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bwdmax said:
Truthfully you can find the Chinese clones or even a small dual sport used and keep it 6 months to a year building skills and sell it for about what you paid or even make money.
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Yeah, my dad's about to sell his DR200SE which would be perfect for this. You can easily buy it for $1500, ride it for a while to learn on, then sell it for $1500. Nearly free rent. Just pay taxes.
 
mr72 said:
I must have been unclear, I wasn't suggesting this was bad advice about learning to ride off pavement. But it you are going to have one bike, a 250 dual sport will be horrible to get you to big bend from college station. A cb500x will get you there much better and also give you a chance to practice off pavement closer to home without nearly as much risk as a big adv bike.

There's just no really perfect compromise. I have zero experience on a bug adv bike but my limited experience on my compromise bike says practice is critical to success off pavement. Having a bike that will get to off pavement to practice on is job number one. You have to practice on the kind of bike you will be riding once you arrive at big bend.
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Hence my suggestion for a small folding trailer or a hitch carrier. ;) I'd also say that a CB500x would also be fairly not pleasant in getting from anywhere to Big Bend, but that is just me. :) And if you are going to get a CB500 which weighs 430lbs, why the heck not just get a KLR650 since you are at the same weight? Either one of them are heavy, and will instill bad habits, so you might as well have a 21" front wheel and 7 gallons of gas if you are going to have the same amount of weight, right?

I will say, that the advice of "you have to practice on the kind of bike you will be riding once you arrive in Big Bend" is what leads many many people to learn some pretty terrible habits. If I want to start road racing motorcycles, I don't hop in and get a 1000cc supersport and hope for the best. I learn on smaller and more forgiving bikes and then move up as my skill level increases. For some reason, people don't seem to stick to this same logic with riding off pavement. They think it is so much easier, and since you are going slow it isn't like you will get hurt. I can say from my experiences that it is far more often that I see folks new to dual sport get injured, than I do with my buddies that are pushing the limits learning to road race. Perhaps it is the common respect that most of us seem to have for road race machines and the HP they have.

I know this isn't an easy answer for the person that posted the question. "Oh great, now this yahoo on here is saying I need to buy some little crap bike that doesn't even do what I really want to do, ride that for a year, sell it, and THEN finally get the bike that I should have gotten a long time ago." Yes, that is exactly my advice if the end goal is to learn the proper way to ride off pavement, and to do so with the shortest learning curve possible. Or at least that is what I've seen in my past 35'ish years of riding these things. But like I said before, we all have opinions, so who the heck really knows..... :rider:
 
DFW_Warrior said:
And if you are going to get a CB500 which weighs 430lbs, why the heck not just get a KLR650 since you are at the same weight?
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Because the CB has more power and is about 10x as good on the road? Sure it might also be 10x as bad off the road, but since you are going to spend 20x as much time on the road as off, makes more sense to pick something better on the road when a tradeoff is to be had.

DFW_Warrior said:
I know this isn't an easy answer for the person that posted the question. "Oh great, now this yahoo on here is saying I need to buy some little crap bike that doesn't even do what I really want to do, ride that for a year, sell it, and THEN finally get the bike that I should have gotten a long time ago." Yes, that is exactly my advice if the end goal is to learn the proper way to ride off pavement, and to do so with the shortest learning curve possible. Or at least that is what I've seen in my past 35'ish years of riding these things. But like I said before, we all have opinions, so who the heck really knows..... :rider:
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Yeah I think that's very sound advice, but I am not entirely sure it's fully applicable to the OP's question. But I am no pro at riding a big bike off road. It's not worth arguing about. Lots of people here on TWT have the motorcycle equivalent of that Jeep JKU with 35" MT tires and a 6" lift that they use to commute. Frankly I think the big ADV movement is just as much a fashion statement as the Jeep is. And BTW I own a Jeep JKU.

I think it's hard enough to get good at riding a real road motorcycle on lots of paved roads. It's also hard to get good at riding a real off-road motorcycle off pavement. But if you are riding 2k miles to of road on a trip to do 30 miles off pavement, I wouldn't pick a 50/50 bike to do it, and I wouldn't recommend focusing all of your learning on that 1.5% of surface you are going to encounter.
 
Silly question, but have you ridden much off pavement at all? Just going by your blog, it doesn't seem to be the case.

I'll agree with you though, if the guy really doesn't want to ride that much off pavement, and not be very good at it when he does, and maybe hurt himself or the bike in the process... buy whatever street bike clad in ADV clothing suits the fancy. After all, if there isn't success in it, well, that'll just be another lightly used bike up for sale on here shortly. :lol2: Alrighty, I've given my fairly unpopular opinion. Time to move on.
 
I just re-read the first post.

DR650. Simple to work on. If you are going to ride, you are going to work on bikes. Good road manners, a great commuter. Put it on the freeway, it don't care. Good gravel manners, steer with the rear of you want. Decent, but heavy, off-road manners. I've still seen them get at least 3ft of air and I've seen them do all of Big Bend.

Jqueen used to ride to Bastrop from the Houston area with his daughter behind him and then ride the all the trails with her hanging on!

I also have a buddy, a high mileage rider, who gave up on fancy European bikes a few years ago and loves his DR.

It's been a minute since the OP posted. What does he think?
 
Haha sorry guys this is a lot of solid input and work has been crazy and getting crazier. I agree if I am going to majority off road, as in more than gravel, a 250 is the wiser choice to learn the fundamentals. To provide clarity for the camping part and where I am planning to go for the first year will majority be paved and gravel as the goal is not to do any sort of trail once I get to my destination but rather use the bike as method to help me just get out, travel and away from home on the weekends. The long term goal, if I do enjoy this are the trips like Big Bend,the alpine loop/moab combination in Colorado/Utah like many others before me, and then up to Montana and beyond. I will however go whichever way my interests lead. Example, if it turns out I like the twisties or want more speed I may transition into sportbikes and focus on track days.
 
Hopefully here in the coming weeks after a massive hurdle at work I should have a free enough schedule to go out and get a bike.

Jarrett you are not wrong, that is best avoided.
 
I really like the 250 dual sport option with a good hitch carrier. They are a blast to ride around town and on back roads. They are very forgiving as you learn to ride on dirt and they get about 75mpg so it's cheap to operate. I love the KLR but it's not a highway flyer. It will burn down the interstate all day long at 75mph but you have nothing left to stay out of trouble or passing. You will loose most of the feeling in your hands after 5 hours. It's not a problem if your young but not at my age. If your ok taking old state roads and staying in the 55-65mph range it is a blast. The 250 option will give you a very fun ride and alow you to work on your skill. It should be a cheap option to try and you will get your money back.

You have a decent budget so you should find something nice for sure.
 
My first adventure bike was a BMW r1150gs adventure, I think it was one of the most comfortable bike I ever drove, my only problem was that it was 570 lbs from there I went to a 363 lbs Suzuki DR 650, it was like that song from the cure ' It made me feel like I was young again ' at least on the off road part, but it can hold on pretty good highway speed very smooth, so if you want to be on light weight of the spectrum the Dr 650 or the ktm 690 are very capable bikes, I currently have a drz400s, but I honestly like the Dr 650 more for overall use
 
I’m in cen Tex north of Calvert. Bought a CRF250L from a forum member in April. Took my MSF class this weekend and am ready to start riding back roads. My long term goals are similar to you. Not sure how much experience you have as a rider. Me? Practically none. I think the 250 is gonna be great for me to learn on and develop as a rider. After this weekend, although I passed, I realize I need to improve my skills greatly! This will take time on the bike.
I will trailer to locations if they’re far for now. I will ride backroads, do short trips and try to build confidence and skill over time. Would love to do some longer touring later on, with a bigger bike.
I’d say give a smaller bike consideration now if you need to develop as a rider. And watch some Itchy Boots videos on YouTube. Good luck!
 
jackbutler said:
I’m in cen Tex north of Calvert. Bought a CRF250L from a forum member in April. Took my MSF class this weekend and am ready to start riding back roads. My long term goals are similar to you. Not sure how much experience you have as a rider. Me? Practically none. I think the 250 is gonna be great for me to learn on and develop as a rider. After this weekend, although I passed, I realize I need to improve my skills greatly! This will take time on the bike.
I will trailer to locations if they’re far for now. I will ride backroads, do short trips and try to build confidence and skill over time. Would love to do some longer touring later on, with a bigger bike.
I’d say give a smaller bike consideration now if you need to develop as a rider. And watch some Itchy Boots videos on YouTube. Good luck!
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That's the way to do it, imo.

I tried to buy the big bike first and it wasn't until I went back rode little bikes that my skills got better. Plus you can keep the CRF250L and buy a bigger bike later if you want one.
 
jackbutler said:
I’m in cen Tex north of Calvert. Bought a CRF250L from a forum member in April. Took my MSF class this weekend and am ready to start riding back roads. My long term goals are similar to you. Not sure how much experience you have as a rider. Me? Practically none. I think the 250 is gonna be great for me to learn on and develop as a rider. After this weekend, although I passed, I realize I need to improve my skills greatly! This will take time on the bike.
I will trailer to locations if they’re far for now. I will ride backroads, do short trips and try to build confidence and skill over time. Would love to do some longer touring later on, with a bigger bike.
I’d say give a smaller bike consideration now if you need to develop as a rider. And watch some Itchy Boots videos on YouTube. Good luck!
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Jack,
You should come to this event with that 250.
Thread 'Hill Country 500 Adventure Challenge, May 28 - 31, 2021' https://www.twtex.com/forums/threads/hill-country-500-adventure-challenge-may-28-31-2021.126594/
There'll be a group suited for you.
 
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