Adventure Newbie

[Padmei]

Most KLX400s are roadie. As crazyfrog once advised me look for the lil lunchbag on the back of the seat.
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...light=talk+drz

In the above thread I also questioned whether it would be easy to buy a cheap off road & put it on the road - not worth it.

There may be a few who disagree with me but I'd defintiely get a later electric start one. When I bought mine I resigned myself to the price being $5k for a decent used one. I picked mine (2005) up tho for $4K in pretty good nick. I was offered one for $4K which I tried to get the owner to drop lower as I knew he had another bike & no money but he relisted it the next week at a higher thann original price & sold it for $5200

[warewolf]

Thanks guys, the DRZ400 gets the vote. When you look at them on Trademe most appear to be not road legal. Does this mean they've never been road registered in which case am I up for VIN costs as well as on-road costs? Were they all supplied originally with indicators, mirrors etc and previous owner has removed or are these bits optional extras? In other words can I only look at those that explicitly say "road legal'?

Unfortunately most "trail" bikes in NZ that come road-registerable tend to never actually get registered and all the ancillaries lost in someone's shed. Makes it hard for us trail-biased adventurers. Other countries mandate road-legal bikes for off-circuit use (ie forests & trail rides) so pretty much all enduro bikes stay registered.

If the bike has been listed with LTNZ on entry then you are only up for a couple of hundred extra for the first registration, assuming all the road-legal accessories are there. At least, that was the story a few years ago when I enquired about my 200EXC. Nowadays you have to get a brake certification but that sounds about the most difficult part, and is no real problem.

I hear mixed stories about registering bikes. Some have taken completely non-registerable bikes (eg CR125, KTM SX) fitted up road gear and registered them. Others have said they've spend $4K at dealer wholesale trying to get an XR400 registered, when it already was essentially a road legal bike! I guess if I ever get the desire to cough up $600 annually to register the 200 then I might find out for sure what the process is. However when shopping a little while ago I pretty much decided not to buy anything that didn't have a WOF - just didn't want the hassle and risk of it being a white elephant. Further, that I'd rather go through the hassle of shopping overseas and privately importing than converting something locally, especially given the extremely limited choice here.

PS there's also a DRZ400S which at times had a tin tank and I think a CV carb.