Four years ago I discussed the myth of the light weight adventure bike. Is it possible to find
a bike that is light enough to handle some basic dirt riding, but also handle long adventure rides.
Our main criteria? Between 120kg and 175kg.
A decent sized fuel tank. And a decent oil capacity.
Preferably a 21" front wheel for handling the nasty stuff.
A good balance between performance and reliability.
Still available in 2020 as a new bike.
The problem? There used to be a lot of bikes that came lose to this.
The Husqvarna TE610.
The KTM 640. The Honda Dominator NX650.
And my personal favourites? The Honda XR650R. Honda executives should be
shot for not updating this mighty beast. Imagine this with electric start and
fuel injection to meet emission standards. And of course the incredible Husaberg FE570.
KTM executives should be shot for not continuing this design in an adventure style. Sigh.
But nowadays most adventure bikes are like humans,
and getting fatter and heavier all the time. I am about to buy light weight adventure bike,
I will announce my choice at the end. Here are the candidates.
Plenty of guys adventurize big bore dirt bikes. I have been down that road with several bikes.
It's always the same issues. Small fuel tank, small oil capacity, horrible seat,
higher maintenance engine, no cush drive hub. It gets expensive trying to fix those issues,
personally I think there are too many compromises involved.
If I did go down that road again, it would probably be the rock solid Yamaha WR450F.
The next heaviest is the CCM GP450 at only 125kg dry weight.
Sadly it's now discontinued due to emission laws in Europe. Many felt this was going to be the
perfect light weight adventure bike with it's big fuel tank and oil capacity. A real shame.
Next is this relatively new model from Honda, the CRF450L. It's a detuned version of the
racing model but it still has the same issues. Small tank, hard seat. Small oil
capacity. In fact Honda states the oil must be changed every 1000km, simply too often
for adventure riding. Lets hope Honda develops a proper rally or adventure model soon.
Getting heavier... the dual sport 250s. For many years these have been very popular in
the USA as cheap light weight adventure bikes. Personally I am not sure why. The Suzuki DRZ400
is around the same weight, in most cases around the same price and has much more power of course.
But it is very interesting to see Honda adapted the CRF250L into a Rally model. It looks the
part. A windscreen, dual LED headlights, big fuel tank, 1.8L oil capacity, better
suspension. Unfortunately it also kicked the weight up to 156kg fully fuelled.
Next it's the good old Suzuki DRZ400. Essentially unchanged for 20 years,
thousands of riders have slapped a big tank and comfortable seat on this bike
and ridden all over the world. I have owned three of these and loved them
once you make the necessary mods. But that little engine can get buzzy on the highway.
A bit heavier and a crazy amount of horsepower, the KTM 690.
Some guys love them, others hate them. There are a lot of things that can go wrong with them
which tends to rule it out for long trips unless you are well equipped and mechanically minded.
Talking about cheap old style bikes, next is Honda's XR650L. Many guys have adapted
these for adventure riding, and we compared it recently to the KLR650
and DR650. It's just a pity Honda didn't slap on an oil cooler and cush drive hub.
Next is the very cool looking AJP PR7, clocking in at about 155kg. It's been around for a few
years but there's so little info from owners as to it's long term reliability. I contacted the
Australian distributor and local dealers regularly to do a review and never got an answer. Oh well.
Back to KTM, it's the KTM 390 Adventure. Great fuel and oil capacities, zippy engine.
But it's only got a 19 inch front wheel and those spindly looking cast
wheels so it's really more of a small touring bike. Plus it's made in India
so time will tell if it doesn't hold up as well as the Austrian built KTMs.
Another golden oldie from Suzuki, the venerable DR650. Largely unchanged since 1996,
this cheap reliable air-cooled workhorse is still popular as few cheap mods can fix the known issues
and transform its handling and power characteristics.
And now we are getting toward the heavy end of our chosen limit with the Kawasaki KLR650.
It's similar to the DR650 but more suited to highways and easy dirt roads due to its weight,
big fuel tank and fairing. See our vid comparing the old style Japanese 650s.
The SWM Superdual. We mentioned the excellent TE610 earlier, it has slowly morphed into this
much heavier beast. The specs look good except for that weight. And unfortunately it's still
largely an unknown quantity as their are so few long term reports from owners as yet.
And to wrap up, we have the Kawasaki Versys 300 and the BMW G310GS.
Both have the smaller 19 inch front wheels so they are quite road oriented,
but they manage to sneak under our weight limit and at surprisingly cheap prices too.
Hopefully that gives you a quick overview of what is possible in the light weight adventure
bike category. What did I choose? I have just bought another Suzuki DR650, this will be my
third one over the past two decades. And my brother has just bought his first one ever.
I'm not saying it would be the best choice for everyone, but for me, it ticks the boxes. It's old
school design means there is far less to go wrong. And it's easier to fix if something does go wrong.
It has the cush drive. It's still cheap and for an extra $1000 and a bit of work you can
transform the bike in so many ways. If you are interested check out our 10 part DR650 series. If
you own any of the bikes mentioned, we are keen to hear your opinions. Let us know in the comments.