‘The little trailie worth buying’

There’s no such thing as a good cheap trail bike. If a trailie is going for peanuts then it’s either stolen or knackered. Or both.

Big trail bikes have all morphed into adventure bikes – bog-basic things like the Suzuki DR650, Kawasaki KLR650 or Yamaha’s XT600 (once Europe’s best-selling bike) aren’t made any more and the ones that are left are geriatric. Good ones are expensive and, anyway, they’re all a bit hefty for anything more than gentle off-road use. Learner (125cc) trailies abound, but most are in a hell of a state. And you can’t park one anywhere for more than five minutes (three minutes in London or Manchester) without some scrote trying to steal it.

So, sorry, but you’re going to have to go recent and low mileage and probably under 350cc, and that means just one bike: Honda’s CRF250. The street L model, rather the serious R dirt version.

They’ve been around for about eight years now and they’re quality kit. The new Rally version is well over five grand though, and loading up a little 250 with adventure bodywork is a bit silly as Suzuki has discovered with its 250 V-Strom. At £3500 used, you might as well buy a 650 V-Strom or a 660 Ténéré.

So make it the standard trail version. That’s fine for commuting, general running around, rides into the countryside, as well as green-laning - it’s near-perfect for that. It’s cheap to run and it won’t lose money. Good trailies are always in demand, so you should get your money back after a year or two and maybe even a profit.