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Ghost Lemur
5th May 2005, 11:52
Still doing research as to what my next bike will be. If I go road it'll definitely be a zxr or cbr, but the other option which intrigues me is the Super Motard option.

Not having the best of luck with my research on this topic. Most websites I've been reading are all about the 400-600 size bikes KTM, VOX, etc.

So here's my hundred and fifty questions....

Firstly one of the reasons I like the idea of getting a motard is the go anywhere well ability. Is it really as easy as having two sets of wheels one with road tires (for open roading and commuting) and a second set with off road/legal tires (for when I want to go back road hunting and off road). How's the suspension side of things play with this?

What are my options for bikes? Both premade and what trail bikes are suitable for conversion? What's involved in the conversion?

A side question. Gear. I'm superficial enough to care about the gear suiting the look of the bike. Therefore what style of gear do people wear? If it's motorcross style helmets, are they safe as full face helmets? Leathers? Boots, onroad style or off?

Motoracer
5th May 2005, 12:21
Still doing research as to what my next bike will be. If I go road it'll definitely be a zxr or cbr, but the other option which intrigues me is the Super Motard option.

Not having the best of luck with my research on this topic. Most websites I've been reading are all about the 400-600 size bikes KTM, VOX, etc.

So here's my hundred and fifty questions....

Firstly one of the reasons I like the idea of getting a motard is the go anywhere well ability. Is it really as easy as having two sets of wheels one with road tires (for open roading and commuting) and a second set with off road/legal tires (for when I want to go back road hunting and off road). How's the suspension side of things play with this?

What are my options for bikes? Both premade and what trail bikes are suitable for conversion? What's involved in the conversion?

A side question. Gear. I'm superficial enough to care about the gear suiting the look of the bike. Therefore what style of gear do people wear? If it's motorcross style helmets, are they safe as full face helmets? Leathers? Boots, onroad style or off?

The million dollar question (ironically) is how much have ya got to spend? If not a lot then there is no need to get a proper supermoto. Frankly I haven't tried a Supermoto as of yet and from what I can imagine, it should be pretty insane (can't wait!).

However, the fact of the matter is, you don't need to get a motard to do all the things a motard does for recreational or commuting purposes UNLESS you want looks and style.

What crazy thing am I on about then? Well, I ride my brother's XR 600 right? It is a stock standard trail bike with the stock standard brakes and yes that is correct, stock standard dirt tires or known as knobblies. Yet, the bike still performs like a supermotard if you ride it like one. The only people who can go faster than it around corners have been my mates with very tricked out sports bikes with all the performance mods. (Note: I am trying to prove a point here about how good trail bikes are on their own with out the supermotard conversion if you don't have the money to do that. I am NOT trying to show off my own ability). The Michlens knobblies hold through terential rain while going around corners, full throtle in top gear with out many hassales. If you aren't going on the track, the engine braking of the big thumper aided with the half arsed front disk brake will be more than enough slowing down power for the road. On most dirt bikes you can mod and or adjust your stock standard suspension to better suit the road. How do you get away with the knobblies with high speed riding you say? Well, they are just little bits of rubber compaired to one big piece of rubber in comparison to a standard tire. The little pieces move around a lot more and generate a lot more heat thus giving you surprising levels of grip if you pin it. However the let down is obvioulsy the lack of footing with the lesser contact pach, however you can get away with it purely because dirt bikes weigh just about nothing! Obviously you can go a lot faster on the road with road tires or faster yet with road-racing tires but if you also want to ride on the dirt, I don't think it's worth the hassle of having to change them over from one to another, if you are only having fun and just commuting etc on it.

What am I saying then? Buy the most tricked out motard and be the envy of your mates if you can! You will then also get the added bit of performance but keep in mind that to get the same level of excitment (going sideways, slides etc) as you would with a stock bike, you are just going faster than before to get there. Hence why I refer to racing cause that's when competitiveness really matters and everyone is out there to go faster and not just have fun. If you just want to go hard and have fun on the road and dirt, get a trail/dirt bike and it will be good enough for recreational purposes. Actually if your game enough like that dude in Paeroa 2 years ago, you can run a standard trail bike in racing as well (He didn't have knobblies but he just hand standard road tires and he was keeping up with the pack for FFS!!)

One more thing. When I ride the XR600 it already runs out of juice at 160kmph, which is F all really. So if you are getting a 250, it better be a 2 stroke otherwise you won't see anything past 120 (that's if you are really lucky while going down hill!).

Hope that helps.

Badcat
5th May 2005, 12:29
A side question. Gear. I'm superficial enough to care about the gear suiting the look of the bike. Therefore what style of gear do people wear? If it's motorcross style helmets, are they safe as full face helmets? Leathers? Boots, onroad style or off?

as to gear - most wear leathers and MX boots.
i had a KTM 640 supermoto and the gearbox was very MX like - so it seemed more positive wearing mx boots. i have some namby-pamby sidi road boots as well now - as mx boots look silly on the 1200 and the gearbox is more precise and needs the better "feel" of a road boot.
as far as helmets go - the SM racers generally wear MX helmets (for the peak i'd say)- very noisy at motorway speeds due to no visor though.

but there are some "crossover" helmets now with a peak and a visor...

am i making sense?

k

Mr Skid
5th May 2005, 12:37
'Offroad' tires come in lots of different flavors, from a full agressive knob through to patterns that look like rain tires.

I'm still learning about the differences, but at a given price point I understand offroad tires will be sitting somewhere along a continuum between onroad grip and wet performance at one end, and grip in loose and/or slushy stuff at the other end. You can pay more for something like a TKC80, which will give you respectable performance in both conditions, but do wear quickly.

So back to the 'two sets of wheels' question. Yes, you can run two sets of wheels, with dedicated sets of tires. If you want to swap them over you'll also need to swap over brake discs and rear sprocket, unless you can afford to have a spare pair of discs and a sprocket attached to your 2nd set of wheels. If you don't want the hassle you could run a road oriented tire and one set of wheels. It would also save you having to worry about the speedo reading incorrectly if you are running different sized wheels.

Suspension wise, run a bit more dampening on road, a bit less off road.

The only 250cc factory Mo'Tard I've seen is the Kawasaki, which I think I posted in the other thread. There have been 50cc 'tards, but they look more like pit bikes to me.

A full conversion from a trail bike would look like this to me - hubs laced to 17" rims, resprung/revalved suspension, upgraded front disc, upgraded front caliper, upgraded master cylinder, maybe different sprockets, and different can.

To me the idea is that you upgrade stuff you need to. If suspension is ok, but you need better brakes, then think of upgrading the caliper and disc.

As for gear I think you'd find a full face more practical than a mx style lid with goggles. If you want to do foot down riding on the road, you might need to consider a boot with a replaceable sole.

Mr Skid
5th May 2005, 12:42
The Michlens knobblies hold through terential rain while going around cornersThey do? Are you sure about that Mr Giri? :shifty: (http://misc.php?do=getsmilies&wysiwyg=1&forumid=26#)

Motoracer
5th May 2005, 12:45
They do? Are you sure about that Mr Giri? :shifty: (http://misc.php/?do=getsmilies&wysiwyg=1&forumid=26#)

Well they do on most part, unless you get surprised by a slippery patch of shiny tar in a corner and suddenly you bash your face on the road. :o

Motu
5th May 2005, 13:03
It really depends on where you are coming from,as a road rider you may not like the 21 in front wheel,the tyres or soft suspn,but none of these things worry me at all - I like pushing the tyres to their limit,it all happens at lower speeds.I have two sets of wheels and 3 sprockets for my DT230,so it can change roles in less than an hour,I prefer to keep my road tyres aggressive as I ride a lot of gravel,but for mainly street you can get some excelent ADV rubber.

See if you can find a DT230 to ride down there,I reckon they have to be the best lightweight street legal dirt bike out there.With 40 HP there is no way any 250 4 stroke is going to get near it,with street gearing it will pull 165kph,and yet it is sophisticated with electric start and electronic powervalve,I have seen motarded ones on the net.

I have lots of different gear,but don't wear leather on my dirt bikes because it hinders movement,I like to get around on the bike.So textile pants in winter,in summer MX pants with hinged knee guards,Spidi jacket in winter,in summer an armour jacket with a cordura enduro jacket over top.I have a Nolan N70 helmet,this has a peak and visor,a good dual purpose helmet,on summer short rides I use a MX helmet with goggles,this is lighter with better visability but is no good at speed or in rain.The only boots I have are Gaerne Trials boots.

Coldkiwi
5th May 2005, 13:22
So here's my hundred and fifty questions....

Firstly one of the reasons I like the idea of getting a motard is the go anywhere well ability. Is it really as easy as having two sets of wheels one with road tires (for open roading and commuting) and a second set with off road/legal tires (for when I want to go back road hunting and off road). How's the suspension side of things play with this?

What are my options for bikes? Both premade and what trail bikes are suitable for conversion? What's involved in the conversion?

A side question. Gear. I'm superficial enough to care about the gear suiting the look of the bike. Therefore what style of gear do people wear? If it's motorcross style helmets, are they safe as full face helmets? Leathers? Boots, onroad style or off?

I asked the motox vs road helmet question a while ago as well so you may find some useful info in this thread (http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=7910&highlight=motard+helmet) . My impression is that unless you're planning to do significant amounts of dirt riding where you'll get quite hot, a road lid is going to be quieter and more comfortable most of the time.

I have been strongly warned about conversion of moto cross or enduro bikes. Enduro's are much easier to modify because they already have the lights/indicators and don't need to get certified. Certifying all the new gear on a motox bike is pretty hard and expensive work apparently.
The other thing is whether you want to upgrade the brakes on a dirt bike. I hear what MR is saying about the front brake being ok on road, but theres a fair bit of popular opinion out there that thinks it needs an upgrade.. .and that again requries you to bolt on new bits and get the disc, caliper and lines certified.

In a nutshell, converting a motox bike will costs LOTS and unless you're getting parts and the bike cheap and have a friendly certifer handy, its probably more money and hassle than its worth
Converting an enduro is definitely doable but again, to bring it up to a decent standard will cost time and money

Ghost Lemur
5th May 2005, 13:28
Thanks for all the reply's so far guys


The million dollar question (ironically) is how much have ya got to spend?

Not a lot. Saving goal is currently $5k. But I'll have to get gear with that too, unless I can con rellies into giving me gear as xmas/bday presents.


The only 250cc factory Mo'Tard I've seen is the Kawasaki, which I think I posted in the other thread.

There are others, Gas Gas has a SM250, so do a few other Euro manufacturers. But going by BikePoint they're not even available here and probably rediculously (considering my budget) expensive. Sexy, But expensive.


See if you can find a DT230 to ride down there,I reckon they have to be the best lightweight street legal dirt bike out there.With 40 HP there is no way any 250 4 stroke is going to get near it,with street gearing it will pull 165kph,and yet it is sophisticated with electric start and electronic powervalve,I have seen motarded ones on the net.

I'll start doing some reading on them. The only thing that concerns me about going with a 2 stroke is the maintenance costs. Even when I manage to find a job chances are it's not going to be well paying for a while. Add to that a young family which takes higher priority, equals not having a great deal to spend on maintenance. How does the DT weigh for maintenance? 2 stroke trailies in general? Are they technical/hard to work on?

Looks like there's a nice one on Trade Me (http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/Motorbikes/Motorbikes/Dirt-bikes/auction-26554989.htm).

Any other similar models I should be considering?

Motu
5th May 2005, 14:02
The DT230 is probably the pinacle of dirt 2 stroke development,with the basis of the motor (YZ125,WR200) being around for yonks,maintenence costs are far lower than a modern DOHC watercooled 4 stroke,mine is a 1997 and absolutly nothing has been done to it mechanicly,and should be ok for a while yet,a dribble out of the powervalve is all I can see and that's a non issue.Spark plug,gearbox oil,coolant maybe yearly,keep the oil tank topped up and the rest is the same as any other bike.

I watched TradeMe for 6 mths and never saw a DT230,the week after I got mine that one turned up,typical.But the blue ones are painted over white and look like shit when scratched through to the white.I see the road gear is off,so it's had dirt only use,but all the road gear is there.

Ghost Lemur
5th May 2005, 15:00
The DT230 is probably the pinacle of dirt 2 stroke development,with the basis of the motor (YZ125,WR200) being around for yonks,maintenence costs are far lower than a modern DOHC watercooled 4 stroke,mine is a 1997 and absolutly nothing has been done to it mechanicly,and should be ok for a while yet,a dribble out of the powervalve is all I can see and that's a non issue.Spark plug,gearbox oil,coolant maybe yearly,keep the oil tank topped up and the rest is the same as any other bike.

I watched TradeMe for 6 mths and never saw a DT230,the week after I got mine that one turned up,typical.But the blue ones are painted over white and look like shit when scratched through to the white.I see the road gear is off,so it's had dirt only use,but all the road gear is there.


So I take it parts are easy to come by too then. Always a bonus.

Ever heard of a TM? Seems to be an Italian manufacturer, there's a couple of them also on Trade Me.

If I was going to go for factory made I'd probably go for this (http://www.gasgasmotos.es/web/eng/frame.htm)

http://ds.dial.pipex.com/merlinbooks/sm250left2.jpg

Yummy.

Pity it doesn't appear to be available in NZ. :(

James Deuce
5th May 2005, 16:11
Do you have a full license?

The factory motards are starting to turn up in the marketplace. Honda have the FMX650, Kawasaki have got that 250 already mentioned, and Yamaha have the XT660X/Z pairing.

slob
5th May 2005, 18:26
Pity it doesn't appear to be available in NZ. :(

Mt Eden Motorcycles used to stock them, probably still do.

My 2 cents: Models like the Honda XR250 and Yammie TTR250 may not be sexy, but are tough as nails for daily commuting work... but then there's the conversion hassles to deal with...

gav
5th May 2005, 18:42
Buy a Yamaha TDR250, best fun you'll ever have, prob pick one up for $3500-$4500? The original supermotard!!
http://www.mook.co.jp/cu01/miira/079.jpg

Ghost Lemur
5th May 2005, 20:15
Found a downside at least on all the Euro I've been reading up on. Super small fuel tanks. We're talking 8-9.5 Lt. :( Don't know if I'd like to be constantly worried about where the next gas station is.

What's the economy on these types of bikes? Is it possible to get larger tanks?

NordieBoy
5th May 2005, 20:18
The other thing is whether you want to upgrade the brakes on a dirt bike. I hear what MR is saying about the front brake being ok on road, but theres a fair bit of popular opinion out there that thinks it needs an upgrade.. .and that again requries you to bolt on new bits and get the disc, caliper and lines certified.

The main reason for upgrading the brakes is that if the Mo'Tard is hammered (racing/stoppies) all the time then the oem brakes will fade/crap out. Normal everyday use and fun stuff and they may be ok. Just don't get them because everyone else has them. Get them if you need them.

NordieBoy
5th May 2005, 20:25
Buy a Yamaha TDR250, best fun you'll ever have, prob pick one up for $3500-$4500? The original supermotard!!

Nice but don't try putting 17" wheels on one - they don't like them!

And the Nordie was the original...mutter mutter mutter...

andy1
5th May 2005, 21:44
17 wheels and brakes cost around $5000 alone.

Check out Mt Eden Bro i think they still stock some cheap motards.

Skunk
5th May 2005, 22:09
Kawasaki's D-tracker (KLX250) is another as mentioned earlier. They can be had here. I know of two in Wellington. The suspension is firmer, as well as the wheels being different. Not sure if the brakes are changed.

I have a KLX250 or two, both road legal with 21" front wheels, std everything. OK, one has a carb kit and 'big bore' front pipe.

Standard brakes are fine, even over the Taka's. (Yes, I am faster on the KLX than the ZRX!). So don't write off a standard trail bike to start with. You can always build it into a motard later.

My electric leg KLX was $5000 which I think is on the high side (it was from a dealer). They had traded it for $4000 so they can be had for less.

Big tanks are available but I haven't had a need for one yet.

I run Dual purpose tyres (cheap ones too) and they slide progressively. Have to push hard to get them sliding. Best bit is they work OK everywhere from soft sand to race track. Just adjust the tyre pressures.

Road riding I wear road gear, off road - off road gear. The way you fall is different cause you're riding different.

Good luck on YOUR choice. Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, (and I guess the Euro brands too, but I'm not familiar with them) all make good 250 trail bikes that also will make good motards.

My 5 cents.

Motu
5th May 2005, 22:18
I forgot about the TDR250,strike my comment about the most sophisticated 2 stroke dirt bike!.As Slob says the XR/DR/TTR are solid bikes,to extract everything they have to give offroad you will be one of the best riders in the country,but on road you will find their limit pretty easy.All of these are available as tin tank electric starts,gain some weight and practicality,if you can kill one you are a rare breed.

The next step up are the watercooled bikes,higher in maintanence,hard to find street legal and real ropey on road,tall,light and narrow,you really know you are on a dirt bike here.

You can get street legal 2 strokes,the DT230 I've been talking about is the tamest,but power to weight puts any 4 stroke to shame,the street legal RMs and CRs are 50hp monsters,you'll have your work cut out just controlling them on the street,it's fun,but only in short bursts,power junky stuff.Even the DT230 is not nice around town,it only wants to be on or off power,it's not happy cruising,always wants to race ahead....I find it harder to keep my speed down than on a sports bike - you just keep turning down a side street and going neeyit,neeyit,neeyit between corners.

And you don't need big front brakes - both my bikes will lock the front very easy...and that's not how you ride them anyway.

Coldkiwi
6th May 2005, 12:35
Get them if you need them.

Very good point. upgrading the brakes won't be cheap so its probably best if you're doing a conversion to get the necessary wheels and make sure they can take the original brake equipment but also support a brake upgrade if you want it later.

but then.... you know you want a motard so you can do ridiculously stoppies right GL!? When I took Mt Edens SM400 out for a light spin I couldn't believe how far the weight ends up over the front wheel! Getting the back off the ground is as easy as changing gears! :niceone:

Ghost Lemur
6th May 2005, 15:22
but then.... you know you want a motard so you can do ridiculously stoppies right GL!?

hehe :D

I canny lie. Tis true. That and wheelies.

You guys are just giving me more questions.
So far it looks like the factory motard is an impossibility (except maybe the D-Tracker if I can find a price on them). Too expensive and not available in NZ.

So this leaves a road legal trailbike. Been going through Bikepoint each time you guys have mentioned a different model. Just to get a rough guesstimate on prices.

Come across a couple of interesting bikes.

2000 HONDA XRB200 ~$3k
2004 HONDA XR250ES ~$6k

What's the difference between all the different XR's and CR's models. Same with the number of different yamaha models.

To reiterate this needs be a perfect bike. Perfect for the open road mission. Perfect for the daily commute, perfect for the gravelly fun and perfect for the occassional off road adventure. Oh and it must be cheap.

Don't ask for much do I.

FlangMasterJ
7th May 2005, 13:46
Apparently there is a HONDA XR250SM that may hit our shores but I don't know for sure.

What I did was buy a KTM250EXCR and have a 350 kit put in but it was still registered as a 250 (sneaky, sneaky). :D The funny thing was when the testing officer at VINZ took it for a spin he came back and said 'it goes pretty good for a 250'. :msn-wink:

The 350 pulls throttle only wheelies in third gear with the stock gearing but speed wise it maxed out at 120kph. 2 weeks after that I had some 17" wheels put on and the gearing was changed from 13/52 to 14/35 and this gave me a max speed of over 160 easily but was to tall for inner city traffic so had it lowered to 14/45.

To tell you the truth it was very uncomfortable but was very steady on the motorway and a hell of alot of fun. As you mentioned the small fuel tank was a bit of a prick. I was having to fill her up every couple of days.

In my honest opinion I wouldn't get a motard that was under 350cc, it put's too much stress on the engine with the constant RPM's and especially with todays high perfomance - high maintenance engines. But if you can find and older generation 250 4 stroke such as the XR250 I'm sure it would be near bulletproof in motard trim but would be lacking in outright power.

Here's a link to my KTM350EXCR motard that was stolen a few weeks back :mad:

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=11243

Dutchee
7th May 2005, 19:30
What's the difference between all the different XR's and CR's models. Same with the number of different yamaha models.

To reiterate this needs be a perfect bike. Perfect for the open road mission. Perfect for the daily commute, perfect for the gravelly fun and perfect for the occassional off road adventure. Oh and it must be cheap.

Don't ask for much do I.
XR = old school four strokes
CRs = two strokes
CRFs = new breed of four strokes (race bikes) - unless you're talking about the little CRFs, in which case it's slightly updated XRs under a new guise (meaning the 50s, 70s, 80s, 100s, 150s & 230s, not the bigger bikes which are race bikes)

I commute my drz250 which is old school four stroke. She's not light in the bush, so I'm selective about when & where to take her. She's electric start with kick back up (yes, I have had to use that as I've had electrical problems - well, my husband has kicked her, I've managed it once). She's fun on the roads. She has a max speed of about 120 (this is pushing, 110 is about comfortable). The seat isn't too bad, but after about 50k I need a rest (my butt does). She's travelled as far south as Tokoroa (for the supercross this year) and as far north as Tutamoe (for a trail ride I didn't dare take her on as it was so wet & I had no spare clothes with me for riding back to dorkland in).

Tank range is about 200k before reserve (long rides I fill up whenever my husband has to, but have had 230k out of it due to me not filling once when he had to).

If you're wanting to go 120+ kph, don't get a 250 - they just don't go that fast.

clint640
11th May 2005, 13:41
TDR's are great, stoopid quick on a twisty road, & they look cool, but a dirt bike they are not. My RZ 350 was way better on gravel than my TDR. The TDR also had a dirtbike style small tank & hard seat, but damn it was fun. They are getting cheap now however budget ~ $500 for a top end rebuild (do it yourself)
I'm with Motu on the DT230, If I was on my learners again with a ~ 5K budget I'd buy one - power to cruise at 120+ on the road, light enuff for trail rides, cheap to maintain. If ya can live with less power a 97+ XR 250 is a great trailbike & reliable as a brick, there are plenty around with road equipment.

Cheers
Clint

Mr Skid
11th May 2005, 13:59
If ya can live with less power a 97+ XR 250 is a great trailbike & reliable as a brick, there are plenty around with road equipment.
I've seen a few of these around recently:
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=10172&stc=1


XR250 Baja - looks bloody mean with the twin headlight!

Motoracer
11th May 2005, 14:02
XR250 Baja - looks bloody mean with the twin headlight!

Looks like a normal twin headlight bike with a "boob job".

Coldkiwi
11th May 2005, 17:17
XR250 Baja - looks bloody mean with the twin headlight!

big wheels and twin headlights do for an UGLY bike make!

NordieBoy
11th May 2005, 19:21
My XR250 has twin headlights and looks quite mean :D
I'll have to take a pic...

Ixion
12th May 2005, 02:10
I've seen a few of these around recently:
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=10172&stc=1


XR250 Baja - looks bloody mean with the twin headlight!
I *like* it :love: :love:

Fryin Finn
12th May 2005, 08:11
Yamahas WR250 has the most powerful 4 stroke single around, rev forever and come with a street legal kit. Also the wide ratio gearbox makes higher gearing easier than trying to convert a MX bike. They have a pretty good reliability record too.
Motu are you saying your DT230 makes as much horsepower as a 450 MX bike.
They are dyno'd around the 40hp mark - I dont think so

Motu
12th May 2005, 08:34
The DT230 is a 2 stroke,it is listed as 39hp,but 40hp sounds better.Most likely not a real 39hp,but then that goes for all advertised power claims.

ridespy
13th May 2005, 22:43
To reiterate this needs be a perfect bike. Perfect for the open road mission. Perfect for the daily commute, perfect for the gravelly fun and perfect for the occassional off road adventure. Oh and it must be cheap.


Oh yes, we all want that perfect bike, If some one made one it would be sitting in my garage. But all bikes are a compromise in someway or other. Basically the better the bike is for the open road mission the worse it will be for the off road adventure. XR/DR/TTR are good options 4 stroke options and a DT/RMX/CRM are good 2 stroke options if you go down the trail bike route.

People often talk about the amount of maintenance a 2 stroke needs, yes this is true you will need to do more maintenance but the costs are a lot lower and a lot easier than the maintenance costs of a 4 stroke.

If you look after your 2 stroke besides the normal maintenace, you will only need to put new rings in it, and thats a very easy job. And you may never need to do that, depending on how many K's you do on the bike

warewolf
31st May 2005, 00:24
G'day,

Although belated (just found this thread), as a DR-Z250 quasi-motard rider, here are a few ideas.

Wheels

The original rims have pure street tyres fitted for commuting and on-road sorties; Metzeler ME33 / ME55A combination. Mainly for extra life and because knobbies get out of shape when ridden on the road for prolonged periods. The road legal knobbies heat up faster but the grip runs out sooner.

It has a second set of standard 21"-18" wheels (hence the quasi). Currently fitted with intermediate motocross NHS tyres, rim locks, larger rear sprocket for lower gearing in the forest. For trail rides I remove indicators, mirrors, swap wheels, and also swap to smaller front sprocket. Raise gear and rear brake levers to suit standing ride position & motocross boots. Oh, and remove ventura pack frame but leave the L-brackets fitted.

I don't rate the standard street tyres as too far below intermediate road/trail tyres for gravel road grip. One of the best rides I've had recently was on the gravel between Waitomo and Puketiti (SW of Pio Pio) on the street tyres. Woo hoo! Power slides, brake turns, whatever - huge fun! To my mind, intermediate road/trail tyres don't have enough advantages over street tyres. With two sets of rims, for adventure riding I'd fit the gnarliest road-legal knobbies to the second set - something that would out-perform street and intermediate tyres in the mud.

Brakes

The front brake will make a road/trail tyre (i.e. road legal knobby) slide when the tyre is punished, eg coromandel loop. Not when running the full street tyre. If you cock up a corner at 100km/h don't expect the standard brake to stop you like twin discs on a sports bike. However, the lighter weight does help. And remember you have to use a lot more rear brake than on a sports bike.

Power

The bike tops out at 139km/h on road on the flat. I spent an afternoon trying to get more than that, didn't happen. With a dirty air filter, it'll only do 125km/h, and get there sluggishly. Clean air filter, it will briskly follow the throttle at 110km/h. Dirty filter... nup. Keep your filter clean.

Hmm, what else? The bike can run all day with litre-class bikes, but you spend a lot of the day at full-throttle above 80% rpm... so change the oil regularly... like every 1500km. They'll go by on the straights, then you go past them in the corners. Just watch that you're not too close coming in, 'cos if they hit the picks big time you won't be able to stop like them.

Suspension

Oh, the rear shock has been revalved by Craig Brown @ Colemans for a couple of hundred bucks, and the forks have raised oil level. The difference over a stocker is dramatic. Money very well spent. Craig's focus has been improved handling for enduros, especially Woodhill whoops, but it all helps the on-road manners, mainly because he's made it all a bit stiffer.

One of the nice things about this class of bikes is the long-travel suspension to soak up the bumps and they are light enough to chuck about. Soaking up the bumps means confidence in the front end equals more corner speed.

Tank size

The DR-Z is plastic, 10.5L. But it seems you can't use all the capacity - the right-hand lobe doesn't drain into the fuel tap on the left-hand lobe. I get 200km+ around town (into reserve) and about 30km less chasing litre bikes (with a clean air filter - dirty the fuel economy drops further.) There's plenty of big or extra tank options, but they're probably not warranted in NZ. You just gotta fill up more often.

The Ultimate?

I reckon that a 450 motard would be the ultimate NZ road sports bike, e.g. Husaberg FS450E. But for a cheap, reliable, fun, multi-purpose bike, you can't go past this combination. At an entry level, you don't need to double the price of the bike to fit 17" motard road wheels & big brakes. Instead, spend a thousand on suspension upgrades, stronger more comfortable bars, grips, hand guards, and maybe a lighter plastic headlight unit.

Any of the DR, TTR or XR (kick start only) will be very similar. The DT230 sounds like it's in there, too. I was initially attracted to the Djebel/Baja/Raid bikes, but apart from a decent headlight and luggage racks, they are down-spec JDM bikes compared to the NZ-new trailies in the same family. The biggest difference is that they have cheaper, simpler, softer suspension. Some of them have lower seat heights and power outputs, too. Good for commuting, mild adventure rides and off-road learners, but not enduros. I did my time on a DR200SE, but it ain't no trail bike.

Perfect off road - perfect on road - cheap... choose any two!

Well, I hope this is useful and food for thought.