New old Yamaha owner

[rjh357]

Hi all new Yamaha owner here had my brand new (well to me anyway) 1985 XS 250 last week so thought I would join the club.

I am saying Hi here but expect I will spend most my time on the site in the classic Yamaha section, why an almost 30 year old 250?

Well my GPZ 500 was about past its sell by date needed a lot for the MOT this time so needed a change. Been looking at reviews and whatever and getting a little fed of the need for more power better ABS more electronics etc.

Seams you can’t go more than a few miles without a massive array of luggage or 1300 cc of power or you can’t have fun on anything that doesn’t have your bum in the air and low bars and my back and shoulders will never stand for that.

Found myself thinking of simpler days, me and a few mates a C50, SS50 5 speed, an FS1E and a Puch maxi 2 speed, strangely we went everywhere on them. Went away on a Friday night with little more than a tent wore same clothes all weekend came home smelly and had a fantastic time.

Me and my mates enjoyed the moment enjoyed the journeys’ enjoyed everything about our biking back then. Today my biking buddies have bikes the size and complexity of the star ship enterprise and still moan LOL.

So I had a hankering for simpler times simple machine, pains and carbs not CDI and fuel injection, the bike has 17000 miles I thing genuine, is has full MOT good tires might look a bit tatty and sure isn’t a show winner but it won’t be in shows it will be ridden.

I don’t care about residual value or if the side cover is of an 81 or 79 not an 85, I don’t care if it looks scruffy and dirty and the chrome doesn’t shine, if I have a few hours free rather be riding than cleaning.

Why an XS 250 well at 16 stone these day a 125 isn’t quite enough, had a super dream once and didn’t really like it. Never liked the Suzuki twin swill combustion chamber thingy so between and XS or Z 250 had a few mates with both and the XS seamed to last longer and there was 1 local to me. Rode it fell for it did 700 miles in first week and there you are.

No doubt I will be asking advice from the experts and long time users of Yams hopefully a few XS 250/400 owners on here. Might also be able to help out now and then with problems, I am a mechanical electrical engineer as well as a bike fan and have kept cars, bikes, boats and just about anything that moves working over the years so again hi to all and hope I made a good choice of bike.

[Airhead]

yeah happy days rjh

Great intro...one of the best

As for making the right choice? ...If you were once happy with a puch maxi and an Honda SS50 I,m sure you'll be happy with the XS250 also

Greetings and

[NE0]

Welcome Rj

I too had friends witha C50, SS50 5 speed, an FS1E ........but not a Puch maxi 2 speed!

for a minute there I thought you might be one of my old mates!!

In my opinion you can't beat an older bike, I've got 2. I've owned my 400/4 since 83/4, fell in love with one in 76, but I was only 15 then!

My first bike was a 61 lambretta, whilst my mates had the above bikes.

Like you, we went everywhere on them and came back equally smelly , it was as you say a fantastic time.

Once again welcome to the club, i second Airheads comment; great intro, look forward to hearing more from you.......

[DirtyDT]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Great intro!

[rjh357]

Thanks guys, mine was the Honda C50 step through, as well as top box could get a small rucksack and panniers so I had the heaviest amount of kit. I was16 it wasn’t actually a moped didn’t have peddles (shhhhh don’t tell mom and dad) the Puch had a big top box but the other 2 posers would spoil the lines of their bikes.

But seriously we went everywhere just for a day or overnight or weekend we never once considered we didn’t have enough luggage, BHP, torque, we weren’t in AA or RAC just trusted to a hammer pair of pliers and a coke can ring pull (they came of the can in those days for the younger members) to fix things.

Worst of all we didn’t have mobile phones or sat nav bloody hell how did we survive to grow older and hopefully wiser.

Had a lot of smiles to the gallon back then and so far the XS has given me plenty so far hope it continues and yes just about anything is a move up from a C50

[DirtyDT]

No back up, no idea of where you were going, no spare cash and no idea how to fix things - Everything stupid seemed to be a good idea.- Good old days.

[slice]

Must say it's nice to find someone who remembers how it used to be!! One of the best intros and made me laugh, thank you and WELCOME to the YOC.

[obriens65]

[blackhat250]

Welcome to the club" we were on the FS1E rally in july, great day out, brought back memories,,, thers another this week

in Butxon ....40th anniversary

[Tommy xs]

Hi & Welcome to YOC, as other's have said very nice intro, Drewpy's the XSpert on here if he doesn't know its not worth knowing

if you've got any questions post them in workshop lots of knowledgeable member's here all we ask is you join in and you've made a great start, oh yeah! post us a pic of your bike.