2008 Joyner 250 review

Posts: 158

Dirt bikes are definitely the most fun, but require a lot of skill. I'd love to be good enough to hit the jumps at Ocotillo Wells on a dirt bike. Those guys fly thru the air.

Posts: 96

Yeah,

that is one thing I am not great at. I grew up riding enduros and desert racing a little bit. I didnt hit a track until 6 years ago and I fell in love with it. But when you start riding MX at 31 instead of 12 you are a little more careful with your bones.

I will hit some table tops and have cleared them up to about 50 feet on a good day when I am feeling brave. Most of the time I stick to 30 ft and below. It enough to make you feel like you flew for a few seconds, but short enough to do at a speed you can recover from if something goes bad.

The only time I can feel like one of the better riders is in the desert. And only if they other guys didnt grow up doing it. Around here it seems like a large percnetage of guys who in SoCal, have been riding desert there whole life like me.

I think thats why so many guys get discouraged. Because they see so many people making it look easy and they think what is wrong with me. They just didnt see the years of pain and embarassment we had before them. So I always give new guys plenty of time and never discourage them in anyway. And if someone is egging them on to ride above their skill level, I put them in there place.

After all that, I am loving this buggy!

Z

Posts: 96

I put 45 miles on the joyner today according to the GPS. I always seem to worn out in a much different way than dirt bikes. I feel like my whole body has tiny vibrations in it and my kidneys are sore. The suspension is good, but the whoops re huge out here and you go up and down so much you can get motion sick after so many miles.

We had a blast. With my oldest son who is 18 and much lighter than my buddies, we could climb almost anything! The buggy ran great all day but once the temperature dropped suddenly like it does in the desert, It started poppying allot going down hills and would stall occasionally.

The only time it concerned me was one time it didnt restart and acted like it had a dead battery. So I turned off the lights and key and waited about 3 minutes and it started up like nothing was wrong.

As far as the stalling in colder weather I am guessing that is jetting. But the acting like the battery was dead was weird.

Z

Posts: 1192

Running with all the lights on will deplete your battery. The charging system will not be able to keep up if you run the upper lights for an extended amount of time. Doing this for too long will cause your battery to become unusable after a time. It will not hold a charge. Most times a better quality battery will solve some of the issues but not the ability of the charging system to keep up to the demand of all the lights.

Glade

Posts: 96

OK that makes sense. Thank you for your answer. Would haveing the stator rewound with more coil help or would I need to upgrade other compenants too?

Z

Posts: 1445

does your joyner 250 have a locked rear end ? was looking at the gtr and they look like the same set up

Posts: 96

Yes,

it is locked.

Z

Posts: 27 · Padawan Joined: 09 Jul 2008 Posts: 27 Pictures: 0

Phazelag,
I agree with all your comments on the whole dirtbike thing. I bought my first dirtbike (yz250) at the age of 37. Before that my experience was taking a friends motorcycle for a ride around the block. I am an avid snowmobiler so I know exactly what you mean about picking lines and stuff.
The first ride up at our cabin was a treat, I was so nervous I had a stomach ache (people kept telling me how CRAZY a 250 is when it gets on the pipe) well I didn't fall once and even though I was the last person in a group of 5 (not good on dusty trails) I kept up. We ride mostly sandy ORV, and snowmobile trails. The second day I had some difficulty in the sand and basically fell over. But other than that I did fine. Now where I had a really hard time is the technical dirtbike trails that we have near us, the ones where some areas are only as wide as the handlebars.
I have kept it up though and am getting better, I've tried some quads to and just don't care for them. I'm now on to a YZ400F and love the 4 stroke. Still I'm know where near as good of a bike rider as a snowmobile. I to am looking at a buggy for mostly the girlfriend and her daughter and for me in between bike rides. Now I just have to decide if it's going to be a Joyner 250 or a Carter GTR300