Getting a Motard help me out

[Jamo]

ok heres my delema.

I have sorted my xr250 for the dirt and now I want to buy a bike to put motard tyres on and ride around on the road and do stunts on. (wheelies endos etc). I dont want to race and I will probably be doing a little big of light touring on it on the road.

In Australia we have restrictions on our license and it means I cant ride the xr650r. However I can ride these bikes:

drz400

xr600

xr400

wr426

Which of these in your opinion would be the best suited to what i want to do ?

ps: Im a wheelie junky, I need big wheelies

[ September 29, 2002, 07:46 AM: Message edited by: Jamo ]

[Pinko_Rat_Bastard]

XR600 is damn neer bullet proof! I would take that, but thats just my opinion, I also know that the DRZ400 is really really fast. ?

[Dutch]

KTM520 - WR450 - CR500!!

[Jamo]

Cant be a cr500 or a wr450 : /

I think its down to the drz of the xr600 : /

which is better for wheelies ?

[bajajoaquin]

If you are riding on the street and plan on doing any touring at all, get the big XR. The 400 may be a better all-around dirt bike, but it is a little small and buzzy for the street. Especially if you want to do wheelies and stuff, the XR is the way to go.

I've got a '96 XR600R that has a license plate. It's not a motard, but I run it on the street occasionally when I want to act the hooligan.

The only way I'd recommend the DRZ is if you wanted to do tight trail riding on it.

[Dutch]

In my opinion the DRZ is better than the XR 600 anyway you can measure it. Perhaps the XR would win in a free fall down a mine shaft ? but that is about it.

[Kev_XR]

Here is a great website for window shopping... or buying.

http://www.motomorphic.com/forSale/index.html

My votes would be:

XR600 - Reliable, cheap to fix when you loop (No radiators)

KTM 610LC - The power awed my friend with an XR600.

CR500 - The motor...

[bajajoaquin]

The Motomorphic recommendation is a good one. Although I'm in San Diego and those guys are in San Francisco, I've met them at Laguna Seca. The guy's just nuts about motorcycles. Good stuff, good ideas, and a good all-around bike guy.

In spite of Dutch's post, I'll stick to my opinion that the XR600 is a better street bike. If you want to be a hooligan, there ain't no replacement for displacement. There are lots more hop-up parts available for XRs, too. They've been around since the last ice age.

[Kev_XR]

I've been to the Motomorphic shop in Petaluma, which is about 20 miles north of where I live. Some very very interesting bikes on the floor. ?

If I were going to get a Suzuki, I'd get the SV650 twin. My friend races one and he's basically stopped riding his VT1000 Superhawk. "A pipe, some jetting, and this thing is an instant holigan bike. I can't keep the front wheel on the ground." Narrow, light, good motor, good brakes.

[Jamo]

What kind of hp figures are we looking at

xr600 = 38hp

drz400 = 41

would it be safe to say that the xr is making gobs more torque then therefore would lift the front wheelie easier ?

[bajajoaquin]

Where did you get the HP figures? Were there any more?

In answer to your question, yes, the XR would be making more torque. But the XR is also really easy to modify. You can add significant power simply by taking out the snorkel and swapping out the pipe for a free-flow model. There is also tons of (rleatively) cheap stuff out there for the XR engine. I'm not so familiar with the DRZ scene, but the stuff I've seen is usually more expensive.

Don't get me wrong, either: if I was buying a bike for trail riding, I'd look at a DRZ rather than my XR. However there are lots of people out there who have motarded the big Honda, so you can learn from their experience.