HONDA TLR250
Dene Humpster’s custom modification to the muffler
This TLR also has an interesting nonstandard
exhaust with a chamfered edge to
the tail pipe. The chamfer that I thought was
a special design-lick, I learnt 20 years later,
was actually a hasty repair where the bike fell
off a trailer and was dragged down the road
a ways before Humpster realised what had
happened. A hard life then.
TLR LOVE AFFAIR
Back in ’99 I’d spotted the TLR collecting
dust in the Humpster’s then West Auckland
garage and bought it on the spot as it had
brought back memories of seeing the first
TLR200s ridden in UK trials back in the day.
Back in my late teens I rode trials, finishing
on a Fantic 200 but I always loved the style
of those TLRs – which looked vaguely like
replicas of Lejeune’s world championship
winning works RTLs. At the time I was too
skint to buy one. Here in 1999, for $1000, was
my chance to at last have such a beast. But
not the common or garden TLR200, rather
the altogether rarer TLR250, which comes
with the added caché of a motor that is
said to have been ‘developed by HRC’.
Somehow I suspect there’s a very tenuous
link there and so – I’m sure like the
marketing men back in the day – I’ll not dig
any deeper and just accept that glorifying
statement on face value.
Initially this poor TLR250 did not fare that
well with me. All my plans of riding it in the
New Zealand woods never eventuated.
KIWI RIDER 37