THE BEST LIGHTWEIGHT ADVENTURE BIKES? Cross Training Adventure

http://crosstrainingenduro.com http://tractionerag.com Which is the best lightweight adventure bike? Four years ago I discussed the myth of the light weight adventure motorbike. Is it possible to find a bike that is light enough to handle some basic dirt riding, but also handle long adventure rides. We are especially interested in the Suzuki DR650, SWM Dual Sport, AJP P57, CCM 450, CRF450L, BMW G310GS, DRZ400, KTM 690 and KTM 390 Adventure. Our main criteria? Between 120kg and 175kg, decent sized fuel tank, decent oil capacity, preferably a 21" front wheel, good balance between performance and reliability, and still available in 2020 as a new bike. The problem? There used to be a lot of bikes that came close to this. The Husqvarna TE610. The KTM 640. The Honda Dominator NX650. And my personal favourites? The Honda XR650R. Honda executives should be shot for not updating this mighty beast. Imagine this with electric start and fuel injection to meet emission standards. And of course the incredible Husaberg FE570. KTM executives should be shot for not continuing this design in an adventure style. Sigh. But nowadays most so called lightweight adventure bikes are like humans, and getting fatter and heavier all the time. I am about to buy light weight adventure motorbike I will announce my choice at the end. Here are the candidates. Plenty of guys adventurize big bore dirt bikes. I have been down that road with several bikes. It's always the same issues. Small fuel tank, small oil capacity, horrible seat, higher maintenance engine, no cush drive hub. It gets expensive trying to fix those issues, personally I think there are too many compromises involved. If I did go down that road again, it would probably be the rock solid Yamaha WR450F. The next heaviest is the CCM GP450 at only 125kg dry weight. Sadly it's now discontinued due to emission laws in Europe. Many felt this was going to be the perfect light weight adventure bike with it's big fuel tank and oil capacity. A real shame. Next is this relatively new model from Honda, the CRF450L. It's a detuned version of the racing model but it still has the same issues. Getting heavier... the Japanese dual sport 250 as a lightweight adventure bike? We have Honda's CRF250L, Yamaha XT250, Kawasaki KLX250 and Yamaha WR250R. For many years these have been very popular in the USA as cheap light weight adventure bikes. Personally I am not sure why. The Suzuki DRZ400 is around the same weight, in most cases around the same price and has much more power of course. But it is very interesting to see Honda adapted the CRF250L into a Rally model. We need more than just the DR650, SWM Dual Sport, AJP P57, and BMW G310GS. Next it's the good old Suzuki DRZ400. A bit heavier and a crazy amount of horsepower, the KTM 690. Talking about cheap old style bikes, next is Honda's XR650L. Many guys have adapted these for adventure riding, and we compared it recently to the KLR650 and DR650. It's just a pity Honda didn't slap on an oil cooler and cush drive hub to provide more competition for the SWM Dual Sport, AJP P57, KTM 690 and Kawasaki Versys 300. Back to KTM, it's the KTM 390 Adventure. Great fuel and oil capacities, zippy engine. But it's only got a 19 inch front wheel and those spindly looking cast wheels so it's really more of a small touring bike. Plus it's made in India so time will tell if it doesn't hold up as well as the Austrian built KTMs. Next is the very cool looking AJP PR7, clocking in at about 155kg. Another golden oldie from Suzuki, the venerable DR650. Largely unchanged since 1996, this cheap reliable air cooled workhorse is still popular as few cheap mods can fix the known issues and transform its handling and power characteristics. The SWM Superdual. We mentioned the excellent TE610 earlier, it has slowly morphed into this much heavier beast. And now we are getting toward the heavy end of our chosen limit with the Kawasaki KLR650. It's similar to the DR650 but more suited to highways and easy dirt roads due to its weight, big fuel tank and fairing. See our vid comparing the old style Japanese 650s. And to wrap up, we have the Kawasaki Versys 300 and the BMW G310GS.
Hopefully that gives you a quick overview of what is possible in the light weight adventure bike category. What did I choose? I have just bought another Suzuki DR650 instead of the SWM Dual Sport, AJP P57 or KTM 390 Adventure. This will be my third one over the past two decades. And my brother has just bought his first one ever. I'm not saying it would be the best choice for everyone, but for it ticks the boxes. It's old school design means there is far less to go wrong. And it's easier to fix if something does go wrong. It has the cush drive. It's still cheap and for an extra $1000 and a bit of work you can transform the bike in so many ways. If you are interested check out our 10 part DR650 series.

Music: Marko Furstenberg
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