trail bike | Ian Roscow

March 2019

Although I’ve really enjoyed riding my Yamaha Serow, I’ve come to the conclusion it really is just too small for me, so I have bitten the bullet and sold it. I did a lot of investigation for my next trail bike, trying very hard to stay away from bikes aimed at enduro competition use, and short-listed a few:

Beta 350RR

KTM Freeride 350

Fantic Casa 250

Honda CRF250L

Honda CRF450L

The deciding specs were seat height, weight, fuel capacity/consumption and maintenance schedule. Then further short-listed by sitting on and testing the ergonomics. Finally, I settled on the Fantic Casa 250, in my opinion it having the best balance of comfort, seat height, weight, tank size, quietness and maintenance schedule. Note that power was not a consideration – the chase for power either ends up with an increase in weight and/or a decrease in drivability. Enough power is enough (which I think is part of the Fantic marketing phraseology!).

And, of course, its low price played in its favour, too!!

So I bought a second-hand one at the end of 2018, a fuel injected (EFI) model (that aspect driven by my recent carburettor induced pains!). I haven’t done many trail rides on it yet, probably no more than 40 miles altogether, but I think it’s great, spot on for what I need for trail riding. The power is enough (climbs everything ok), the seat is the right height (easy to get on and get feet on the ground), the suspension nicely balanced between soft for comfort and firm for stability and the ergonomics are spot on. Just what I was looking for.

But it’s not been problem-free. At first it was very hard to start. This was traced to a loose cold-start relay. And later it stopped mid-trail. This was traced to a bad connection on the fuel pump relay. So electrics may be an issue (well, it is Italian!), and what should have improved reliability (the fuel injection system) has proven to be unreliable. I’m now entering into a bout of cleaning and waterproofing the electrics to cure this and make it the bike it should be. More later.

One minor point is that I don’t think the weight is as low as claimed – 104kg claimed, while I measured (on my trusty bathroom scales) more like 120kg. A big difference, not all explained by the full fuel tank. I’ll be down to my local MoT station soon to double check this ?

Some pics….

The seat height is right for me.