Light SM for A2

[Ezel]

Hello, I'm thinking about DRZ400, because I don't know of any alternative. I wanna have reliable bike, which is not heavy and will able to ride off road and on road as well. I don't wanna hard enduro, I wanna count in kilometres not in moto hours. Is any alternative ?
Greetings.

[weeksy]

Any of the KTM 690's suit ?

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Yamaha WR250 or CRF250, both are lighter than the DRZ and not much slower. I don't think they've sold DRZs in the UK for 10 years so they're going to be pretty old, I bought one of the first batch in the UK 20 years ago, they're good reliable bikes, but they're heavy, and they're not a beginners bike off road, they're big, heavy and relatively powerful and don't handle very well on tight trails, they're an ideal desert bike, better than the same age KTMs.

[Horse]

No idea how accurate or up to date this is, but may help.

https://www.a2motorbikes.co.uk/

Scroll down for categories

[The Spin Doctor]

https://www.ktm.com/en-gb/models/travel ... e2020.html

https://www.honda.co.uk/motorcycles/ran ... rview.html

I've ridden the WR250 and although it's a much more competent off-roader and flattered my minimal skills, even when upgeared and fitted with a bigger tank, it's still a bit compromised for riding ON the road to get to the off-road areas - it takes a while to get anywhere and you're revving the engine pretty hard, and it's not a bike for motorways.

The Honda starts from the other end. It's a road bike with some mild off-road capability. It's great fun on the road, and copes OK for basic gravel trails in my experience and will cope with pretty much any road you throw at it. But throw some cash it it, and it can be upspecced and lightened a bit for off-road work - some fairly serious riders take them overlanding.

The KTM 390 - which I have no experience of - would appear to be pretty much slap bang in the middle. It's lighter than the Honda and bang on the power / weight ratio for A2.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Do KTM make a 390 SM or trail bike?

42bhp is about what my 610 Husqvarna made, DRZs are low 30s (about the same as an XR600)

[weeksy]

Do KTM make a 390 SM or trail bike?

42bhp is about what my 610 Husqvarna made, DRZs are low 30s (about the same as an XR600)

They make a 390 adv

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Do KTM make a 390 SM or trail bike?

42bhp is about what my 610 Husqvarna made, DRZs are low 30s (about the same as an XR600)

They make a 390 adv

Shame they don't do an SM/Enduro 390, it could fill the gap in the trail bike market left by the DRZ (and XR400) no longer being available.

My tablet is deranged, it spell corrects DRZ to SEX

[KungFooBob]

Surely the CRF450L is the modern alternative to the DRZ and the XR400 (bit spendy tho').

Maybe the CRF250L is a better option.

[Bigyin]

My tablet is deranged, it spell corrects DRZ to SEX

Yeah, its the tablets fault..... nothing to do with search history at all, no siree

[G.P]

lol

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Surely the CRF450L is the modern alternative to the DRZ and the XR400 (bit spendy tho').

Maybe the CRF250L is a better option.

Have you seen the price of the 450, from memory it's something like £8K, I know this is because it's got really high quality components, something the DRZ never had.

[Supermofo]

There's isn't really a modern DRZ is there AFAIK. I know nothing of off road, but I'd be tempted by the CRF250L. Light and soft-roader.

A DRZ I'm not sure I'd want as they are so old now. And a WR etc presumably is a proper off road bike.

I'd also be tempted by a 690 Enduro as they have long (for an off roader) service intervals, are broadly reliable and will sit at 80mph all day on the road as well as do off road. But I reckon it'd be too hard core for me as a beginner, 65-70bhp and 160 odd kgs is a lot for a beginner. In the right hands though they seem really good.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

The CRF is a really good trail bike, but is a bit heavy and the lights, clocks and indicators look a bit fragile.

I thought there was a WR similar to the CRF250L but I'm probably wrong, or it's not imported to the UK.

The 690 is a bit of a heavy, powerful monster for UK trail riding, probably fine on fire roads and desert tracks (this is my favourite type of off road as I find the whole spindle deep mid thing a bit tedious)

The DRZs good points were that it was cheap, reliable and the right amount of power for road and trail, it's bad points were it's weight, off road handling in tight going and the shit build quality. There were other bikes that did the same job XR400 and 600, Husqvarna TE410E and TE610E, KTM LC4 range, Kawasaki KLX300 all seem to have disappeared now leaving just the CRF as a middle ground bike, everything else appears to have gone full enduro, or adventure tourer.

The Husqvarnas may be still available as SWMs now I think about it, but I doubt if the engine is any more reliable now it's made in China instead of Italy