Adventure riding on a road bike...

[Krayy]

Bear with me on this, as I need some serious opinions....

Most of my riding is on sealed roads, but looking at some of the pics that Big Dave is putting up has got me thinking about an adventure type bike to handle long loose metal roads (I'm not looking to go full dirt) and the occasional ford, or dirt road.

Problem is that I dont want to give up the handling/speed advantage of a road bike, and most of the adventure style bikes are pushing the 20k mark anyway, where a 900 Hornet is ~11k.

So my question is, if I dont have an adventure style bike with long travel susp and part knobblies, what kind of mods would I have to do to a bike such as the Hornet to be able to ride a metal road comfortably, if at all (I'm aiming at the Capital coast adventure ride type of events)?

Thoughts?

[Ixion]

Wotcha talking about , mods for metal road?

I ride metal roads all the time on unmodified road bikes. Don't need no mods. If you're doing a bit of it , then the hard call will be tyres, but you'd have that one even with a full blown adventure bike.

If you actually want to get off-road PROPER , then that's another matter. But for full blown trail riding , be hard to mod a modern road bike. You need lots more ground clearance, big front wheel (21 inch), different steering geometry, different engine characteristics, lots of stuff you just can't mod.

Having said that, a mate once took his stock Norton Atlas over Thompsons Track !


But for ordinary metal, grass roads stock road bike is fine. You could play with tyres and maybe bars if you're serious. And see if you can tuck indicators in out of the way, or flexi mount them. leave your levers a bit loose so they'll slip not break when you drop it.

Obviously fairings are a bit of a no-no, not a problem in themselves, but a certainty to get damaged.

Expect scratches to paintwork.

[Jantar]

To ride on gravel roads? No mods are neccessary to the bike, just to the rider's attitude.

But if you want to get a bit more serious then consider something along the lines of a DL650, $13K new and likely to be similarly priced to a Hornet 2nd hand.

[oldrider]

Bear with me on this, as I need some serious opinions....

Most of my riding is on sealed roads, but looking at some of the pics that Big Dave is putting up has got me thinking about an adventure type bike to handle long loose metal roads (I'm not looking to go full dirt) and the occasional ford, or dirt road.

Problem is that I dont want to give up the handling/speed advantage of a road bike, and most of the adventure style bikes are pushing the 20k mark anyway, where a 900 Hornet is ~11k.

So my question is, if I dont have an adventure style bike with long travel susp and part knobblies, what kind of mods would I have to do to a bike such as the Hornet to be able to ride a metal road comfortably, if at all (I'm aiming at the Capital coast adventure ride type of events)?

Thoughts?

Have you had a good look at Honda TransAlp XL650V?
They are not too expensive 2nd hand and they are a very under appreciated dual purpose bike.
I have done 30,000klm on mine and have been most places that it sounds like you want to do and it is an excellent tourer as well.
We have got it set up with Givi racks, 45ltr on top with a pair of 21ltrs on the sides.
Once you have got the racks on you can put any combination of boxes on that you want.
There is a good range of windscreens, sprockets, mufflers and tyres etc to make your bike special to your needs.
I get 365klm per dry tank which gives you a 300klm road range without any worry.
My wife really likes riding on the back as long as I don't go to fast, (for her) but that is only because of the loss of licence consequences today!
We came home (140km) the other night in just over an hour and I got the silent treatment for a moment or two but I just mention that to give you an idea of it's road performance.
Take a good look at the T/A before you dismiss it as not for you, you might be surprised. Cheers John.

[Motu]

I think you would be suprised at what an adventure bike is capable of,ultimate high speed is down,but you won't miss that with the other advantages.As the roads get twistier and more unpredictable the adventure bike comes into it's own...things that gave you the shits now give you the grins.Instead of avoiding these conditions you will now seek them out.

Trouble is there is such a wide variety of dual purpose bikes...anything away from a out and out dirt bike has compromises,you just have to find out where you fit.You want more street,so the DL,TDM type bikes might be for you,road bikes that can handle a lot more off road than you think.I like the Transalp and Afric Twin.

[Holy Roller]

I remember reading in KR a while ago some guys on a Goldwing completed one of the adventure rides in the South Island. Had a pix of them fording a river.

[clint640]

Unless you are a very good rider and you spend enough on crazy mods to buy a trailbike anyway you are not going to be doing the Capital Coast ride on a CB900 without damaging it. I dunno how much dirt experience you have but if you're a total novice you would find anything bigger than a 250 a handful on most organised adv rides anyway unless you are a real big bastard.

Packed gravel roads are no problem on a roadbike, just take it real easy until you get some experience. Narrower & grippier tyres , especially on the front will make a difference, as will wide handlebars. Deep loose gravel will never be fun without a bigger front wheel however.

As the boys say, have a fang on a dual purpose machine on a twisty road before you knock them. Or get a 2nd hand CB 900 & use the surplus to buy a CT110 - the ultimate in adventure riding cool :Punk: or an 'ol XR250 or similar

Cheers
Clint

PS if Big Dave's pics are giving you the jones for an adv bike get a load of this:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128897

[merv]

Key thing is the tyres, because the round profile road type tyres are like a slippery eel on mud and you'll be on you side the minute the going gets tough so you'd need at least adventure type tyres.

A Hornet I would say would be a real problem with its powerful 4 cyl engine it would light up its back wheel at every opportunity as it doesn't have the bite afforded by the torque of a twin or single, and if you drop it which you are sure to do you'd better have good crash protection. I can just imagine shattered engine cases and oil and coolant pissing everywhere.

[Krayy]

The other thing that I realised on the way in this morning is that modern street bikes usually have the engine as a stressed member of the frame, and advneture bikes engines sit in a full frame. This would probably mean that the first big arsed bump would probably crack the engine mounts and stuff it up royally.

Thanks for the info guys. An adventure bike is probably the way to go, but I've got till the end of the year so I'll do some thinking on it.

Oldrider: Don't take it personally but man, is the Transalp ugly! Likewise the TDM. The DL is just too "oldy".

Short list would probably be:

Triumph Tiger
Buell Ulysses (don't think I could affrd a new one though)
Multistrada
DL V-Strom

[Motu]

Image is everything eh? Go beyond that and there is a whole new world where you don't care what others think....

Dirt bikes often have engines as a stressed member - the XR200 is a well known example....never seen an engine ripped apart yet...

[umka]

what about the ktm 950 superenduro. look trick to me i would love one of them.

[Ixion]

Why do motorcycles need a frame? Seriously. At various times there have been bikes with pretty much everything direct mounted to the engine. Modern sprotsbikes are pretty much just an engine unit with the rest tacked on.

Steering head could be direct mounted to the engine. Ditto swing arm. And a simple subframe to mount tank, seat etc. Actually, if the bikes faired, why not make the fairings structural? Plastic can be made jolly strong, make the fairings into a monocoque shell, mount tank (that can be structural too! shades of the old 5TA Triumphs), and seat on the fairing. Abolish frames I say.

[TONO]

To ride on gravel roads? No mods are neccessary to the bike, just to the rider's attitude.

But if you want to get a bit more serious then consider something along the lines of a DL650, $13K new and likely to be similarly priced to a Hornet 2nd hand.

Good advice and mine (DL650K5 V-Strom) just so happens to be on Trade-Me right now......almost a new bike for a fair bit less than a new one.:2thumbsup

[CBobR]

I have to ride my fully faired sportbike on gravel roads, it's fine but I go slow trying to avoid stone chips and dust in everything. My neighbour is less of a wimp than me and he rides his sportsbike pretty fast on gravel with no problems

After reading this thread: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90043&highlight=honda+dakar
I'm lusting after this bike: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/Motorbikes/Motorbikes/Adventure-dual-purpose/auction-52578087.htm (or an XTZ750, but I can't buy either atm)
I want to try this type of thing: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4583776997166271791&q=dakar not sure where in NZ you can do that though.

[cheese]

Well after watching Mission Impossible 2, it looks like you can ride a road bike like and MX bike. and you can get tyres that maically change from road slicks to MX tyres!! Awesome!!

http://www.canze.org.nz/forum/hosting/bullshitbikefromMI2.BMP

[Motu]

The NXR750 was the ultimate development of the XLV750,although not a part was remotely similar,it's just that the XLV750 was their first attempt at a 750 Vtwin PD bike.The Africa Twin was a marketing lookalike.

I've seen that Africa Twin,I'd snap it up for that price,it I hadn't already just sold my XLV750 because I never used it anymore.If I was going to do some touring,for sure,for sure.10,000mls like he says,but not mint.

I just collapsed on the floor with fatigue just watching that video - makes floundering around in the mud look like childs play.

[CBobR]

sorry to ADVRider.com but some nice on-road off-road pics:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83803&page=65

And probably a repost, but a very nice video anyway: R1 on road tyres on bad roads around the world: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/26968/sjaak_the_world/%3Cbr%20/%3E

Me too Motu, I get pretty sweaty just sitting at the lights on a hot auckland day, I think if it was 25 degrees hotter and I had to stop repeatedly to dig out and drag upright a bike with huge tanks like in that dakar clip I'd literally die. I hope that Africa Twin goes to a good home, if it was still for sale in a couple of months I'd buy it (and get it stuck in the Ahipara dunes probably)

[Wellyman]

Transalps are really nice bloody bikes. me and my old man have done days on end on transalps making out adventure rides on them, doubled up when I was younger, also the Yamaha DT230 is a good cheap adventure bike and we have one and are a great reliable adventure bike.
WM