T Rex 125 bike for Prospecting

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Twapster

Peter
Joined
Oct 21, 2013
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Location
Newman, WA
Wife has been bugging me to get a scooter, and ive been looking at a small bike I can put on the trailer for when I go gold hunting. Then I see Wal using a T-Rex in the field and has got me interested. Now im thinking I can kill 2 birds with the one stone. She only has to travel about 10km at 4am in the morning. They say its road legal. Im loving the big wheels for goat track stuff......hoping someone has seen these and may have an opinion. Would be great for my WA trip.

1429876581_trex125beach.jpg


Im thinking I could kit it out to carry detector and a few other bits to get me a bit further, and shut the wife up.....theres your scooter hun! She'll be the coolest chick in town. :lol: :lol:
 
They're a great little unit for bush detecting, registered on the road for just $2500. Top speed is only about 80Ks, but I wouldn't get one for regular city commuting. The little 125cc motor is plenty strong enough to double the missus and the seat plenty big enough. You can get them without nobby tires for road oriented use, but the nobbys make them far superior in the scrub. Being a 4 stroke they are very quiet and don't draw any attention.

As a backup form of transport in remote WA, NT, or QLD they are great and run on the smell of an oily rag. They'll get you further than a quad, and saves you towing a trailer. If the missus wants a bike for work transport get a scooter....If she wants an insurance policy for you on the WA gold fields, or riding around Lake Eucumbene with a fly rod..."T Rex" is worth looking at. ;)

Wal.
 
Go the Postie! I think the TRex would be a lot better than a postie off road' the wrong bump in the wrong gravel and you would think you just lost your front wheel! The fat soft knobie tyres would fix this issue.
 
Twapster, I've owned and ridden quite a lot of bikes from dirt bikes to Buell's and Harleys and Wal's comment about not so good for city use I'd agree with, those wide tyres would make it not too manouverable in my opinion, I might be wrong but just my thoughts, perfect for the narrow bush tracks though.

Postie bike would be my choice for your wife, they are very manouverable and easy to start with no clutch at all, so very very easy to ride and hard to kill. They handle off road use well also.

My flatmates brother did the Postie challenge through WA a couple of years back, he said they were better than you would expect over there, was a 3000 km trip.

This is just my opinion though
 
Unless you're riding solely on beaches go for the postie bike as the better choice. Posties can handle all the sandy river beds and tracks that the goldfields can throw at it. The postie will out last a T Rex 10x over. Super easy to find parts for the postie and cheap as chips.
 
the fat tyres on the TRex wouldn't handle real nice but being so short in the wheel base pumping them up to a higher pressure when on the HWY I think you will be quite surprised how quick you would get used to it' and neither bike is going to be real flash at warp speeds.

I know which bike I'd prefer to be riding over rocks and up and down hills on.
 
No real compromises and by far the best is a dedicated trail bike...been riding them all my life. ;) Problem with smaller trail bikes is there's very few road registrable, and as such rangers will kick you off any gazetted tracks and cops will book you if you're riding from camp into town for a loaf of bread. I've owned a postie and for areas such as the flats from Kalgoolie up to and beyond Meeka, it has served me well over time. Even preferred it over the quad. ;)

Used a postie in the mountainous Kimberly region a couple of years back and that was a different story. That's when i researched something more suited to steep terrain creek beds. Decided on a T Rex and to be honest haven't looked back. Take your Postie with us on a trip to Halls Creek, but take some good hiking boots as well....You'll be walking a lot further than I will. ;)

Whatever the choice for a second form of transport, the money will be well spent, as your "additional gold take" will certainly offset the cost of the best insurance you can take with you on an outback trip. If you're going to look at commuting on the city streets..."Postie" wins hands down and I certainly wouldn't recommend a T Rex for the missus to travel to work. By the same token I wouldn't take a "Scooter" to any serious off road situation. Horses for courses and there's plenty of good horses to chose from...pick one that suits the majority of your intentions.

Wal. :)
 
Wal can I ask, how do you go loading up the T-Rex? carrying a detector etc on it compared to a quad. That is what has made me look at quads, but like you said I really wanted to avoid having to tow a trailer
 
Thanks for all the posts guys, yep ive looked at the postie bikes as well and they are cheaper and road registerable. Im still loving the fat tyres on the T-Rex! I can see myself covering some pretty rough terrain on them. We had a scooter but sold it, still have a Suzuki GT250 sitting under a tarp so thinking of selling that to get the new toy. Wife has ridden many weird farm bikes in Thailand so I don't think she'd be fussed if I got the T-Rex.....I don't want to have two scooters at the moment so I think she will have to live with what I decide on! I showed her a pic of the T-Rex and she didn't frown....so that's a good start!
 
I fasten a milk crate to the the rear of the bike, and these fit very snug attached by a single Ocky strap. The crate holds food, Water, puncture repair kit, and a spare coil as i rarely go off with just a single coil. The detector is slung across the back in a "detector soft bag", and doesn't get in the way of riding. Many of the areas I personally prospect are hard enough to even get the vehicle to on it's own, and a trailer with quad would be cumbersome, and at times impossible.

Caravan/ trailer/ quad are great if you want to set up a base camp and venture from there to locations further afield. What I don't like about that scenario myself is you tend to be away from your camp for long hours at a time, and it opens your camp to possible undesirables in your absence. We prefer to be way out of sight and out of mind, and this can on many occasions make towing a trailer unpractical, especially if your destination is to an unplanned or unfamiliar location.

If you're in a group camp situation, and there's several campers with one or two always at camp, then a Quad would certainly be preferable as it has the added advantage of transporting two people with greater ease than a bike. I use both scenarios depending on the locations I'm planning to detect and who accompanies us on the trips. Good luck and take care on those trips.

Wal.
 
Hi Wal,I see where you carry a puncture repair kit!! have you thought about puncture proof tyres and then there is room for something else in your milk crate.
The tubes aren't cheap they were $80.00... but I could enquire to the availability from my young bloke who races on them world wide.. Cheers
BJ
 
If you're not in steep mountainous country I wouldn't wright off a Postie modified with nobby tires. They have softer suspension and are great over less demanding terrain. I got the T Rex for a "Specific Region", and was always satisfied with the Postie for many years on outback tracks. My advice would always be try before you buy, as both would be easily obtained for a test run, and test them in an area that you anticipate their major use.

Wal.
 
BJ Bates said:
Hi Wal,I see where you carry a puncture repair kit!! have you thought about puncture proof tyres and then there is room for something else in your milk crate.
The tubes aren't cheap they were $80.00... but I could enquire to the availability from my young bloke who races on them world wide.. Cheers
BJ

When I say puncture repair kit I'm referring to Plugs. I only use tubeless tires on the T Rex. ;)

Wal.
 
There is such a tube called bib mouse if I am calling it correctly and its an inner tube made of some special stuff and you don't use air at all!!
 

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