a good dual purpose offroad bike

DenArnold

DenArnold

Wizard
Visit site
Hi Guys & Girls, as mentioned I'm trying to sell off my Gixxer race bitch and intend to buy a enduro style motorbike, genre Honda XR600 or Yamaha WR450.

Plan/idea is to have it registered for street and be able to take it as often as possible offroad, and yes it can be some technical sections (I'd love to watch the Romaniacs Red Bull Signature series :tup:)
Also the second idea is to have some extra set of wheels to transfer it into a SuperMotard

What I'm looking for is some advice on what to pay attention for when scouting the second hand market.

As these are single cylinder bikes, I'm concerned about the quality of the engine and other stuff which is subject to suffering from offroading
 
DenArnold said:
Hi Guys & Girls, as mentioned I'm trying to sell off my Gixxer race bitch and intend to buy a enduro style motorbike, genre Honda XR600 or Yamaha WR450.
Click to expand...

Well I may be able to really help you with questions as my main dirtbike is a 2007WR450, and my riding buddy rides a 2006 XR650. My WR is 100% offroad, my friend with XR is about 90% offroad, 10% street.

Both are amazing machines. WR is water cooled and extremely powerful once the AIS is removed and carb is re-jetted. If you plan on doing some really slow, technical trails, you may want to change sprockets around as I should go up a few teeth in rear for the 5-10mph technical stuff. I still run stock sprockets. I can get top speed of about 70ish according to my speedo with stock gearing as well. WR has incredible low end grunt and still explosive in top end. I absolutely love it.

XR is incredible as well. Its air cooled, tractor bike. My friend just puts it in first and damn thing will climb anything. Extremely impressed. Doesn't seem to have the snap the WR has, but keeps up no problem. I consider myself an experience trail rider (since I was 7, so over 20 years.) and he can keep up no issues. He has a full exhaust for a few HP gains and cooler running and carb is rejetted, but that's it for his.

We do multiple poker runs every year, and did the Odessa 100 this year (100 mile trial race, look it up it was amazing.)

ISSUES: WR - seat sucks. 2x4 with a cover is all it is stock. I got a seat concepts seat, so much nicer. WR is known to get hot and possibly overheat if on VERY slow trails or lots of idling and waiting in heat, had it happen once on me. I have about 2000 miles on mine and have never had any issues with performance or replacing parts. AIS holds back power and they come stock with a throttle stop screw

XR - seat is a damn sofa. Thing is incredibly comfy. I would recommend a different tank, the stock tank is like 2-3 gallons and metal, so if you lay it over it scratches, dents easily. Get a big 5.5 gallon tank and it will do wonders. You wont even notice the larger size or weight, its nice. Air cooled so needs to be moving, but my friend has never had issue with temp even when my bike overheated, so its impressive. On a long street trip he had issues with the bike getting too hot from consistant high speed riding. (80mph on that bike for over an hour only running about 7k rpm he started to notice power loss. Yes he has different gearing for street vs offroad.) Its also much heavier and takes a lot to throw it around. Im 5'10", 175lbs and I can throw my 450 no problem, XR takes a bit but I can. Friend is 6'2" 300lbs and its nothing for him on the XR

Either bike is a killer beast. They are known as powerful and reliable. Friend did 800 miles in 48 hour trip with me a few weekends ago on his XR (I had my R6 at the time.) and besides oil getting too hot and little power loss from high temps it performed amazingly and he was fairly comfortable. Last stretch was 350 miles straight besides fuel stop and he felt good afterwards.

Let me know if you need pics or any other info. Hope this helps.
 
I have a WR250R. Fuel injection is nice. It's a pretty light bike and it's not TOO big, but it's plenty fast enough for going through the woods. I've single-tracked it a few times and have taken it out on rutty Michigan 2-tracks more than a few times.

I had a KLX250 before this. Hated it. Carb is jetted all stupid from the factory so it's extremely cold blooded and hard to start unless you ride it every few days. Didn't even bother with rejetting it - just got rid of it. Fit and finish on the Yamaha is drastically better. Bought the Kawi without doing any research - bad move. :banghead:

WR450 looks like nearly the same thing build quality wise - they look nice.
 
If it was me, and it isn't, so take it for what it's worth, I'd go no bigger than a 450. If you are planning on using it mostly off road it has just enough power for the street when you're getting to/from the trails, more than enough power for the dirt, and it's not as big and heavy as something like a KLR650. For build quality, most of the major Japanese brands have a reliable offering. They're not quite the same as a street bike for maintenence schedules, but none of them could really be called a grenade..
 
Xr250

I realize that this is probably a little low on power if you are looking to do any racing or freeway riding. I had a 1996 XR250 that was modified to be almost completely off-road. This bike was amazing. As far as your concern for quality, this bike never failed to start. I had my fair share of laying the bike down when trying to push my limits off road. I was off-road about 95% of the time. Great low end power, extremely fun bike. As far as modifications I would recommend to save you in the long run are wrap around bark busters like these as they will save your levers, and your hands!!!
Western Power Sports Off-Road Handguards - Dirt Bike Motocross - Motorcycle Superstore

I would also highly recommend Skid plates. I did not have skid plates and ended up denting the bottom of the frame flattening out a section of the tubing which ultimately led to the frame twisting due to my weight, and the left side foot peg unable to hold much weight at all. This was while I was living in Connecticut, and as their state flower is the rock, there was a lot of slow going over large rocks.

My last recommendation would be to do plenty of research on tires before purchasing them. For dual sport bikes finding a good mix of off-road to onroad is hard. Tires that do better for street lack the traction you need off-road. And crazy knobbies don't give you much contact on the road. I know you mentioned having two tire setups and this is a great idea! Good off-road tires aren't much fun on the road.

As for other modifications they are pretty much personal preference. Make sure you post plenty of pictures! And be safe!
 
DenArnold said:
Hi Guys & Girls, as mentioned I'm trying to sell off my Gixxer race bitch and intend to buy a enduro style motorbike, genre Honda XR600 or Yamaha WR450.

Plan/idea is to have it registered for street and be able to take it as often as possible offroad, and yes it can be some technical sections (I'd love to watch the Romaniacs Red Bull Signature series :tup:)
Also the second idea is to have some extra set of wheels to transfer it into a SuperMotard

What I'm looking for is some advice on what to pay attention for when scouting the second hand market.

As these are single cylinder bikes, I'm concerned about the quality of the engine and other stuff which is subject to suffering from offroading
Click to expand...

WOW, talk about timing. I am actually considering both these bikes for myself. I initially wanted a Dual Sport for weekend warrior riding, and the plate so I can go anywhere I want (cali has some weird rules with red and green stickers and I just don't want to deal with it.)

Ride Apart just did a review of the current model year XR650, and I asked a similar question in the Comments and got a few good replies there as well. Check it out:

RideApart Review: Honda XR650L

My screen name is the same on that site.

JMundy said:
Well I may be able to really help you with questions as my main dirtbike is a 2007WR450, and my riding buddy rides a 2006 XR650. My WR is 100% offroad, my friend with XR is about 90% offroad, 10% street.

Both are amazing machines. WR is water cooled and extremely powerful once the AIS is removed and carb is re-jetted. If you plan on doing some really slow, technical trails, you may want to change sprockets around as I should go up a few teeth in rear for the 5-10mph technical stuff. I still run stock sprockets. I can get top speed of about 70ish according to my speedo with stock gearing as well. WR has incredible low end grunt and still explosive in top end. I absolutely love it.

XR is incredible as well. Its air cooled, tractor bike. My friend just puts it in first and damn thing will climb anything. Extremely impressed. Doesn't seem to have the snap the WR has, but keeps up no problem. I consider myself an experience trail rider (since I was 7, so over 20 years.) and he can keep up no issues. He has a full exhaust for a few HP gains and cooler running and carb is rejetted, but that's it for his.

We do multiple poker runs every year, and did the Odessa 100 this year (100 mile trial race, look it up it was amazing.)

ISSUES: WR - seat sucks. 2x4 with a cover is all it is stock. I got a seat concepts seat, so much nicer. WR is known to get hot and possibly overheat if on VERY slow trails or lots of idling and waiting in heat, had it happen once on me. I have about 2000 miles on mine and have never had any issues with performance or replacing parts. AIS holds back power and they come stock with a throttle stop screw

XR - seat is a damn sofa. Thing is incredibly comfy. I would recommend a different tank, the stock tank is like 2-3 gallons and metal, so if you lay it over it scratches, dents easily. Get a big 5.5 gallon tank and it will do wonders. You wont even notice the larger size or weight, its nice. Air cooled so needs to be moving, but my friend has never had issue with temp even when my bike overheated, so its impressive. On a long street trip he had issues with the bike getting too hot from consistant high speed riding. (80mph on that bike for over an hour only running about 7k rpm he started to notice power loss. Yes he has different gearing for street vs offroad.) Its also much heavier and takes a lot to throw it around. Im 5'10", 175lbs and I can throw my 450 no problem, XR takes a bit but I can. Friend is 6'2" 300lbs and its nothing for him on the XR

Either bike is a killer beast. They are known as powerful and reliable. Friend did 800 miles in 48 hour trip with me a few weekends ago on his XR (I had my R6 at the time.) and besides oil getting too hot and little power loss from high temps it performed amazingly and he was fairly comfortable. Last stretch was 350 miles straight besides fuel stop and he felt good afterwards.

Let me know if you need pics or any other info. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Great info, thanks for sharing, exactly what I wanted to hear.

You mentioned power loss at 80mph for over an hour, how does that bike pull at those speeds? If you need to pass someone and get up to 90mph for a short burst, can it do it? I had one user tell me that above 70mph the XR650 vibrates like mad and is uncomfortable to ride.
 
Klurejr said:
You mentioned power loss at 80mph for over an hour, how does that bike pull at those speeds? If you need to pass someone and get up to 90mph for a short burst, can it do it? I had one user tell me that above 70mph the XR650 vibrates like mad and is uncomfortable to ride.
Click to expand...

Its my buddy who rode it, so I cannot speak first handed, but he felt just a bit off, it still pulled well and with his gearing (15 tooth front, 46-48 rear, not 100% on rear) he could hit 120+ really pushing it. his offroad gearing is a lot lower, like 52 tooth rear and 13 front. He has different rims, tires, sprockets for street and offroad, but his street tires are still about 80/20 for some offroad use if needed.

XR650L is a SOLID bike, ive been impressed, but for me the suspension is junk offroad, forgot to metion that earlier. its ok on the street, but offroad after some time it just gets tired. conventional front forks, wimpy shock. My friend is gonna convert his front to inverted forks, but its a lot of work and $$$. He wants to do it just because he is interested to see the difference and likes having the two. Ive thought of doing my WR450 into street legal, I only need a $200 kit to do it, but I have the FZ1 and I don't want to deal with rims, tires and gearing to switch back and forth
 
Go with the wr450 they are bulletproof. Plus they are way lighter than the xr and are way more fun on and off road. You will find it a lot easier to find a set of used supermoto wheels for the wr as well. Suppermotojunkie.com will be your best friend check them out.
 
update: as the market for trackbikes is really poor and everyone wants to buy the bike for less than 3 digits, I'm keeping my Gixxer race bitch for my fun trackdays.
I've got now my mind set on the KTM 690 SMC R, where if budget allowing, I plan to buy another set of wheels to fit offroad tires on it.


My only concern is how well this bike would handle on long stretches, because if going offroad/enduro, I 'd need to travel already about 100-150km to south Belgium.
 
DenArnold said:
update: as the market for trackbikes is really poor and everyone wants to buy the bike for less than 3 digits, I'm keeping my Gixxer race bitch for my fun trackdays.
I've got now my mind set on the KTM 690 SMC R, where if budget allowing, I plan to buy another set of wheels to fit offroad tires on it.


My only concern is how well this bike would handle on long stretches, because if going offroad/enduro, I 'd need to travel already about 100-150km to south Belgium.
Click to expand...

Don't worry about the 150 km commute to the riding area. They are quite capable of doing that. Just don't go too aggressive on the knobby tires with that much road use as they will not last long. Go with a tire that is more a 50/50, most riders do just fine in the dirt with those. I can out do (on gravel) with my Heidenau K-60 rear, my buddy with his 606 Dunlops, which probably speaks more to my risk tolerance than the tire, but just shows it's not all the tires.

I may end up with a 690 one of these days, I know 2 local riders with them and they have a blast on our dual sport rides. They wheelie very easily.
 
I like the XR650 as a top option. They've been around for quite a while and have a long history for reliability without turning you into a mechanic. Parts and aftermarket items are readily available and with so many in the market place, the 3rd party items are not so pricey. I found a nice one set up for motard.

15801d1377610529-good-dual-purpose-offroad-bike-honda-xr-650-08.jpg
 
Den the SMR 690 is one mofo of a motorcycle. It's a animal. A friend of mine has one and will never part with it. Make sure you carry misc bolts and loctite for extended street riding. It is not a soft edge machine but you will get a Hugh smile per mile out of it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
johnnyontherocks said:
Den the SMR 690 is one mofo of a motorcycle. It's a animal. A friend of mine has one and will never part with it. Make sure you carry misc bolts and loctite for extended street riding. It is not a soft edge machine but you will get a Hugh smile per mile out of it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Yep, and I am negotiating on the 690 Enduro R at the moment as well. No one in the province has any stock, so no matter what it will be a 2014 model some time this winter. 304 lbs, 66 hp worth of single cylinder goodness.
 
Update: went for a demo ride on the 1190 Adventure. Jezus. What. A. Bike! I'm in love. But would need to trade in my FZ1 in for some cash if going for the KTM 1190. And I know would hate to depart from her. Tough decisions next winter to be made!
 
DenArnold said:
Update: went for a demo ride on the 1190 Adventure. Jezus. What. A. Bike! I'm in love. But would need to trade in my FZ1 in for some cash if going for the KTM 1190. And I know would hate to depart from her. Tough decisions next winter to be made!
Click to expand...

Perhaps you begin to understand my choice a bit better now. KTM is like any other addiction, not really good for you, hard on the wallet, but damn it makes you feel good while your in it's grips.;)

http://www.wilkinsonphotography.com.au/Portfolio/Adventure-Motorcycle/i-6Jz3gFj/XL
 
Last edited:
I'm having booked yet another testride on the 1190 this weekend (hope the weather is good) and configured the bike on the KTM side and it'll be hard to get the money together (need to start getting my wife some more flowers :p )

Recent posted my FZ1 on the local 2nd hand market sites to sense the marketprice of my current Yamaha.

Although I tested and thumps up on the MT-09 (or the FZ09) it's not I believe a good bike at this point as it will only replace the FZ1 as a streetbike, where I'd like to take it more adventural.

Another option is yet on the radar is the Triumph 800XC, but unfortunately only the street version is available for a testride, so anyone has one share me your experience please.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top