South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

Been thinking about it for a while and finally decided to bite the bullet, i have a few questions before i do, i have a budget of £3k "ish"


what are you guys riding and more importantly why did you choose your particular bike ?
2 stroke or 4 stroke pros and cons ?
bike size 250 ideal all round bike or lacking power ?
what should i be looking for when buying and what questions should i be asking ?
suggestions for good websites/forums to glean info ?

think thats about it for now...thank you

I found the jump between 3k and 4k is a nice jump considering age and hours on bikes

Ie 3k will get you a 2012/2013 bike.
Where 4k will get you a relatively tidy 2017ish.

250 is a good starter. Still enough power/torque to get into and out of trouble.
As for the 2t/4t arguement, well depends on what you want. The 4t is nice lots of bottom end and engine braking. 2t is a screamer and much cheaper rebuilds (but more often)

Fuel injection makes a nice difference to rideability.

At the moment got a 2017 husky 250 2t tpi for hard play days/enduro and 2021 gasgas ec250f 4t for forest days and greenlaning as much nicer on the road sections.

I started on a wr250, great bike, it was Carb too. Went well, handled etc but with me being a bit of a lump I wanted something bigger after a couple of years.
Went for a ktm 350 exc-f. Both are 4 strokes.

With the ktm you get wp Suspension and a proven track record in off road naughtiness. After looking around and weighing up what I want from a bike, I figured the 350 will be a lifer for me, won't need anything more.

Only thing I have to do is get a stronger spring for the shock.

Welcome aboard!
Myself - Not a single time I have been lacking of power on 250 husky 4 stroke. Bigger engined ones are only tiny bit better on the road I would say, because of the higher gearing.
As for 2 smokers - they are tiny bit better way to go if you only doing enduro or racing.
Now other question if you are going to do lanes only and be racking up miles - then it’s worth considering something not hourly, mainly due to ease of maintenance. Something like crf250l.

Everyone has some good points but gus has hit the nail on the head reallly think about what you want to do or achieve all off road bikes take a little more looking after in my opinion oil changes etc so don’t just ride it and throw it in the back of the garage like a road bike
The Honda crf 250 or 300 good bikes as are the wr 250 a 250 is more than enough to get you in way over your head Honda a little heavy but will probably take less looking after but good on the road as well I really like my old school drz 400 it’s heavy but bulletproof and would happily ride it to Europe and back
Do your research buy on condition don’t forget you’ll need all the gear as you’ll probably have no idea you’ll probably fall off (we all do) so get reasonably good kit as well

Thank you chaps currently watching a Ktm 250 xcw on e Bay

Are you thinking “New to Enduro” as in racing, or green-laning?
For laning, a CRF250/300L would be fine for a newbie - sure, heavier than a pukka enduro bike, but it will be comfortable (a definite consideration for the between-lanes road work), will have all the road kit (proper lights, indicators, brake light, horn etc), and it won’t require the oil changing every other day you ride it.
Strokers (new generation) are awesome, but can bite, and drink fuel if you’re out all day. Only buy a 450 if you’re either ridiculously talented, or like Hospital food…
Welcome to the muddy side.