Thinking about getting a trail bike

[Thess87]

Thoughts on Yamaha BW350 vs tw200 vs Honda fat cat? Thought about a Rokon but I need two for my wife and I and the Rokons are more then I want to spend

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I had a rokon, it would go up steep stuff which was cool but it was slow. I sold it. Still do t have a bike.

 

[IdahoElk]

From personal experience I would get a tw200, rokons are expensive,parts are hard to find, fat cats don’t ride all that great on trails, don’t have any experience on a bw350 but do know the tw200 is more than adequate for most trails here in Idaho.Just saw a 06 today at a yard sale with under 1k miles for $1400, hard to beat that.

 

[KChunter71]

The tw200 looks like fun

 

[Dave0317]

Trail bike or Trial bike?

 

[Downeaster]

For the TW, get the kenda 760 (i believe) for the front. Best thing i ever did for keeping your upside up and downside down. It's not a "real" trail bike but it's quiet and lots of fun to ride.

 

[Opah]

The Fat cat is a great leisure bike, will get you almost any where in any weather or condition, mud, snow, rocks it don't matter. Easy to work on, Parts are readily available and inexpensive and At $4000 brand new they are also the Bargain.
Dont need to go over 60 TR200 want more the 650

 

[Squamch]

I have a bw200. Parts can be a challenge, especially electronics such as the CDI box, which tend to go bad with age.
BWs are regarded as better than fat cats.
My bike is basically a tractor, it kicks ass in mud, snow, sand, but if you want to go anywhere quickly...this is not the class of bike for you.
I would go tw200 for a trail bike. They haven't really changed other than the stickers in 20 years.

 

[Squamch]

The Fat cat is a great leisure bike, will get you almost any where in any weather or condition, mud, snow, rocks it don't matter. Easy to work on, Parts are readily available and inexpensive and At $4000 brand new they are also the Bargain.
Dont need to go over 60 TR200 want more the 650

What are you referring to as the fat cat? Fat cats were a 2 year production bike in the 80s...brand new ones are pretty rare these days!

 

[TheGDog]

Yeah ok... thought it would be odd for somebody on here to be talking about getting a "Trials Bike"! (hehe)

Of those choices? Definitely a TW200. They're street legal. Quite. A 200cc 4-Stroke is really all you'd ever need for the kind of riding you'd be doing while hunting. And the lighter more agile nature of it would lend itself well to you not crashing your brains out when majorly fatigued. The more the weight goes up on a bike, or the more the power goes up, the more you need to be on point physically and fatigue-wise to make sure you don't have a bad get-off, or mess-up and smack a tree with the bars in thick stuff.

I may be more on the n00b side on the hunting side of things... but not in the two-wheeled realm!
My last ride before my vision started tanking was a KX500! Life becomes very serious on a K5!

 

[Squincher]

Trail bike or Trial bike?

Just had to ruin it, didn't you? I was SO looking forward to the "Where Do I Sit??!!" thread.

 

[Thess87]

Thanks for the replies guys. Yeah speed isn’t my concern really besides maybe running down the mountain road to hit a different drainage it’s other purpose would be to just get us up a Trail That’s open to bikes. (Which can get a little hairy) so I’d say climbing and stability is my focus.

 

[Wapiti1]

Honda CRF250L or their older XR250. The wide tire bikes are OK, but to me really squirrely in ruts and narrow trails. Those wide tires want to climb the sides all the time. I hate those things. After 35 years of riding, I still ride an old 1985 Honda XR350R.

Yamaha TT 230 is another good trail bike along with the Suzuki DR200. The DR200 has the lowest seat height which may be good for your wife.

Climbing and stability are more about the riders ability than the bike as long as the motor is tame. Any of the three above would be solid trail bikes.

Jeremy

 

[Squamch]

A buddy has a fancy fuel injected crf250L. That thing is the most gutless "grown up" sized bike I've ever been on. No snap at all, wildly unthrilling. Perfect for an entry level rider to putt around on.

 

[Dave0317]

Just had to ruin it, didn't you? I was SO looking forward to the "Where Do I Sit??!!" thread.

Haha. I know I could have gotten so much more humor-value out of this. Didn’t want to come across as a snob on the internet though. Lol.

 

[IdahoElk]

Haha. I know I could have gotten so much more humor-value out of this. Didn’t want to come across as a snob on the internet though. Lol.

This is my hunting trials bike, goes anywhere

 

[ID_Matt]

I have rode the bigger tired bikes quite a bit and after switching back to a standard sized tire bike I won't ever go back to the fat tire style. They are heavy and tend to wander on the trail. I would lean towards a honda crf230 or a Yamaha ttr230. I don't think those can be beat in terms of a solid hunting bike. You can get one used for a good price too and they are very low maintenance.

 

[Dos Perros]

The TW200 will climb well. From what I've read I'm going to change to different front tire for added stability. I'm def a bike noob but liking my t-dub so far.

 

[TheGDog]

"Climbing and stability are more about the riders ability than the bike..."

^^^ THIS!!! (for the most part)

It's all about receiving the right kind of advice and input from hotshoe dudes who've already paid the price to learn how to be fast.

Also... I don't care who in the bleep you are... you're going to have to learn how to walk a bike up a hill dismounted with the engine running and in gear and you using the clutch to make it climb up beside you in tough going. AND... you're going to have to learn how to turn around that bike on a steep uphill, with the engine killed.

 

[BBob]

TW here. Easy to ride, quiet, you can walk next to it and get it up steep hills, etc... I use a Pirelli MT 43 4.00-18 trials tire up front. Cures a lot of the ill handling of the stock Trail Wing tire. Shinko has a lower cost option that is pretty popular too.