XT225 Ride Report Part 1
7 Sept 2006
After 3 months (to the day) and 1606km (nearly 1000 miles) of travelling that has included
commuting to and from work on a regular basis and a couple of long trips over various road
surfaces, I figure it is time to write a report on how the XT225 performs and how it measures up to
my personal criteria.
First, I feel I must clarify what my personal criteria are, as everyone's needs differ.
When I bought the bike, my desire was for something that was reliable and economical for commuting
to and from work yet was capable of reaching and maintaining 100km/h on the open road for longer
journeys and was light and nimble enough for a little off-road fun and adventure riding.
Most of my riding is commuting through a fairly busy city (50km/h zone) over a hill and through
some sharp corners but occasionally, when time permits, I like to go on longer rides or tours on
the open road. On the longer rides, the critical word is "touring". I have no need nor desire to
"fang it" or attain warp-speed; I like to cruise at around 100km/h and enjoy the ride. It is, after
all, the ride that is important, not the destination.
"Adventure Riding", in my view, requires a bike capable of going anywhere - up hill and down dale
from wide, smooth motorways to twisting gravel "goat tracks".
You can tour the World on anything, as many on Horizons Unlimited can attest, but some bikes would
find certain "roads" extremely difficult or possibly even impassable. I could conceivably tour the
World on my friend's Suzuki VZ800 "Marauder" but the extremely low ground clearance, the weight and
the comparatively poor handling would seriously limit the roads I could use.
In order to explore the off-the-beaten-track roads, a bike with a degree of off-road capability is
desirable. In my particular case (being fairly short) I also desired something small and light.
Now that my requirements have been established, let's see how the XT stacks up:
Commuting
Right from the start, I have been impressed with how nimble and manoeuvrable the bike is. It
handles the corners around town with no problems and I am constantly reminded as to why I love
Enduro bikes. The upright seating posture affords great visibility in traffic and the light weight
of the bike makes parking and low speed manoeuvring a breeze.
One thing I noticed is that you have to shift up through the gears fairly swiftly when pulling away
from the lights and it's a trifle slow in first gear. Crawling along in slow or stop-start traffic
in first is also problematic as the bike tends to lurch forwards when you release the clutch and
the front dives dramatically when you throttle off.
I have resolved those issues by starting off in second gear and find I get gentler and faster
take-offs and I don't have to shift up as rapidly.
The XT225 has a reputation for being very reliable and "bullet-proof" and mine seems to be living
up to that reputation so far. It starts without problems even in sub-zero temperatures and runs
fine.
The fuel economy around town is good and I can commute for quite a while on a full tank of petrol.
Touring
My first decent, long trip was by myself through the Hakarimata Range and the bike ran well. I
spent a lot of the trip travelling fairly slowly on unfamiliar or wet roads and the Hakarimata
Range is not particularly challenging so I did not get a chance to fully test the bike's
capabilities.
The next long trip was to the Cold Kiwi on familiar but challenging roads - steep hills far higher
than the Hakarimata Range = and I had expected that the little 225 would be lagging behind my
friends' more powerful bikes (750 and 800) on the steep hills, especially around the central
plateau.
To my great surprise, the XT managed to keep up with Roj's Honda CB750K going up all the hills. The
XT225 climbed the steep roads around the central plateau at 100km/h in sixth gear and nothing
seemed to slow it down, including hilly stretches of road that our 1500cc family car has difficulty
climbing.
The agility I had noticed at lower speeds when commuting was still there at 100km/h on the winding
mountain roads and there always seemed to be enough left in the throttle to power around the
corners.
We covered long stretches, took fairly short breaks and continued on and the XT maintained speeds
up to 100km/h (slowing only to pass through towns or for dangerous corners) with no difficulty. The
limiting factor was the rider rather than the bike.
In my assessment, the XT is more than adequate to climb steep hills and maintain the open road
limit for extended periods and its performance (not its top speed) is favourably comparable with
far larger bikes.
The XT225 is not capable of much more than 120km/h - making it unsuitable for riding on the
Autobahn or similar but that just means you ride the slower, and probably more picturesque, roads
at a pace more conducive to enjoying the scenery.
For my style of open road touring (not desiring to exceed the legal limit) the XT is a great
choice.
Adventure Riding
The "go anywhere" factor. As an Enduro, the XT is designed to handle conditions far more rugged
than any road designed to accommodate cars, no matter how rutted and gravel-strewn. I have taken
the XT over Otorohaea Trig Road in the Hakarimata Range - hilly, twisty, rutted hard earth covered
in fine gravel - and along the 2km gravel track from the road to the Cold Kiwi camping site -
likewise hilly, twisty and rutted but with coarser gravel and occasional fist-sized rocks. I am
not, by any stretch of the imagination, an experienced off-road rider and I found the XT's light
weight and excellent manoeuvrability advantageous in traversing what was, for me, extremely
difficult terrain.
Roj, being a far better trail rider than I, took the XT (laden with my pack, tent and bed roll)
down the track to the road and back again at 60km/h and I know of many people on the XT225 forum
that take their XTs over far more rugged terrain including logs, large boulders and river
crossings. The XT is more capable than I am of "going anywhere".
Fuel consumption
We started with full tanks in Hamilton, rode at speeds up to a little over 100km/h to Taumarunui
and filled up again. The 800 and 750 required nearly $17 worth of petrol each; I paid a little over
$10.
The best economy I've recorded was 29.35 kilometres per litre (US: 69.03mpg, UK: 82.9mpg, BMW: 3.41
litres per 100km) on the Hakarimata Range trip. The worst fuel consumption I recorded was for the
following 16 days, mainly commuting to and from work: 21.66km/litre (US: 50.95mpg, UK: 61.19mpg,
BMW: 4.62 litres/100km). Average fuel consumption since I have been recording it has been
24.78km/litre (US: 58.28mpg, UK: 69.99mpg, BMW: 4.04 litres/100km).
Comfort
A frequent complaint about the XT225 on the forum is that the seat is not particularly comfortable
on long journeys and this is true. On my Hakarimata ride, I was in quite a bit of discomfort by the
time I reached Rotongaro and I still had a fair way to go to get home.
The long ride to the Cold Kiwi and the riding around over the course of the weekend was not as
arduous as my ride through the Hakarimata Range had led me to expect. On the first leg of the
journey down I began to get uncomfortable and I was standing on my pegs occasionally by the time we
reached Otorohanga. I was quite relieved when we had a rest stop at Te Kuiti (mind you, I was also
hankering for a cigarette and something to drink by then, anyway, and would have wanted a rest
break even if I had the most comfortable seat in the world).
Over the rest of the journey I found that if we only had a short rest I became accustomed to the
seat and it did not seem as uncomfortable as before. The longer I rode, the more inured to the
discomfort I became. If we stopped for too long, I found I became unaccustomed to the seat quite
quickly and it became uncomfortable again.
A more comfortable seat would be good in many respects but it could also be argued that the pain in
the posterior is a good cue to stop, look around, take in the scenery and pause to reflect on where
you've been. Personally, I would get work done on the seat to make it more comfortable (as a
smoker, I have sufficient reasons to take regular breaks from riding).
General Thoughts
I'm human, I love the feeling of ripping open the throttle as much as the next guy. When I do that
on the XT, unless I'm in the midst of a 50km/h zone, I don't have to worry about possibly losing my
licence. If I ripped open the throttle on a Super Sport bike like I do on the XT, I'd shortly be at
"instant 28-day loss of licence, walk home" speed without even realising it.
I have loads of fun riding the XT around town and out on the open road. On the ride down to the
Cold Kiwi my face was aching and I was beginning to think I'd need extensive plastic surgery to get
the grin off my face. I can jump on the bike, open the throttle without worrying how much it's
going to cost me and generally have a great time.
Motorbike Camping for the win!
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Originally Posted by Motu
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