Four years ago I discussed the myth of the light
weight adventure bike. Is it possible to find a bike that is light enough to handle some basic
dirt riding, but also handle long adventure rides. Our main criteria?
Between 120kg and 175kg. A decent sized fuel tank.
And a decent oil capacity. Preferably a 21" front wheel
for handling the nasty stuff. A good balance between
performance and reliability. Still available in 2020 as a new bike. The problem? There used to be a lot
of bikes that came lose 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 adventure bikes are like humans, and getting fatter and heavier all the time.
I am about to buy light weight adventure bike, 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. Small tank, hard seat. Small oil capacity. In fact Honda states the oil must
be changed every 1000km, simply too often for adventure riding. Lets hope Honda develops
a proper rally or adventure model soon. Getting heavier... the dual sport 250s. 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. It looks the part. A windscreen, dual LED headlights,
big fuel tank, 1.8L oil capacity, better suspension. Unfortunately it also kicked
the weight up to 156kg fully fuelled. Next it's the good old Suzuki DRZ400.
Essentially unchanged for 20 years, thousands of riders have slapped a big
tank and comfortable seat on this bike and ridden all over the world. I have
owned three of these and loved them once you make the necessary mods. But that
little engine can get buzzy on the highway. A bit heavier and a crazy amount
of horsepower, the KTM 690. Some guys love them, others hate them. There
are a lot of things that can go wrong with them which tends to rule it out for long trips unless
you are well equipped and mechanically minded. 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. Next is the very cool looking AJP PR7, clocking
in at about 155kg. It's been around for a few years but there's so little info from owners as
to it's long term reliability. I contacted the Australian distributor and local dealers regularly
to do a review and never got an answer. Oh well. 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. 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. 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. The SWM Superdual. We mentioned the excellent
TE610 earlier, it has slowly morphed into this much heavier beast. The specs look good except
for that weight. And unfortunately it's still largely an unknown quantity as their are so
few long term reports from owners as yet. And to wrap up, we have the Kawasaki
Versys 300 and the BMW G310GS. Both have the smaller 19 inch front
wheels so they are quite road oriented, but they manage to sneak under our weight
limit and at surprisingly cheap prices too. 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, 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 me, 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. If you own any of the bikes mentioned, we are keen to
hear your opinions. Let us know in the comments.
