Oh boy, I spent the last 5-7 years away from bicycles on a dual sport motorcycle spree. Be careful, it's a slippery slope...
First of all, stay away from anything more than 15-20 or so years old. Motorcycles don't age well, and the old twin shock, drum brake bikes just sucked. The bike that fits your requirements most closely is a Kawasaki KLX250S. Street legal, decent on road and off. The only downside is that it's slow, and a little on the heavy side for real off-road work. Very good on dirt roads, and very beginner friendly. If you can get a street registration for a real dirt bike in your state (many can), then a street-legalized Honda XR250R from 1996-2004 would be awesome. I currently ride a Suzuki DR650. It's heavier and more skewed towards road riding, but it's good on dirt roads and easy trails. Highway capable, too. Simpler to work on than a lawnmower and they haven't made any changes to them since 1996, so used parts availability and aftermarket support is awesome. If you want to buy once and cry once, get a new-ish KTM 500EXC. If I had the means, there'd be one in my garage right now. Other notable machines: Kawasaki KLR650 - owned one, put 12k miles on it. Terrible on road and off. But they have a cult following for some reason? Yamaha WR250R - owned two. Looks like a real dirt bike, but way too heavy and underpowered, IMHO. Very complicated with fuel injection and what not. Suzuki DRZ400 - top heavy and has a very narrow gear spread, so it's really buzzy on the road. BMW F650 singles - owned the first gen "Funduro". Good bikes, but more road-oriented. Expensive to buy, and maintain compared to the Japanese brands. Honda XR650L - taller and more top-heavy than the Suzuki DR650. More offroad oriented. Finally, if you really want to fall down the rabbit hole, check out ADVRider.com. See ya over there... Chris On Friday, September 29, 2017 at 9:06:22 PM UTC-4, drew wrote: > > So a while back, i bought some property in the mountains and it came with > 2 dirt bikes. They aren't street legal, or attractive, or very high end. > We've spent the last year semi renovating the cabin, clearing the land of > years of brush pile up, but we've finally gotten to the point where we are > starting to try to go through some of the stuff in the garage. I have no > use for 2 non street worthy, ugly yamahas, but after a little research, it > looks like i can get about 3500$ for the pair. > > after thinking about it, i think a (single) motorcycle would be useful and > fun to have up there. im trying to figure out what that type of thing would > be and, since ive never had any interest in motorcycles, the internet info > is overwhelming. i know some of you guys ride all types of bikes, so im > hoping to get some direction. > > here is what i'm thinking > -3500$ or less > -good on roads and dirt roads. not interested in jumps or anything crazy, > but it will have to be able to go off pavement comfortably > -reliable/durable/parts easily found and cheap. > -rivish... weird to say, but if anyone, you'll know what i mean. uniquely > pretty, versatile, not overly mechanically complex, able to carry a small > load and do more than one thing well > > So far i've been looking at late 70's/early 80's off road yamahas and > hondas. > > Anyone have any online resources, makes/models/years that would work, > thoughts, ideas etc. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
