Anybody have experience with Dual-Sport bikes?

[yamarider]

I've been seriously considering buying a dual-sport dirtbike to play around on instead of trading in my car on a nicer one like I was originally planning on.

Does anybody have any experience with them? I've been looking around and i'm pretty sure i'm getting one, I was just wondering how much power is really necessary on one to maintain highway speeds without being revved out the whole time. I've checked out all the major manufacturers and the kawasaki 250 really caught my eye, i'm just worried that if I take it out on the main road I won't be able to keep up with traffic without having the engine at high rpm the whole time. I never rode any dirtbikes except a cr50, so I don't have anything to compare power to. Any suggestions/comments would be appreciated.

 

[warlord]

My uncle has a klr 650 and he will sell it to me for cheap as hell. But, he told me that he tried taking it trail riding once and the thing was way too heavy to try and do any decent offroading with. A 250 would probably be a different story though. I have always wanted one of those suzuki drz 400 dual sports.

 

[klutchbuster350]

dont trade your car in if youre getting a dual sport, i dont think a rain coat will do you much good on a dirtbike on a rainy day

 

[yamarider]

Hell dude, I realize a motorcycle and raincoat isn't the best combination for all-season riding, i'd be keeping both my car and the warrior, and just adding the bike to my toybox.

I was thinking that a 650 would be too big for some trails too, and they would probably have worse gas milage than my car.

 

[slamdam97]

I had a yamaha XT200 a long time ago. It was good on trails, but I wouldn't recomend trying to ride highway speeds much. I think I topped it out at 65. Might wanna look at a 350 or 400. Problem is the bigger the heavier. So I guess you gotta figure what you are gonna use it for mostly. I say get a sportbike, leave off roading to the warrior, thats what I do.

 

[yamarider]

It'll definitely be a dual sport if I get anything with 2 wheels, one of the main reasons I want it is so I can go trail riding locally without having to borrow my dad's durango and load the warrior up on the trailer just to drive 4 miles. I think i'd get myself in trouble on a sportbike too, when you have the power you just gotta see how fast it goes.

 

[406elcamino]

my brother rides a klx 650 in the trails and he doesn;t have any problems cause he is a really good bike rider but he is going down a tooth up front

 

[yamarider]

It looks like the bike is gonna have to wait, one of my buddies has to sell his stang because he's laid off work, so i'm trading my 93 escort plus $2000 for his 99 mustang - damn good deal if you ask me. All the mustang needs for inspection as far as I know is new tires, so i'm getting a set of used wheels and tires off a mustang gt for it, hopefully i'll be able to find some of the bullitt wheels, because they would look so sweet on this car.