Many people hark on about wanting a 100kg bike producing 200hp etc, but being realistic what features do want that make up a bike that isn’t currently available on the market.
For me it would be
- Parallel twin cylinder – smoother than a single for road work but still physically small motors, check out the Yamaha MT-07 for example
- No more than 600cc – For the cheaper licensing, but really no more is needed on NZ roads anyway
- Naked – minimal bodywork
- Solid enough subframe to carry luggage
- Wet weight 180kg
Eddie, your ideal ADV bike is in the goldilocks range for me too.
I would like manufacturers to stop assuming all their customers are tall and offer better OEM lowering kits/options for the shorter ADV riders. Longer recommended service intervals would also be welcome.
In my opinion, for day trips in and out of the hills, something like an XR230, for overnight trips where you need carry baggage a DR350 if you can find one.
550 to 700cc V or Parallel twin. Small front Screen. GPS built into dash. 300km fuel range.
Weight 160kg unfuelled.
The new KTM 790 Adventure might come close but will be around 180kg dry.
A reliable Aprilla 550 V twin engine would also do the job there, but sadly there is no such thing.
Adam was asking the same thing in the garden of Eden, are we any closer to the answer ?
KLR has been the closest for me (not for single track though) but with these twins looming could it be dethroned
This one. (or either of the other two in the garage) Given me+bike capability is entirely limited by me, there’s absolutely no point me waiting for the next marketing exercise to appear over the horizon and then wait a further 5 to 10 years for the second hand market to deliver me one I can actually afford.
Eddie, I agree with your overall bike description. I would add the following:
Shaft drive (Low maintenance)
Air-cooled (Low maintenance)
High ground clearance.
Low Seat (I’m short)
25 liters fuel tank.
Cheers
Joao
Apart from the high ground clearance I think you just described the original BMW R80G/S PD.
In this day and age it’s never going to be air cooled, they just couldn’t meet Euro 4 or 5 emissions with it. Shaft drive also adds a fair bit of weight over chain.
I’m thinking for my next bike I might try and go shaft drive again, I just can’t be assed with all the chain maintenance, particularly as bending down and standing up is one of my biggest vertigo triggers.
The yet to be released Moto Guzzi V85 turns my wheels but being a Guzzi isn’t likely to be light.
The Mash 400 seems a pretty competent contender, fairly simple and robust.
But still a single cylinder and heavy for a 400.
Different strokes….
You’d never get that Guzzi to places a small bike could go.
True that. Although I’ve had 2 r80 g/s and they would go further than you might expect.
My WR250R with another cylinder and 350k range.
Dont need a lot more power, just beef up the low to mid range.
A lot of people would like that, if they can chop 1 cylinder off an R1 surely they can do 2.
A Honda XR650R with fuel injection, updated suspension, stiffer subframe, full lights/battery and an electric starter!
I have been thinking a bit about this recently.
I was commuting (35km each way mon-fri) with my ST1300 due to fantastic reliability and no chain maintenance. Then I bought a Nissan Leaf for even less maintenance and cheaper running cost (by quite a bit) as well as $77 per year rego.
Yesterday a man took away my ST1300 and left me with a a nice bundle of cash (yay!). I now am down to 1 car and 1 bike, this suits me as far as rego cost goes.
Now I have my DR650, which I think is a really good bike in so many ways. But it falls short in a few ways too. I don’t really like carburettors, FI is just better in a bunch of ways. I did take the DR650 for a 2,500km ride (Morrinsville-Invercargill-Morrinsville with some extra diversions, a ride through the Molesworth station and taking 2 weeks all up) recently and it did a decent enough job. But I want something more in certain aspects.
In a dual-sport I’d maybe want 350-500cc with fairly light weight and reasonable power, parallel twin with FI might be the ticket. But for what I want to do on a bike I’m thinking that an Adventure Tourer would be more suitable than a DS bike. A parallel twin still sounds like a good idea for the compact size and better power delivery. I’d like reasonable competence off the sealed roads, able to handle gravel and dirt roads and not immediately fall over as soon as it leaves the road. The V-Strom 1,000 is almost decent except that it doesn’t have good ground clearance and the wheel sizes aren’t off-road oriented. I kinda think my ideal adventure tourer should have 18″ rear and 21″ front with reasonable ground clearance and a skid plate to protect the important bits. I’d like the ability to ride on the open road at 100kph effortlessly with abundant spare power on tap for passing. I don’t really go on challenging single-track much, only a couple of times with the DR650 in the last 3 yeas – but I’d like to be as unrestricted in getting wherever I want to go, as much as is possible on a bigger bike anyway.
I am sure the perfect bike doesn’t exist so I’m looking to trade in my DR650 for the closest thing I can find in a bike suited to what I want to do. I’m wanting to explore NZ, go to motorcycle rallies, go motorcycle camping, get to the end of gravel roads and sometimes go even a bit further than the end of the road. Right now I’m planning on getting a Honda CRF-1000L Africa Twin with DCT. It seems in many ways close to my ideal adventure tourer bike and hopefully I can live with the aspects that are less than perfect, like the weight. I’ll probably spend a few thousand on after-market items to change the bike into being as close as possible to what I want, unfortunately adding even more weight. I love almost everything about that bike, but can’t help thinking about that damned weight – 242kg before I add skid plate, crash bars, racks & panniers, top box, beefier foot pegs, proper handguards, centre stand, etc. Once I load my gear and put myself on the bike there will be a LOT of weight.
Ideally I’d be able to afford to own & rego 2 bikes, the 2nd one being a light dual sport with half the weight, decent power, able to handle open road riding and also good for having fun off-road. But I just don’t have the time and money to justify the cost of running and registering two bikes.
If the rumoured Versys-x 400 comes through that might be a good choice.
The 400 ninja twin puts out 45hp and the Versys-x300 weighs 168kg kerb weight so in theory a Versys-x 400 should weigh similiar to the kerb weight of the DR650 and have a slightly higher power to weight ratio.
I have a CB500X which ticks a lot of boxes. Later this year I plan to add the Rally Raid Products L2 kit n sump guard. That will address any remaining flaws.