I grew up on Yamaha motorcycles.my last significant riding experience is almost 40 years ago. I want an inexpensive dual purpose cycle at least 250cc's.
Anyone have any experience with them?
I grew up on Yamaha motorcycles.my last significant riding experience is almost 40 years ago. I want an inexpensive dual purpose cycle at least 250cc's.
Anyone have any experience with them?
Go over to advrider.com and search the Thumpers forum. Bucket loads of info on any brand/model you seek. There is also a forum for Chinese bikes I've seen but don't recall what it's called.
CF Moto and Benelli seem okay. Some of the others can be pure garbage. I'd rather buy a used Japanese bike than give any more money to China, but that's a personal choice.
I understand. A used bike would be great however a good used bike is more expensive than a new China bike with a warranty.
I have not ruled that out. I just asked if anyone had experience with one.
There is a reason that a good used japanese or american bike is more expensive then a used Chinese one.
I loved my WR250 and that would fit the bill for you as well.
"Warranty". Well, if you buy it in a box from Amazon I don't think I'd plan on the warranty being very useful.
The chances of needing a warranty with a China bike are bigger than needing one with a decent used Japanese bike.
Just what used Japanese bikes are you looking at that are so much more expensive than a bike-in-a-box?
The street legal Chinese bikes have gotten a lot better. There are some that are significantly better than some of the Japanese dual sports - I'm looking at you Honda, but you pay for those ones.
If you buy from a reputable shop they're usually pretty good about warranty, which you likely will not need. If I were in the market for an entry level DS I'd look at Chinese over a DR/XT/CRF, which are usually over priced for what you get. As long as you know what you're buying and can be a little resourceful, the better Chinese bikes can be great value
There are 2-3 dealers in the DFW area that sell these bikes. They would be somewhat local if a need arises.
I would like at least a 250 4 stroke. I grew up on 2 stroke enduros, but my TT500 helped me see the 4 stroke light.
Real world experience is what I was looking for, not a lecture on the pros and cons of buying a Chinese product
And as ddavidv mentioned, advrider. Both should be excellent, reasonably unbiased resources
I know a ton pop up used for dirt cheap after a few years. Seems like once something breaks it might not be available as a spare and owners treated them as fairly disposable in the first place or lost interest.
Chiming in here as a recent owner of a Chinese dual sport, specifically a CSC TT250. Bought the bike new as my first "real" motorcycle with ADV dreams in mind. I purchased new because I had a project car at the time and really didn't want to work on something extensively. Just hop on and ride. Roughly 2800 dollars new and delivered via a winter special they were running.
Overall the bike was great, put around 2500 miles on it in a year including around 500 dirt miles. The only failures were a blown out headlamp, dead battery, and a stretched chain (pretty common). The kick start option was pretty cool and handy if the battery were to die. Bike always started, ran well. This was to be expected as it essentially a clone of an older Honda motor.
The bike did everything i needed it to, cruised well at 50-55 on road with some gearing adjustment. After a year i decided off-road excursions were going to be limited for me, sold it and picked up a used Ninja 250 for road use.
I think you can pick these up for around 1800 used, most with 1k-2k miles. Change the oil, adjust the valves, maybe add a jet kit and a rear sprocket. Good bike.
If I had less projects at the time, a KLR 250 would likely have been my choice. Wouldn't hesitate to buy another though if I wanted something newer and reliable.
-John
In reply to johnp2 :
Thanks
Look into GPX moto. I was able to ride a friend of mine's 250cc dual sport, and it was awesome. A little on the expensive side, but worth every penny when it comes to having a fun reliable bike. Great suspension, smooth engine, and dead simple reliability. The only real "problem" I'm aware of with them is the junk carb they use. That is easily fixable though. He has owned his for a couple years now with no problems.
The want is extremely strong for a Kove 450 Rally... not a cheap bike though ($10K), but it's a warning to the Japanese... a street legal version of the Dakar race bike. A high quality, well built dual-sport/off-road rally bike with 8 gallons of fuel capacity, low CG, a REALLY good stock suspension setup, and only ~ 370lbs wet running weight. Would absolutely take it over a Yamaha Tenere 700.
My concern would be service and parts, I want to be able to go to a local dealer if I need something.
I think it also depends on heavily you're leaning into the dirt side of the dual sport spectrum. Thats CSC is probably one of the more common ones sold here, so parts and a knowledge database from other users is decent. 6" of travel isn't much, but if it's more of a commuter/rough road/non tech double track, it'd be sufficient. 16 hp means 60-65 is where she'd really top out speed wise in the real world. For the money new, not much else really around. For 2k in a used Japanese bike, you're probably looking at 10-20 year old Super Sherpa and XT250s and such. If you can turn a wrench for basic maintenance, and aren't looking to blast berms and race hare scrambles, you'll probably do fine on a CSC.
Buddy just got a gpx 2 stroke. Looks pretty great- he rode it all weekend and was very p,eased. Has me looking at the fse300. Reviews online are pretty fantastic- lots of YouTube coverage as well.
After researching diligently for a month I fully convinced myself and picked up a Kove 450 Rally (did a 625mile round trip down to Prescott, AZ and back on Friday to get it from the closest KOVE dealer). Initial impressions from first ride around this evening... really like it though it does have a bit less low speed throttle smoothness than my tuned KLX 300R. Power and exhaust sound is VERY nice, no need to change out exhaust out all - very much perfect stock. Build quality at a minimum as least as good as the Thailand built Kawasaki KLXs (if not a bit better). Slow speed suspension and handling is improved... actually feels more nimble and stable at slow speed though it is a little bit larger and about a 80lb heavier bike and you do feel higher up than on the KLX300R. Only took it around the property at slow speed to get an initial feel for it since supposed to snow this evening and more this coming week. ABS wasn't too bad on dirt/gravel road doing a quick stock but still will probably turn it off or maybe try rear only. Really looking forward to getting acquainted more with it.
Do they have a street legal version yet?
In reply to fatallightning :
Available for preorder as of today on website... release this summer.
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