maybe look older?
Not sure where you live, but where you going to ride it as there seems to be less places available now.
Gav lots of sites for "evo" mx stuff on Facebook CR's and YZ's seem to be most sought after or restored.
Whatever you do don't buy a Husaberg unless you love spannering... Amazingly powerful and capable bikes, but main bearings every 50 hours etc, broke even my enthusiasm!
I was also rubbish at riding it which didn't help.
That's interesting on the husaberg, one was for sale the other day for 500quid, needed a new stator or something, but I'd read about the unreliability of them before so didn't bother.
Jemima if you look at spar cr there is one year that is really rated above others, maybe 03 but I can't remember, it's easy to find out. That's the one I would buy thinking about future resale value.
B r I'm down in Cornwall, it's actually pretty decent for green lanning still apparently, but mainly for what I want there are at least three good mx tracks within 20-30 miles that regularly open for practice, plus others a bit further. There's some enduro practice days not too far away as well. Just a few miles from me there is a stunning annual hare n hounds that I rode a few times, plus others a bit further away. The Cornwall centre is good for events.
I would look at the Evo categories, think there's one for pre-98 so look for less desirable 99s and 2000s. KTMs back then had great motors but not great handling, and not sure if they had fantastic reputations for reliability, but as previously alluded to, current condition is a better guideline than prior form, an original cared for Katoom would be a better bet than a minxed Honda. Not sure I'd be keen on an early ali-framed Honda, thought the early ones were too stiff or something.