Xerowing
Puppy
Big Boy TSR 250 (2022 Model)
I bought the Big Boy TSR 250 as a learning platform to teach my son, en route to being 16 later this year how to ride with the goal of getting him something to ride for his birthday.
I did a bit of research on some available dual sport bikes that fit the bill and fell more or less in the 12-15KW range and then finalised a budget for the project and started scouting for online deals.
* I admit to being apprehensive and fairly anxious about this whole endeavour as not only was I buying a bike for the first time in 15 years (I gave up riding the day he was born) but I was looking a second-hand foreign bike, sounds like the makings for a perfect storm situation doesn't it?
Found one in Nelspruit, 12 300km on the clock for R 14 900, decided to pull the trigger and get the journey restarted.
Bike had some cosmetic damage, I could tell the previous rider had ridden it maybe a little too hard through traffic and came off or hit something, potentially with a top box on the back, maybe even with some Pizza in it ... who knows.
Damage to the left front quarter and missing hand guard along with some scratches etc on some of the plastics, the bike was completely stock with literally no bells and only a slight whistle when it started up.
(First Picture attached)
After a long and arduous logistical nightmare of having the bike semi delivered (Only 110KM from home ... Don't ask) I took ownership and rode it home.
First experience on it was a mixed bag, lots of torque as it is essentially a small thumper much like the XR 150 and very similar in ride quality to my old XR 200
Rear had something wrong with it as it had a lot of sag, bottomed out frequently and the brakes were shot, had a few lucky stops on the way home but got it home and started poking around.
* Keep in mind the last bike I maintained was a ZZR in the early 2000's ... so there were some challenges to put things mildly.
Brake pads were down to bare metal, rear shock was shot (The maybe thing about carrying pizzas was actually probably carrying half ton loads of sand) and I figured out after watching a video on the Hawk 250 Same bike sold by Amazon under a different name locally) that the ECU had to be reset so that I could fix the annoying top end issue of only being ably to get it up to around 85km/h on the open road.
Did all of that in-between some other research and after everything was fixed / replaced started riding lessons.
(Second Picture attached)
Now, I remember being annoying when I was younger, last week for example ... but
Teenagers are the apex of our species, they know everything, can do anything and are oddly resistant to verbal input from external sources like parental units.
So he has dropped the bike around 9 times so far which is to be expected when learning although some of those drops could obviously have been avoided.
The damage though, up until drop no 9 has been less than noteworthy, scratches, scrapes and the tip of a brake lever.
In the interim I take it to work sometimes – small town so only three blocks form the office and I have to say that I’m actually really enjoying the ride.
It has tons of torque, handling, albeit heavy at 128kg is fairly nimble and the new suspension is decent.
I’ve ordered a ton of upgraded parts for it from some international sources and will post photos of the upgrade project as I progress but all things considered, especially the hours of time I’ve now spent trying to teach a teenager riding, the bike has been nothing but a joy and I hope it will continue to be one as we use it for a bit more dirt and off road riding once that part of the learning has begun.
I bought the Big Boy TSR 250 as a learning platform to teach my son, en route to being 16 later this year how to ride with the goal of getting him something to ride for his birthday.
I did a bit of research on some available dual sport bikes that fit the bill and fell more or less in the 12-15KW range and then finalised a budget for the project and started scouting for online deals.
* I admit to being apprehensive and fairly anxious about this whole endeavour as not only was I buying a bike for the first time in 15 years (I gave up riding the day he was born) but I was looking a second-hand foreign bike, sounds like the makings for a perfect storm situation doesn't it?
Found one in Nelspruit, 12 300km on the clock for R 14 900, decided to pull the trigger and get the journey restarted.
Bike had some cosmetic damage, I could tell the previous rider had ridden it maybe a little too hard through traffic and came off or hit something, potentially with a top box on the back, maybe even with some Pizza in it ... who knows.
Damage to the left front quarter and missing hand guard along with some scratches etc on some of the plastics, the bike was completely stock with literally no bells and only a slight whistle when it started up.
(First Picture attached)
After a long and arduous logistical nightmare of having the bike semi delivered (Only 110KM from home ... Don't ask) I took ownership and rode it home.
First experience on it was a mixed bag, lots of torque as it is essentially a small thumper much like the XR 150 and very similar in ride quality to my old XR 200
Rear had something wrong with it as it had a lot of sag, bottomed out frequently and the brakes were shot, had a few lucky stops on the way home but got it home and started poking around.
* Keep in mind the last bike I maintained was a ZZR in the early 2000's ... so there were some challenges to put things mildly.
Brake pads were down to bare metal, rear shock was shot (The maybe thing about carrying pizzas was actually probably carrying half ton loads of sand) and I figured out after watching a video on the Hawk 250 Same bike sold by Amazon under a different name locally) that the ECU had to be reset so that I could fix the annoying top end issue of only being ably to get it up to around 85km/h on the open road.
Did all of that in-between some other research and after everything was fixed / replaced started riding lessons.
(Second Picture attached)
Now, I remember being annoying when I was younger, last week for example ... but
Teenagers are the apex of our species, they know everything, can do anything and are oddly resistant to verbal input from external sources like parental units.
So he has dropped the bike around 9 times so far which is to be expected when learning although some of those drops could obviously have been avoided.
The damage though, up until drop no 9 has been less than noteworthy, scratches, scrapes and the tip of a brake lever.
In the interim I take it to work sometimes – small town so only three blocks form the office and I have to say that I’m actually really enjoying the ride.
It has tons of torque, handling, albeit heavy at 128kg is fairly nimble and the new suspension is decent.
I’ve ordered a ton of upgraded parts for it from some international sources and will post photos of the upgrade project as I progress but all things considered, especially the hours of time I’ve now spent trying to teach a teenager riding, the bike has been nothing but a joy and I hope it will continue to be one as we use it for a bit more dirt and off road riding once that part of the learning has begun.
