Jarrett just went through a similar exercise although I think he was more interested in a straight dirt bike.
I ended up on a used CRF250L (dual sport) mainly because:
- Wanted street legal from the factory so I could ride it more places than strictly dirt bikes allow
- Longer/street bike service intervals/don't have to work on it every other ride
- Didn't want to mess with carbs and the maintenance that goes with them (EFI)
- Wanted ability to go to the mountains without pulling the carb/rejetting (EFI)
- Wanted it to be able to sit a while and crank the instant I hit the button (EFI)
- Didn't want to spend too much on the first one (its one of the cheaper EFI DS bikes)
- Wanted Honda reliability/familiarity since I had two already
- It's easy for a newbie to ride/my daughter can ride it as well
I was worried the 250 wouldn't have the power for what I needed to do. So far, it has. I'm not doing anything crazy on it, if I was, maybe it wouldn't be enough.
But as it is, it let's me pop wheelies (in 1st at least), spin the back tire, putt around the single track trails at TexPlex and hit 80mph on the highway on the way home. And it's light enough to throw around in the pasture and fits in the back of my truck. Not to mention, its a fun "run to the store" bike when I don't feel like maneuvering the Africa Twin out of the garage.
I know for sure I wouldn't have enjoyed an older, carbed 650 as much as I like this thing, which is about the same price as this bike on the used market. Mainly because of the work entailed to keep older carb'ed bikes running well in all situations and how much lighter/easier/less intimidating this 250 is to ride than the big singles. I'm not scared to put a foot down and spin the back end out on it. Wouldn't do that on a bigger, more powerful bike.
It's a good compliment to my CRF1000L and riding the CRF250L in the dirt has helped improved my big bike riding skills/confidence as well. If it wasn't raining, I'd be on the trails with it right now
I think the Yamaha WR250R (250 EFI dual sport) is considered a better bike across the board from the CRF250L, but they are considerably more expensive used as well. I stuck with Honda and went the less expensive route and I'm content so far with that decision after the fact.
Honda is *supposedly* releasing a CRF450L next month. They say its a much more serious bike than the 250L for going off road. I don't know that I really need anything more serious in reality. If it's like the 250L in terms of service intervals, I might check it out sometime. It will be lighter AND more powerful than the 250L.
Bear in mind, I'm a newbie. This is my first "dirt" bike. These other guys actually know what they are talking about when it comes to what serious off road riders need from a bike.