What makes the best street-motard?

[CrazyFrog]

I'm sorry just a little confused by all this. We all know that a supersport/bike will kill a motard on the straights and a motard will own the corners so lets just leave it at that.

And why all the 'motard hating' in the motard section why dont you go take you straight line skill somewhere else.

Woooooo, straight line jockeys are so impressive. Not!
Down our way the big bore 'tard boys rule the roads, only coz we've got loads of twisties, but at least they're well respected after some serious road bike ass kickings.

[GaZBur]

....One thing to bear in mind if you buy a factory off-road bike is that you'd want to:

-Get motard wheels and tyres (add about $2500)
-Upgrade your front brake - adapter and larger disc (more $$)
-Ideally get your suspension dialled in for road-use which might require reconfiguration of internals...

For budget Motard you can get used mags and have them machined to fit for under $700 plus of course the cost of tyres.
Upgrading brakes is only needed if you cant lock up the front or they overheat. Standard DR650 brakes can lock the front with 2 fingers at over 150kph and dont fade or even require braided lines to keep the solid feel while racing. Keep/adapt the disk and carrier from the donor bike wheels and its a 10 min job to swap the front, 25 min swap the back. (Someone mechanical would do it faster).
The front end drops with the smaller front rim and you can balance the DR suspension by simply putting the rear shock on its lower standard mounting hole.
DR650 is the cheapest option for a very decent road Motard and even on the track never comes in last and often in front of bikes that cost twice as much and on paper at least should cream it!

[orangeback]

having fun

[racefactory]

It really just depends on what you want:

-Best reliability and least hassle? DRZ400SM. Good for 140kph (takes ages to get to 160) and never have to touch a thing on it basically.

-Racing? Any of the 450s.

-Dirt and street? 450EXC 525/530 WR450- just add radiator fan.

-Track days, back road day rides? KTM 525, 640SM.