ROAD & TRACK
Ever wondered what a full blown TZ250 GP bike would be like on your Sunday rideout? Wonder no longer: road legal (ish) TZ meets its road-going sister
Roland Shaw owns and runs HCR Yamaha in Ramsey Cambridgeshire. For the last 25 years he’s concentrated on selling, tuning and supplying spares for the off-road market. Off-roading is all well and good, but about four years ago Roland developed a serious itch that needed to be scratched. That itch was the need for a two-stroke road bike. He bought a 1992 Yamaha TZR250R 3XV4, and shortly after that, raised the stakes by buying the Standard two-stroke thrills plays next level lunacy. All fun and games Grand Prix racing equivalent, a 1996 Yamaha TZ250. Oh yeah, and that itch didn’t disappear until Roland jumped through various DVLA hoops and got the pure race-bred TZ250 registered and street legal for the road.
Ramsey might look just like your average Fenland market town with its cutesy main street and ancient abbey. But aside from the fact the nearest A-road is 10 miles away, this former island (yes, really) is surrounded by farmland that is actually lower than sea level – the lowest land mass in the UK, apparently.
The dense air around this place makes a two-stroke engine sing, and this oxygen-rich environment has been medically proven to increase activity in certain parts of the brain, often leading to obsessive and irrational behaviour. Which explains an awful lot…
“When I bought this 3XV4 TZR it was in excellent condition – virtually stock apart from glass fibre panels. It also came with the original plastics that are now fitted,” Roland explains as we look over his stunning TZR. “So, basically it was a really good unrestored original example with 8000 miles on the clock. But it had a bit of a rumble.”
This rumble was Roland’s cue to remove and rebuild the engine and give it a full refresh using all OE Yamaha parts: “I bought a small stock of parts to future-proof maintenance,” says Roland. “The really cool thing was that it was obvious by the condition of the fasteners that I was the first person to lay a spanner on the engine since it was assembled 30 years ago.”
The result is a 3XV4 that runs as good as new. Power delivery is smooth and usable with a subtle well-muffled exhaust note at lower rpm. This all changes with more revs as the power valves work their magic in true Yamaha style with a seamless transition to fully open – and with it, the glorious kick of full noise. The sound from the stock exhausts at high rpm is still relatively muted, at socially acceptable levels while still retaining that engaging and addictive two-stroke audio track.
The same cannot be said for the TZ250, which sounds absolutely insane on the road. Even thou
