I'm thinking about picking up a used dual purpose bike. Something like a KLR as shown. I want more to be able to ride light duty off road stuff, but I also want to be able to ride it there to do it (30 miles away), which crosses 4-wheelers off the list, although they are a lot of fun.
Anyone here ride one? Thoughts? I like Kawasaki's, but I don't know anything about bikes in general, so no real reason.
I've got a DR650SE, bought for half a challenge budget. Got me to work for several months last year and I'm planning to use it for commuting again this year. Just took it off road for the first time today - it's a little too heavy for my liking (especially as I don't know what I'm doing) and I'm thinking about getting something a little smaller and lighter. Probably a 4-stroke 250, there are a bunch of road legal ones out there and as long as they top out at 60-70mph they're fast enough for commuting for me.
That said, they're brilliant for getting to places a little further away, you have decent aftermarket support for the 96-on bikes (clever here has a '95 
) so you can get stuff like big tanks and lots of adventure touring parts.
I've got a 2001 KLR650 I picked up for $1100 last year. Added a 6.6 gallon IMS tank ($245), some Barkbuster Storm hand-guards ($102), Walmart Rubbermaid trunk ($19) and a few cans of black rattle can bed liner ($??). Great beater bike. As with many Japanese bikes the stock seat is awful.
I'm thinking that this may be the year that I pick up a used DRZ400s.
I had a KLR250 for several years that I used to commute with and also the occasional off road riding. It was a great bike but left me wanting for more power. Finally stepped up to a DRZ400s and couldn't be happier. Still pretty light weight but with much more power than the KLR. Still quite a bit lighter than most 600's or 650's. Lots of mods available for it and gets me almost 60 mpg commuting.
I like what I'm hearing.
I picked up this TTR 250 last fall for $1600. Its been dual sported by the previous owner. Its a good commuter except for being uncomfortably tall. Not powerful, but will do 70 mph. Handles good but not as tossable as I'd expected. I need to fiddle with the susp settings some. Only had it off road once but will get dirty much more this year...
In my research I had it narrowed down to a KLR250, a Shrepa 250, or a yamaha XT225. Then this showed up at a good price.
Those big 600, and 650's are not great bikes off road.
This is what I ride (07 KLX 250s)
I bought it new, had it for 3 years, and I love it. Not great on the freeway, but for me it's perfect everywhere else. I live 10 minutes from a national hare scramble course, and regularly ride over for a 2 hr thrash in the woods.
You can pick them up for around $2k
In reply to Zomby woof:
What is that like on regular backroads, say up to 55mph?
Perfect.
I do a fair bit of that, and 50-55 seems to be the speed I cruise at naturally. It's not a big horsepower bike (but it is a big bike with 11" of travel), but with a pipe, some jetting, and a few small things it has plenty for me, and I race bikes. You'll find a lot of the used ones for sale already have this stuff done.
Good ones come up for sale all the time on here
If you can, ride one first, and see if it's enough bike for you.
They seem to be very hard to find out here but probably worth keeping an eye out for. Basically my commute is on roads that have a 50mph or lower limit so as long as I can get it over the pass without it running out of puff, I should be OK.
I'm beginning to get the suspicion that most people here don't use dual sports but just chuck their off roaders into the back of the truck and drive out to where they don't need plates. That probably explains while dual sport bikes are fairly hard to come by.
It wouldn't be my only bike, I've got a touring bike sitting in the garage already. Just something that's fairly cheap to run to go to work on and take out the back country if I want to.
I think the perfect all-around garage consists of:
a big-ish tour/sport tour bike (anywhere from a VFR to a K-LT, depending on where your priorities lie)
a middleweight racer (600 twin or four, your call again)
and a small-to-medium sized dual sport
Aside from going really hardcore in one direction, that pretty much sums up everything you might want to do on a motorcycle, I think.
alex wrote: I think the perfect all-around garage consists of: - a big-ish tour/sport tour bike (anywhere from a VFR to a K-LT, depending on where your priorities lie) - a middleweight racer (600 twin or four, your call again) - and a small-to-medium sized dual sport Aside from going really hardcore in one direction, that pretty much sums up everything you might want to do on a motorcycle, I think.
What about a posing bike? You know! The one that's horrid to ride but looks way cool to people who don't realize how torturous it is to ride to the very public parking spot. I'm sure we can all think of examples. 
Yeah, but we normally don't mention OCC around here 
.
Okay, I'll cave. A pointlessly overdone vintage cafe and/or bobber could find its way into my garage. In a pinch, though, you could keep the racer semi-legal-looking and swap a plate over from one of the streetbikes for that purpose. Not that I've done that, of course...
My thing is I'm a big dude. It seems to me a 250 might be a little over taxed to haul around 270 pounds worth of rider. I can understand a 600 being too thumperish and heavy to be nimble, though. Unfortunately I don't foresee much opportunity to test them out either, since I don't even know how to ride and all my friends have four wheelers. I don't hunt enough to need a four wheeler, and I want to be able to ride on the street, and it needs to fit in my one car garage with my MG.
mattmacklind wrote: My thing is I'm a big dude. It seems to me a 250 might be a little over taxed to haul around 270 pounds worth of rider. I can understand a 600 being too thumperish and heavy to be nimble, though. Unfortunately I don't foresee much opportunity to test them out either, since I don't even know how to ride and all my friends have four wheelers. I don't hunt enough to need a four wheeler, and I want to be able to ride on the street, and it needs to fit in my one car garage with my MG.
My KLR650 is too big and heavy to comfortably ride in the woods. So am I (6'1" 260). Perfect match. I had a KLR250 for a while and it was fine for around town and the local dirt roads. It struggled mightily to get my less-than-petite butt over 65mph.
Great topic, I got to beat around on my mom's honda 230 dual sport off road and it was very fun but lacked in power on the highway roads. 55mph was max and I felt like I was holding up traffic. It also takes awhile getting used to the higher riding stance.
I want to take the back way to Truckee from my moms(grass valley area) this summer via Henness pass road. I think it is like 60-70miles on the backroads and would be quite a ride.
Once off road I never had so much fun. I loved taking the bike on the 4x4 roads it was a trip. I tried to get the bike to twitch but I always twitched first.
my xr400 is a good bike for both. Not perfect, but good.
I bought a KLR650 this year after my typical over-analyzing of various choices. 
If you're really honest about what it is you want to do with a bike it's not that difficult to pick the right thing. I could only have one bike to do it all. I needed something at least Interstate capable, which means 70 mph around here. I wanted comfortable low speed (45-55) back road riding. I wanted knobby tires and "off-road" capable for the hundreds of miles of improved gravel double track at my disposal. I wasn't the least bit interested in single track, mud or rocky terrain. I wanted cheap, reliable, and a lot of aftermarket accessory choices. Essentially, I wanted a bike that could be ridden for an hour or a day and take me anywhere that a guy with mediocre riding skills could go.
The downsides to the KLR? It's not nimble compared to a bike with half the displacement (duh). It may be a bit heavy for a beginner but I quickly grew used to the heft. It's not built as well as a Honda or Suzuki, but you really don't care because it still doesn't break. It's maybe too tall for riders without long legs, but you can lower it easily.
The Suzuki DR is a good comparable to the KLR. Neither is really better than the other; it's a matter of personal taste.
My wife may want a bike after she takes her MSF course and I'd probably look for a TW200 or similar for her since she has far less experience riding than even I do. The 650 is too big for her, but I'm pretty confident after having the sub-300 bike for a year or two she'll be crying for more power. At a minimum I'd suggest sitting on the choices and seeing what feels the most comfortable and worry about the power aspect later.
The big singles are heavy/clumsy compared to their lighter, modern motocross-bred siblings, but they're by no means impossible to handle. Look at the dudes running BMW GS's in Dakar and such; or hell, the bikes their fathers used to ride when off-roading was getting big (go watch On Any Sunday right now!) and KLR/DR/XR 600/650s don't look so bad anymore.
alex wrote: The big singles are heavy/clumsy compared to their lighter, modern motocross-bred siblings, but they're by no means impossible to handle. Look at the dudes running BMW GS's in Dakar and such; or hell, the bikes their fathers used to ride when off-roading was getting big (go watch On Any Sunday *right now!*) and KLR/DR/XR 600/650s don't look so bad anymore.
I'm ignorant of off-road bikes so have a question.
Are there any motocross-bred singles that are on/off road? I'm looking but all I see for reasonable prices are DR's, KLR's, and the like.
What do you mean by motocross-bred?
My KLX is pretty much the same as the KLX 300 which was a competition enduro/hare scramble bike.
motocross-bred onroad/offroad bikes? are we talking about dual-sport/enduro bikes or supermoto/motard type bikes? using BMW as an example, something like a F650GS or something like a G650 Xmoto?
Motocross bred bikes fall into two broad categories.
First, the WRF Yamahas, CRF-X Hondas etc. Those are usually considered 'enduro bikes', they have minimal lighting but are not generally street licenseable and are considered race bikes. 100% dirt bikes. they can be made into street legal bikes but the legal hurdles can be daunting in some states. If I had my druthers, that's the way I'd go.
The 'MX bred' dual sports are like the WR250R etc which come with turn signals etc. 60% dirt/40% street. They can be made much more dirt worthy with fairly simple modifications.
'Dual sports' are generally bigger displacement bikes such as the XR650 Honda, DR650 Suzuki etc. Those are more like 85% street/15% dirt. They have big engines to keep up with highway traffic. There's a huge aftermarket in changing that 85/15 ratio the other way around. But, except for a few notable exceptions like the KTM's, it's not overly successful. They are generally best on smooth dirt roads, not cowtrailing or high speed off roading.
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