1985 Yamaha XT250 TN review from Australia

Absolutely nothing has gone wrong, apart from the normal wear (wheel bearings, sprocket rubbers) and occasional parts replaced due to accidental breakage (clutch and brake levers, handlebar)

Oh, the fuel tank has rusted through, but that is probably a regular maintenance thing - a bit of methylated spirits in the tank every few fills would have prevented this.

And another one I just remembered, a small split in the carburettor diaphragm.

And the muffler rusted out after two years (replaced with an after-market unit which is still doing service).

The four-valve motor is superbly tractable at all rev ranges, it lugs around at low revs, crack the throttle open and it keeps on going, kick down a gear or two and the power comes on, not in a huge rush, but enough to really notice as the revs climb.

For a learner (which I was when I bought it) it is a superb chook-chaser, although people under 160cm might find it a little difficult to touch the ground.

Like all trail bikes, around town it sits high enough to be able to see over the top of must cars, is narrow enough to manoeuvre through (stopped) traffic easily and like most motorbikes, will easily win the traffic-light drags to 60kph to keep ahead of the traffic.

On the open road it sits comfortably on 100kph and will struggle to get to 125kph. I have used it for some long-distance touring, but wouldn't recommend it for that. On the open dirt it has well-natured handling, the suspension coping well with corrugations and pot-holes. The front disc brake seems to have plenty of feel and is not too sharp. The clutch is light (as long as the cable is kept lubricated) and has lasted 50000km before it started slipping (clutch plates need replacing).

There is some degree of flex in the front forks, mostly felt during heavy braking on the bitumen, but on the dirt this is not a problem. The TT 250 of the same vintage had larger diameter forks to eliminate this. The forks have air-adjustable "preload". The rear mono-shock has five settings for rebound damping (easy to access) and preload adjustment which is very difficult to access, probably more a set it up once for your weight and forget about adjusting it again.

With a 12 litre tank (steel) it will travel about 290-300km around town before reserve, or about 220-250 km on the open road (sitting on 90-100kph).

Plastic air scoops each side of the tank direct air around the spark-plug to help keep it cool, and I suspect also th help protect the tank. They look a bit out of place, being black plastic, where the rest of the bike is white and blue, however a quick spray with white enamel fixed this. The blue vinyl seat started cracking up after about 10 years.

Quartz-halogen headlight is great!