From the biggest to one of the smallest.

I couldn't go to my grave without having owned the World's largest displacement production motorbike. That was my reasoning for joining the R3R Brotherhood.
I am loving the big girl.
I also ride trials.
Not as popular in Australia as in Europe, trials riding involves riding specialist motorbikes through technical courses, usually at a sedate pace. It requires balance and control and is more challenging than it looks and also incredible fun.
Modern trials bikes are Mono shock. Old school are twin shock. I have one of each, but as is my weakness (i can't resist a bargain bike) I have just added a 1976 Yamaha TY175 to the stable.
These diminutive bikes are a very capable trials bike, when set up correctly.
So the little TY, being 7/100th's of the R3R punches well above her weight in smiles per mile.
Does anyone else ride trials? What do you ride?

I'm 56 and when I say "my old man used to ride a Bultaco back in the day", you'll know how long trials riding has been around in Australia! But you're right, not a really mainstream sport here anymore.

I used to love my old Honda XL250 and Yamaha XT500 - not exactly trials bikes but good fun in the mud

I couldn't agree more with your opening statement, and I too am a disciple of the TY.
All my earliest biking skills were learned, tested and honed on a TY.

I was a VERY fortunate lad to have been gifted a TY80. My parents & grandparents clubbed together to buy it me for my 11th birthday because although I had been religiously saving my pocket money since I was 6 years old to save up for a motorbike after having had a go on a school friends Italjet 50 and became totally seduced by motorbikes. and they knew it would take an eternity for me to save enough, so they put me out of my misery, bless them.

This was the little beauty.....and the lucky fellow sitting on it.........



later in my mid teens I graduated to a TY175......



I sooo wish I still had that TY175.

...but then (unfortunately) I got corrupted by horse power and it got chopped in for a Kawasaki KDX250.......the rest is history....


....although later in my forties I did return to my roots somewhat, by having a Beamish Suzuki (RL250) for a few years, however, work pressures and lack of free time saw that one go eventually also........For what it's worth, I will say that I would take back my TY175 over the RL250 without hesitation.

We'll call it a tie for smallest

gadget_ho said:

I'm 56 and when I say "my old man used to ride a Bultaco back in the day", you'll know how long trials riding has been around in Australia! But you're right, not a really mainstream sport here anymore.

Click to expand...

You would have enjoyed the Twin Shock Titles, last weekend. Plenty of Bultaco's being put through their paces.

Jagster said:

I couldn't agree more with your opening statement, and I too am a disciple of the TY.
All my earliest biking skills were learned, tested and honed on a TY.

I was a VERY fortunate lad to have been gifted a TY80. My parents & grandparents clubbed together to buy it me for my 11th birthday because although I had been religiously saving my pocket money since I was 6 years old to save up for a motorbike after having had a go on a school friends Italjet 50 and became totally seduced by motorbikes. and they knew it would take an eternity for me to save enough, so they put me out of my misery, bless them.

This was the little beauty.....and the lucky fellow sitting on it.........



later in my mid teens I graduated to a TY175......



I sooo wish I still had that TY175.

...but then (unfortunately) I got corrupted by horse power and it got chopped in for a Kawasaki KDX250.......the rest is history....


....although later in my forties I did return to my roots somewhat, by having a Beamish Suzuki (RL250) for a few years, however, work pressures and lack of free time saw that one go eventually also........For what it's worth, I will say that I would take back my TY175 over the RL250 without hesitation.

Click to expand...

Awesome stuff. Some excellent skills development that has probably saved you, were others would have come unstuck, over the years. What a great testament for teaching kids to ride.
Love the pics.

Tripps said:

We'll call it a tie for smallest

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Looks to be in excellent condition. What is she?

1971 Honda CL175. It looks great from 10', but shows it's age up close. 60 mph flat out, but perfect for gravel/ dirt road network where I live. Gets more comments than all my other bikes combined.

Bosco15 said:

Awesome stuff. Some excellent skills development that has probably saved you, were others would have come unstuck, over the years. What a great testament for teaching kids to ride.
Love the pics.

Click to expand...

Thanks Bosco15.....I really do think that mastering off-road riding skills makes on road riding safer.
Perhaps Trials riding more than Motocross, but it's all good.
On reflection, it's better to have both types of riding under your belt before hitting the road, for sure.

Modern trials is very much pushing the boundaries as to what is humanly possible to do on two wheels, so maybe that's a bit extreme, but classic trials has all the aspects of balance, clutch, throttle & brake control on challenging and varied surfaces.....importantly, at a relative slow speed, so it's a bit safer than motocross in the early stages of development. Both types of riding require keen observation and early anticipation of how to set up all the rider variables at your fingertips in order to successfully clear the terrain ahead.
Riding on all types of roads and in all weather conditions is a doddle after that......up to the point at which high speed becomes a factor.

One things for sure though, the Rocket is a completely different beast to a bike like the TY.......Probably, couldn't be more different

Between my off-road days and my early on-road days, I did have a Bultaco Sherpa 250 for a little while, but I couldn't get used to the rear brake/gear selector being on the opposite side. It never became intuitive enough when off-roading, so I sold it very soon after owning it through a part trade when I sold my RD250LC as I was moving up the engine sizes, like most of us did when we were starting out.
In more recent times, i've had a 'modern' trials bike, in the form of a Scorpa SY250F (pictured below) which used a tuned down YZ250 four-stroke engine, but I never gelled with it so it went after a year or so.
....No...the original Yammy TY175 has to be the one to have as a keeper. I wish I still had mine.