Help Scotty decide on an Expedition Moto...

jkam

nomadic man
This is the new expedition bike I want.
Yamaha XT660z Tenere.
Unfotunately, currently only in europe.
http://www.yamaha-motor-europe.com/products/motorcycles/adventure/xt660z.jsp
desktop2008xtz660redwhitebl.jpg
 

SOAZ

Tim and Kelsey get lost..
Ah! Then I know it well. My uncle raced one in the desert racing vet class for a season and then moved on to lighter faster bikes. As a kid I remember riding it and it seemed like an air craft carrier. Of course I was 13.
Speaker said:
The "new" DR is the same as it's been since 1996. Just new plastics. I had a '92 and only got rid of it to get a faster bike. It's a great "expedition" bike though.

Right now I have a Husaberg, but would love to have another bike for long distance.

I don't have much money, so my list would look like:

XR650r
DR-z 400e
XR400
DR650
 

vcsnover

Adventurer
looks like you are mainly dirt oriented... with that said I would go with the xr650... I own 2 bmw's and they are great, but I have spent a pretty penny getting the 650 to where it is fairly trail worthy... reliability and ease of finding dealer support/parts is way in favor of the honda or suzuki. Baja? Honda, Alaska? BMW. Overall for what you say you need? Honda.:)
 

Speaker

Adventurer
winterhk said:
You KNOW you want one...

I really do. I should have bought Nate's when I had the chance, or just kept my Lc4 and bought a two stroke for the single track. :smilies27 God damn buyers remorse.
 

TxRider

Observer
The top 2 bikes for a Baja prerun/expedition bike would be an XR 650R (owns baja) or a KTM 625 SXC (light version of the rally bike that owns Dakar).

Out of the bikes you listed you want a XR 650L, or the DR650 I would say, probably with a shock/fork upgrade.

My simple breakdown....

XR 650L, rugged old school air cooled DS bike, I'd ride it anywhere. Could use a fork/shock upgrade though.

XR650R lighter, faster, water cooled, better suspension, but has no e-start, and has a weaker aluminum subframe, not meant for luggage and will break offroad if loaded. Just needs a bigger tank for running Baja.

The DR 400 is fine, until you need to run a highway at over 60mph. It's also not really lighter than the 650. Sips gas compared to a 650, a 5gal tank will go a lot farther.

KLR will do it, but it's heavier and will break things, mostly the cheap bolts. Upgrade most of the load bearing bolts to good grade and you'll be ok. Also needs a fork/shock upgrade.

DR 650 is a good bike, I'd ride it anywhere, needs a fork/shock upgrade though.

650 Dakar, too heavy, expensive and you'll tear it up prerunning baja. No way I'd want to even try that bike. Might struggle through it, but the bottom of this list.

The KTM LC4 enduros (NOT the adventure, look at the SXC) are lighter, built stronger and are faster than any of these bikes but maybe the XR 650R(about the same as the DR 400), have e-start, moly steel frame/sub frame to pack a load, good WP suspension and would do about 200 miles with a 5 gallon tank that you can get from the factory. But they don't sell them new in the U.S.A since 2004 and they aren't cheap.

The smaller KTM RFS based bikes are a little over 50 lbs lighter, but I'm not sure of carrying luggage on them, 5 gal tanks are available though.

If ya like, I just rode about 700 miles 90% offroad on my KTM SXC along with two friends, one on a DR650, the other KLR 650 you can read about. Both of em over packed IMO though. :)

http://www.twtex.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18205
 
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peekay

Adventurer
Scott, are you looking only at new bikes? Sorry, if you've already answered this, I haven't waded through all 16 pages of this thread. But if you would consider used, a Kawasaki KLX 650 is also an excellent choice. They no longer make them anymore, stopped maybe about 3 years ago? I had a 93 that was supremely reliable. It has a lot more power than the DR and beat both the DR and XR in a head to head back in the day. It's basically a more dirt worthy KLR.
 

RHINO

Expedition Leader
hey scott, the KLR 650 is not the best of anything but its one hell of a well rounded bike. back when i owned mine most americans didnt know anything about adventure riding and i got alot of "why are you riding that big thing out here". well it served me well, it went to alaska and when i finally retired it i had over 80k on the clock, except for a CDI problem all of those miles were trouble free. i had mucho suspension work and other mods along the way that made it a better bike for what i did,,,,, all that being said, i miss the 640 ADV most.
 

Colorado Ron

Explorer
Scott,

Next time your in Denver, call me up. Ill let you take the Honda XR 650R for a spin. I promise you that once you ride it, youll know right off its the best for what your wanting.
 

Scott Brady

Founder
Boston Mangler said:
Wellll

Have you bought anything yet? :bike_rider:

A Land Rover :p

Early in the spring, for sure. I want a full adventure moto, I have convinced myself of that for sure, so a 650 Dakar, 640 Adventure or possibly the new 800GS.
 

Clutch

<---Pass
expeditionswest said:
.... possibly the new 800GS.

Nice bike!

That may be the bike, should be a great inbetween size...it makes about 80 hp...I want a test ride! One of the guys in my club just did the Laughlin International Rally for the local, BMW dealership on their G650X (he won the rally, not bad for his first one)...some of the mechanics from that dealership are joining our club, they offered to use the shop for our meetings...how cool is that!? Get to drool over the beemers.

http://www.arizonatrailtalk.com/cgi/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1195162580

http://www.rallyusa.com/
 
Last edited:

goodtimes

Expedition Poseur
Kermit said:
Nice bike!

That may be the bike, should be a great inbetween size...it makes about 80 hp...I want a test ride! One of the guys in my club just did the Laughlin International Rally for the local, BMW dealership on their G650X (he won the rally, not bad for his first one)...some of the mechanics from that dealership are joining our club, they offered to use the shop for our meetings...how cool is that!? Get to drool over the beemers.

http://www.arizonatrailtalk.com/cgi/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1195162580

http://www.rallyusa.com/

John has a great crew down there...I don't think there is a bad one in the bunch. It looks like his decision to put his marketing money into racing (as opposed to cycle trader ads, etc) looks promising....
 

Clutch

<---Pass
goodtimes said:
John has a great crew down there...I don't think there is a bad one in the bunch. It looks like his decision to put his marketing money into racing (as opposed to cycle trader ads, etc) looks promising....

I guess he wants to go racing, originally he wanted Tim Hilslamer to race for him. Tim was too busy prerunning Baja.

Todd's name was brought up, and it fell into his lap.

The one thing he kept on saying about the difference between rally racing and what we do (enduros)...is the crowd. Rally racing is very "spot of tea and crumpets" type crowd, and we are beer and borittos.

Had great time, but, alot of waiting, heck, the rally guys don't even have to deal with dust, They wait 'til it settles!
 

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