Off road terminology??

[Wolf]

There seems to be heaps of XR's available on Trademe quite cheaply too

And the other advantage is you'll only have to drop the GS off your current bike's listing in your profile and possibly change the year (unless you are lucky enough to locate an '89 XR250...)

All the best with your search and I look forward to hearing what you eventually get. I find the XT225 (or "XT250R" if you prefer to believe the LTSA rather than the guys who actually made the bloody thing) a great little bike and lots of fun. Personally I find a road-trail style bike an utter weapon in town with traffic and lots of corners/intersections to contend with. I love the agility and it's comfortable (for me) to ride.

[merv]

Bloody high geared as stock all right - 15/41. I've changed the rear sprocket to a 44 and have a 13, 14 and 15 for the front which I swap around depending on the ride I'm doing - it's only a 10 minute job.

Hey where'd you get your sprockets? When White Trash sold us our bike from WMCC he reckoned he could only get the 14T front and no back sprockets to fit because of the 525 chain on it, so we've just run it like that since we've had it geared down slightly.

[mart1]

Yeah xr's the pick of the bunch, they go forever if well maintained.

[cheese]

If you want to start flying though, get a CR250.... LOL

[merv]

If you want to start flying though, get a CR250.... LOL

No good on an adventure ride unless you fit all the gear and road register it.

[far queue]

Hey where'd you get your sprockets? When White Trash sold us our bike from WMCC he reckoned he could only get the 14T front and no back sprockets to fit because of the 525 chain on it, so we've just run it like that since we've had it geared down slightly.

I still run the stock 525 chain, the 14T & 15T front sprockets are 525, the rear 44T and front 13T are 520 size.

The 525 and 520 chains are the same pitch, the only difference is the width, which means a bit of side play in the chain on the sprockets when using 525 chain and 520 sprockets. This isn't a problem at all and in fact helps to clear mud from the chain/sprockets. I've been running this set up for around 2 1/2 years with no problems.

The rear sprocket is just a standard aftermarket 520 one which you should be able to pick up easily enough. The 14T front is a standard Suzuki part, and the 13T front is a standard XR600 part as it's the only one I could find that matched the spline pattern on the output shaft - you'll also need to get the matching plate to hold it on as it's a 2 hole one, unlike the standard 3 hole one.

[cheese]

No good on an adventure ride unless you fit all the gear and road register it.

Yeah but it would be more fun.

I love 2 strokes!

[Wolf]

Yeah xr's the pick of the bunch, they go forever if well maintained.

That could describe nearly anything, even a Delorian.

What you need is something that goes forever even if you never maintain it. My old TS was like that - sadly abused, never maintained (unless you count applying muffler bandage to the damaged exhaust to make it less of a police magnet as "maintenance") and it kept running. So long as I put petrol and two-stroke oil into it and occasionally gave it a top up of engine oil (changing your oil? WTF is that? Just throw a few mils in when it's getting a bit low...) it didn't care what we did to it. I eventually sold it in running and road legal - but somewhat less than cosmetically pleasing - condition. For all I know it's still blatting around out there unless the new owner inadvertently rode it into a blast furnace.

[TwoSeven]

Something you guys could talk about is the difference between the bikes. For the novice, I suspect that when you look in the bike mags they talk about mx bikes, dirt bikes, trail bikes, enduro bikes etc. But when you go to the dealer, there is just a set of bikes that all look the same.

Ditto with the kit required.

[Motu]

Well,kinda like sportsbikes - they all look like sportsbikes,because everyone wants the girls to think they are fast riders......but only some are really sportsbikes.

All dirt bikes need to look like MXers,or at least that's what the marketing men think we think we want.Just got to look enough to get familiar with them,with the code names.Plenty of tricky numbers to miss,or get turned on by a dog.My DT230 is typicaly one that's overlooked,or too puzzling to figure out - of course I think it's the best bike ever made and everyone else is stupid not to have one.

[bert_is_evil]

Something you guys could talk about is the difference between the bikes. For the novice, I suspect that when you look in the bike mags they talk about mx bikes, dirt bikes, trail bikes, enduro bikes etc. But when you go to the dealer, there is just a set of bikes that all look the same.

Ditto with the kit required.

That's so true, if someone could give a quick description of the major differences between the bike styles that would be really helpful.

[cheese]

MX bike - hard revving hard riding, all power up top, made to jump and go fast light bikes, stand up to ride.

enduro - larger fly wheel - more bottom end grunt, some have electric start, slightly larger fuel tanks, made to be rode sitting down

[laRIKin]

That's so true, if someone could give a quick description of the major differences between the bike styles that would be really helpful.

I will try again for you.

Motocross= A race bike, designed to go fast over rough ground. Not as nice to ride slow has no electric start, no side stand and very firm suspension and smaller fuel tank and a hard seat and no lights. Can not be easy regoed.

Trail bike= is at the other end of the scale. More road than dirt but can do both reasonably well.

Enduro bike= Is a up graded trail bike. That has better gear on it and is a bit more of a race bike that can be trail ridden faster than a trail bike, off road.
Can be regoed and adventure ridden. Lighter in weight that has a head light that is not be as good as a trail bike and could have a harder seat, that could only have room for one. (my pick the only down side is weaker lights at night and a harder seat than can be modified to be nicer and can take the knocks better) And will have a plastic tank and a trail bike could have a steel tank.

Adventure riding= Is more a form of riding and can be a twin cylinder bike to cover a lot of road work. But can be trail ridden.
Because they can be a twin they are heavier and are better for gravel road and road work, unless you can ride fairly well to handle the weight etc off road.
Better two up bike than the rest.

Trials= A modern bike has no real seat (you stand up all the time), very small tank and may or may not be regoed.

I think that you should be looking at a trail or a enduro bike. (a single).
If you think that you can handle a bit of weight and want to do a bit of 100 kph work on the motor ways etc, I think that you should look a a 400 to a 650 single.

[bert_is_evil]

Hey thanks that's great. Now I know what type of riding I'd like to do and what type of bike I need to do it. Thanks everyone for your input so far