2008 Yamaha TTR 230 and 2008 Honda CRF150F
My youngest son decided he wanted to start riding dirt bikes, so after some research and looking around we settled on two choices- a Honda CRF150F or Kawasaki KLX140. We went down to Santa Fe Motosports one day to look at the KLX140 and what do you know but they had a used CRF150F on the ground! So, we got to check both out. We decided that either would work. After more research, I decided that the Honda was sturdier and better suited for rough riding, although it pays for that with considerably more weight. For me, I was looking for a CRF230 or a Yamaha TTR-230. All we wanted were putt-putt bikes to trail ride and get a feel for what kind of dirt biking The Son might like. Kicking around on Craigslist, I found a guy in ABQ with, amazingly, a TTR-230 and a CRF150F for sale. Long story short, we got them both.
I made one small modification to the TTR- I shortened the fork springs by 1" and used a PVC spacer to maintain the same preload. This creates a stiffer fork spring which, combined with 15 w fork oil, made the super soft stock forks a little bit better. They were slower to dive and not so abrupt on jumps. Even so, the suspension on this bike is pretty weak. It works well enough for trail riding, but do any kind of jumps and both ends go "clang!!!!" The airbox design is dismal, too. There is a big space between the carb boot and the air filter and I never liked that. Get a hole or a leak in the airbox gasket and you've got a straight line for dirt into the carb and engine. It's a poor design. Other than that, though, the TTR is a decent bike. The motor is a tractor and you can literally ride a "slower than walking" speed. I never stalled the bike... not once.
The day we got home with them. Derek is about to take his first ever ride on a dirt bike.
Down at the Amarillo riding area
These ended up being really good bikes for "just riding" and we used them to explore Red River, the Amarillo riding areas, our own creek, and so forth. After sampling various riding things, we both decided that we liked riding tracks the best and by the end of the summer, we both had new Kawasaki KX's in hand- a KX100 for Derek and a KX250F for me and had both the TTR and CRF sold for about $200 less than we paid for them.
Back to Dirt Bike page