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Did you screw around in your ECU?
+1
Now my experience is 15 years old but around 2008-09 a friend were a factory TM rider in the world enduro championship.
He rode a 144 for the factory team and in april he had broken close to 10 gearboxes.
Another guy i used to race against had a 144 motocross bike and a 250f and that year it was more common to see him push the bike off the track instead of riding it.
As you say, the fast guys that have tried to race them often change to a normal brand after a season, while the other guys are slow VET guys that love the exotic part of TM but neither ride the bike that hard or that many hours.
I put 70 hours on my 2019 tm 300 riding and racing it, blew apart a set of reeds. Besides that zero issues.
Same for Beta
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Yeah, i have a friend that tried a beta last year but a couple of months he was back on a ktm again after nothing but problems.
What model beta? Problems? I’ve got 40 ish trouble free hours on my 23’ 200. Also the other betas in my area all seem to be pretty reliable.
Interesting, A Canadian dealer has a new non current 125 I've been eyeing up. We'll see.
Tumic is bitter towards TM for some reason, not the first time he has posted the same story.
In reference to his story, I know a guy who won three EnduroGP world championships between 2015-2018 on a TM.
They are good bikes, people in USA and Canada are scared about TM's because there is so few of them over there.
Matteo Cavalli was third in points on a TM this year in E3 at EnduroGP's. You think he could've done that if he blew up 58 gearboxes? Nope.
If I had to stay away from certain TM models, I'd probably skip the 250f's. Other than that, especially the two strokes, they are solid and good.
I have had two them. 450 and 125. 450 cracked cases while riding, maybe the kickstarter somehow engaged? i dont know.
125 blew conrod bearing, cracked rear hub and more that i cant i even remember.
Would I buy one again? Maybe a 2 stroke if the price is right. Then again I have a thing for exotics. I have a spanish gasgas right now.
It’s not about being bitter, It’s about being honest. The story won’t go away with time.
But i guess that you would stay away from the 250f is okay to share but my experience’s are not..
It was a -23 or -22, 350 or 390 i can’t remember exactly but he had some electrical issiues and the check engine light would come on.
They changed a bounch of things on it but as i said, he ended up going back to a KTM.
I have no horse in this race. All I'm saying is that my experiences with TM's are very different from yours.
I think Ty Masterpool won a supermini Loretta’s championship on one.
Yes indeed, and their supermini's are still very dope!
I’ve only heard good things about them. I would think if you have a good dealer/ distributor then, getting parts wouldn’t be that big of a hassle.
As an ex-mechanic I could tell you horror stories about every single brand, from scored bores straight out of the crate, to rods opening the cases on a two hour engine, to cdi’s that constantly failed on new bikes.
Doesn’t mean any brand is less reliable than another, these days at least.
I can speak to this reliably, I had my own 2020 300 en that I put over 100 hours on, 55 in one year of hard enduro and moto, easily one of the most reliable bikes I have ever owned, I was around the factory hard enduro team and the importer, my buddy bought a bike for himself and his wife. All the bikes I have been around abused or not have been stellar, I wouldn’t hesitate if they find a new importer to get another one. I had one of Ty’s old practice bikes and it had 25 hours on it when I got it but I know those were hard hours. I did one piston, I ended up tossing it into the weeds at Cahuilla and ripped the shock in half, it didn’t even bend the subframe. There is stuff the Italians do that are super smart and annoying, that’s how it is with any brand.. I’d say the motors and suspension are on par with Honda levels of quality, the plastic fit and finish is what you’d expect from kawi. Not great but not terrible. It does the job.. so expect it to last like the Honda but not age super well if you’re on the ground a lot.
How do you set up a bike for both Hard Enduro and MX?
Pit Row
You don’t lol, that’s why I tossed it into the weeds at Cahuilla! Came up short on a big step up and it just bottomed and shot me off the bike..
You have no horse but you are calling me bitter against a brand that i were close to ride back in the days just because i shared the experience from how the bikes i raced against held up.
If i said that i had a 07 ktm 450 brake a intake valve at 4h, a 09 crf250 sieze a crank bearing at 16h, a -04 kxf250 that a counter shaft at the crank cracked at 40h would that make me bitter against those 3 brands to or did i just share experiences?.
It’s easier to notice if you have a odd brand that have max one bike on the line and that brakes down often, and the next year that rider choose to ride a normal brand again. But as i said, this was in 08-10 and i have not said anything about the current years.
But on the other hand, we don’t see any of them on a Mx gate in Sweden now days since nobody buys them here other than enduro vet riders.
A guy I race with locally bought the Beta 450RX around mid year. He ended up having running issues with the bike almost immediately and the dealership was unable to resolve the issue after at least a few weeks, probably more. I didn’t get the full timeline after I talked to him about it the first time, but he basically ended up telling them that he wants another bike or his money back because it dragged on too long. They gave him a new bike and sent his original back to Beta. All that being said, he seems to enjoy the bike and rides it as well as he did his CRF. Sometimes these things happen, regardless of brand.
Sorry to start this old topic again but the USA has a importer again the Canadian importer Cam Mitchell. And just want to say he’s a amazing guy I just bought my first tm a 1996, been looking for a 1994-96 for 6 years now and finally found one . But I emailed Cam, didn’t think I would hear much back but he’s been amazing found me all nos stock plastics from the factory in Italy had them shipped over within a week . Goes to show you how good they’re with parts that they still have plastics and hardware for a 1996 . I had newer husky’s I couldn’t even get oem plastics for .
I want to see a new TM 250F bike review. No one really reviews the TM bikes.
Anyone who has split cases on tm knows they are built better than anything .
The chassis balance is not nearly as good as a KTM though .
Cam is an OG member of this board. Cam is good people
I had a 390 with kind of the same issue. Electrical installation plus starter is the weak point. Other than that the bike was solid.
My issue was the startor generating low voltage so problem with battery and the check engine light always on..... It was solved with a cheap Temu voltage regulator (intended for suzuki RMX 450).
Motocross Action seems to review them - see if what you are looking for is here - https://motocrossactionmag.com/bike-tests-search/?fwp_manufacturer=tm
New distribution has been finalized. Based in Virginia and working directly with the TM factory and the Boano TM Factory Race Team. They have 2026s on the way and a couple of special US only models in the works.
https://www.tmmotorcycle.com
Noticed no 144's on the site (at least at first glance, maybe I missed them), I'm kicking around buying one next Spring possibly. Hoping they aren't going to be left out of the US market. Either way, excited TM is back importing but I really want to race one in 150B at a GNCC, a bit of a bucket list thing...
So there are 2 TM importers in the USA now?
https://www.71powersports.com/
https://www.tmmotorcycle.com/
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