1989 Yamaha TDR250
Kilometers: 9,700 (about 6,000 miles)
Asking: $8,900
Where: Private sale, Florida
SELLER
1989 Yamaha TDR 250 imported from Japan.
9,700 kilometers showing on the clock.
Runs good, street legal FL title, private sale
RSBFS
The TDR250 is one of those bikes Yamaha never bothered sending to the US, so every single one here came in the side door. This one’s JDM, and it’s already cleared the FL title hurdle, which is half the battle with these.
Under the bodywork it’s the same 249cc parallel twin two-stroke as the TZR250, complete with YPVS power valves, good for around 50 horsepower in a package that weighs a shade over 300 pounds dry. Yamaha wrapped that in dual sport styling instead of a full fairing, so you get supermoto proportions with sportbike guts. Tall bars, a proper expansion chamber hanging low, red wheels against that blue and yellow TDR livery. It looks like it’s picked up some aftermarket touches too, rearsets and what might be an adjustable shock among them, though the seller doesn’t itemize any of it, so take that as an observation, not a confirmed mod list.
We’ve featured TDR250s here before, including a Cali-titled example we covered back in 2017, where bidding had already cleared $5,000 with two days still left on the clock. Reader J.B.21 summed up the appeal in the comments there better than we could: “These are the BEST! When it first came out, I was really confused about what it was, but when I rode it, it just made so much sense. Yam had such a great idea around that time, TDR, SDR, and TW, they were just way ahead of their time.” That about covers it.
Two-strokes like this aren’t making a comeback so much as they’re just quietly disappearing, one crushed top end at a time. Would you register this as your daily, or park it as the collection’s oddball twin?
Good luck to the buyer and seller!
