Hows it going people,im seeking some advice on a wee bike ive been offered,it will be my first trials bike,its a 1997 scorpa 250,the guy selling it seems certain its powered with a yamaha engine,ive only seen pictures of the bike and will go for a better look this weekend,am i right in saying it should have a 250 rotax engine,if so how hard is it to get parts and are they expensive,the bike is reasonably cheap but dont want to buy somthing i cant get parts for,also are there any issues i should know about with this model,any advice is much appreciated

Edited November 6, 201213 yr by ttlegend

It will definetly be a rotax at that year,wouldnt advise buying it as spares would be a problem.Old trials bikes can be money pits unless its lived a pampered life,I'd wait till I could afford something better and more common,unless its silly cheap and is still ok.There weren't any specific problems with them,you're looking for wear and tear.Take a mechanically minded mate with you when viewing,you might miss something important

Thats my main fear confirmed,getting parts,checked ebay and all the usual searches and was struggling to find bits,i think il take your advice and save up a bit longer and get somthing a bit easier to maintain parts wise,the price of the bike is tempting but i can see it being a heartbreaker down the road,il give it a miss,thanks for the quick reply

the rotax engine is very reliable and robust if its running well with no rattles chances are it will see you out in the time you want it ,, theres a peter night who rebuilds rotax cart engines and iam sure caters for all rotax engines i think hes near bath search power sport peter night

I own a 250 Scorpa easy 98 runs perfect, i agree with zerorev, carts use the rotax engine so parts should not be a problem, cheap trials bikes are not easy to find what ever condition.

As far as the rotax goes, you should be able to still get parts for it. Most of the other things such as brake and clutch parts will also be available. Im not sure what forks or shock it would have, but Im sure that stuff is still around as well. As far as plastics and such is, Im not sure if those would still be avaible. If I were you, I'd ask a Scorpa dealer on what is still available for that model.

Im gonna take a look at the bike this weekend and then decide,i dont think the guy selling it knows much about them,i put it to him about it having a rotax engine and he argued it,so i asked if he was 100% sure its 97,he seemed unsure,hes gonna send me some better pics of the bike so il post them here and see what you guys think,i think he just assumes scorpas were always associated with yamaha,the other issue he told me about is the bike revs up by itself making it unpredictable,sounds like a carb issue to me,i would def need to get my hands on parts

I don't know what your budget is but I would have thought it is a bit of a buyer's market in old modern bikes (if you know what I mean) - there's no need to buy something that already has a problem.