Supermoto or a Cruiser

[struan80]

With £3k to spend what would you choose as a supermoto?

With £3k to spend what would you choose as a cruiser?

I'm torn between the opposite ends of the motorbike spectrum.

Thanks in advance guys.

[Beehive Bedlam]

Supermoto - DRZ400.

I wouldn't buy a cruiser full stop.

[M.C]

^ I agree with that guy Although I'd be buying something starting with K and ending in M.

[ThatDippyTwat]

Supermoto, because the only cruiser I'd buy (Rocket 3), you won't get for 3K.

KX500 with Talon rims and sticky tyres. A good funeral plan with any change. Zero pretences to reliability, practicality, commuting or keeping a license for very long.

[ackack]

There's a bike school in my area where the instructor uses a Rocket 3, always makes my laugh when I see him cruising behind a couple of kids wobbling on 125's and peds.

DRZ400 for me as well. would love one as a second bike.
____________________
"fli hi mi angle"

[Snowdonia Rider]

For a Supermoto I'd get a Duke 2 for fun, DRZ for reliability. £3k wont get you a cruiser worth having
____________________
I want your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle.
Suzuki GP125 Suzuki GSX600F Suzuki SV650S KTM EXC250F SkyTeam Bongo 125
My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/SnowdoniaRider

[Albigularis]

[Teflon-Mike]

We Brits invented the sport of 'Scrambles'; take a road bike, hack it about a field until its nicely dented, remove all the bent bits and chop the tank in half to hammer out the dents, then shrug when you weld it back together and it only holds half the fuel! Fit knobbly tyres, then set out for another go at destroying your hard work, hacking about a bumpy field. Then go Rampage over a muddy fled in Flanders, showing the 'Garlic Mucnchers' how to do it, and find a Yank with too much money to buy it. This is what made Britain Great!

Enter the Dutch! "Well Hollaaaaan is a beet Flaaat, so we haaad to build sum bu-uuu-mpz first.... den doooow su-umfink bout de soo-spen-shun....Yez well wen you leev in a countreee sooo flaaat we like to get a little 'high' quite often!" "Heck that's Amazin'" said the Yanks... "Can y'do that in a Stadium?" And the Dutchman shrugged, munched another mushroom and said "Shure!"

And the "Scrambler" evolved into a Motorised Pogo-Stick! A motorcycle, converted into a two wheeled landing module; all notion of 'road holding' ruined by being jacked up three feet in the air on the 'Landing Gear'. Enter the French, in a nationalistic pique to prove that the Dutch don't have a monopoly on 'Daft' or the American's on 'Stupid' to look at the thing and decide that what it really needs is 'Road tyres' again, and be raced around the Cafe's in the village square! Super-Retards.. I understand them.... I just don't 'get' them!!!

SO, on that particular notion, I have two candidates;

The first is to go back to the beginning; A Rickman Matise Tri-BSA; the wonderful confection of nikel plated Rickman Matise scrambles frame, pre-unit Triumph Bonavlle motor and BSA gearbox. As much suspension as Girling could provide, and as much tyre as sticking a road block-tread on the front in place of the Ribbed Avon! And stuff the high level testicle toaster! Just rip the pea-shooters off and run it 'open'!

https://motorbike-search-engine.co.uk/classic_bikes/rickman_metisse_motocross.jpg

Alternatively... if you can't beat'em join'em; It would be a close call, and first to mind would be a Thorpe (GoKart!) Tuned KX440; last of the air-cooled big-bore stink-wheels, with suicide power-band and a noise like no other! First of the mono-shock's, it would be tountamount to heracy to stick one on slicks, and it just doesn't have enough 'Pogo-Stick' to be taken rediculousely in the world of Super-Retards... so pipping it to the post would have to be...... An Icelandic 'Hill-Climb' CR500, six foot of extended swing-arm, and nitrouse oxide!!! With a 330 low-pro back tyre! I mean, if you want to be ridiculous, why short change yourself!

Cruisers?... by THIS point of my deranged ramblings, 'suddenly seem 'quite' sensible!!!!! But when it comes to antiquated push-rod V-Twins, I prefer them transverse mounted! The longitudinal V-Twin is an arrangement the Yanks have abducted and conned the world into believing they 'invented', along with the suggestion that only 'Harley Davidson' have ever made a 'proper' motorcycle.... add to that half a childhood in Canada, which means I better 'get' the cult of the cruiser; B-U-T to ME the epitome of Americana is NOT embodied in something made in Milwake, but Springfeld! A 1948 Indian Chief in DuPont yellow! Shame I couldn't buy one for £3K.. or eve ten times that! So, what does that beg?

https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/Gallery/Honda%20VF%201100C%20Magna%20V65.jpg

Far too sensibly, £3K and 'cruiser' an original V-Max springs instantly to mind. It was just 'awesome' when launched, but it's reputation preceded it, and over the year became something of a mid-life wine bar crawler, and something of a cartoon of itself. Hence THAT..... THING in the picture.... A Honda V65 Magna, the original 'Super-Cruiser'.. that encouraged Yamaha to make the max. A-N-D it is a genuine 'classic' to my mind.... t really Is a bike of it's time.... a very short time, mercifully, but still!

Launched to market in 1983, when the Japanese were still rather experimental and enormously techno-driven, it is a real product of it's era. It's sort of What happens when you take a dozen Japanes engineers, a half dozen Japanese marketing men to America, lock them up in Elsinore California; give them a Sony TV and Betamax video recorder to watch non-stop episodes of Knight-Rider, Dukes of Hazard, Street-Hawk, and Mork and Mindy, to learn 'English' by submersion training! THEN give them a 1982 Pontiac Tans-Am and a 1980 Harley Davidson 'sportster', a slab of miller light and half a packet of Marlborough's and say"Now design a motorbike for these people!"

When Harley were critascised for being 'antiquated' at the time, with an air-cooled twin cylinder engine that still had push-rods; people (american people!) pointed at the head and said "What, it's got over-head Valves got Crissakes! What more do you want!", but the Universal-Japanese-Motorcycle, whilst usually boasting four cylinders and over-head-cam shafts, often two of them... was still air-cooled and only a few models had more than two valves per cylinder....

THIS thing, the V65Magna is just techno-nuts! They threw EVERYTHING they had at it. They gave it four cyclinders, Double over had cam shafts... twice! to make it a V-Four, AND 16valves! Four carbs, and shaft drive!!!! But then, because of the 'traditional style', whilst they were giving everything else sophisticated multi-link mono-shock suspension... they gave this thing simple twin-shocks! And havig paited the engine black... they HAD to make up for the lack of bright-work.. so clad everything in fake chromed plastic!!! BUT its pies-de-reistance.. was a Knicg-Rider digital dash!

It's a Hong-Kong transformer toy of 80's kitch in full sixety five cubic inches of full measure! and WAS, briefly 'The worlds most powerful standard production motorcycle'.. the original Super-Cruiser, and it makes me wince, but I LOVE it!

Few do... and I can sympathize with them! It is NOT a bike can envisage myself particularly relishing riding, BUT, as a cafe-crawler, If you have to do kitch? Well, this is about as much as you can get! It's just 'daft'. They got it just Sooooo 'Wrong', its a land-mark motorcycle!

And they are CHEAP! (for very good reasons!!!!) But, you can pick up something pretty useful and remarkably original for a grand! Crikey! Spend a few hundred of that £3K on a trip to the States, have a holiday find a really tidy one for a few hundred bucks! Save the rest to buy a damn good multi-meter, and pay for the 'theropy' when the neutral warning lamp stops working! (Or something 'sensible' to ride when it's raining!)

Sorry.. BUT this is about as sensible an answer as I can offer to the original query!

In REAL LIFE... for £3K I'd probably be looking at a VFR and wondering whether I am really quite ready for that much 'boring' taking side-glances at Black-Birds, and trying to convince myself that it really is a good idea 'cos of ominous alternator chain rattles, and trying to restrain myself from slipping into delusion and buying a bludy guzzi!
____________________
My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[Ste]

£3k to spend on a supermoto?

Exactly what to buy depends on how super you want the supermoto to be.

I'd get a KTM or Husaberg that's bigger than 500cc.

[notbike]

WR450 for maximum wheelie & bling

[ThatDippyTwat]

Husaberg? Might as well go the whole hog and get a Maico 700. If you can find one.

[G]

What aspects of the supermoto do you like?

What aspects of a cruiser do you like?

Think a working Maico 700 at that price may be pushing it a bit!

Oh and Tef' mistakenly suggests that long travel doesn't "hold the road" well - which of course, as with any bike; if properly setup isn't true.
Of road, while it may not be needed if you're just riding on gravel tracks, when you introduce proper bumps, certainly makes a good difference.

[Alpineandy]

It rather depends what you plan on doing with the bike.
I do like the DRZs and CCMs but would probably look for a KTM in decent condition within the budget if possible (Husa and Husqs seem to be very high maintenance and very high price).
However if you ever need to cover distance then a SM isn't great for that.

I wouldn't go for a full cruiser (I couldn't put up with the questioning looks of 'Is he or isn't he of the gey?') as most of them are just so slow but something like a V-Max could be quite interesting...
But I would have a Diavel if I was rolling in dosh
____________________
The above comment isn't necessarily the truth and anyone that says it is, is only correct if it's the truth or they're bigger than me.

[Ste]

All this talk recently about supermotos has got me thinking about getting my license back...

[Beehive Bedlam]

Also OP remember anything that resembles a field bike because 'well fast init' is highly likely to be stolen if left unattended.

[stevo as b4]

What do you want to do with each bike?
As said by Ste how super should your supermoto be? I call a DT125 with 17'' rims a supermoto or street supermoto, as I would an XT600 built the same. The G's of this world wouldn't call either a supermoto, but a Husaberg or Husqvarna competition bike with lights is probably closer.

Do you want both to be a certain capacity, and how many cylinders do you want in each bike? Two or four stroke or one of each?

I'd want in two bikes, a light small capacity trail or enduro derived 2stroke motard and a big powerful 3 or 4cylinder cruiser like a V-max or Eliminator ZL 1000.

The above bikes though heavy arnt too raked out or a chrome fest either, so they can be made to handle better than a dressed up style cruiser like a Virago and more importantly have engines that'll bother over 160bhp without much tuning, and there's plenty of parts to bolt on and make them faster.

I wouldn't want my light little 125 to be a cruiser, but even more so I wouldn't have anything with a 45degree lump of milwalkee iron shit under the tank while I'm in this world.

[Ste]

A DT125 with 17'' rims is as much of a supermoto as a CBR125 is a super sports.

[stevo as b4]

In pure to the name terms your right.

But I don't look at supermoto bikes from that perspective, as I have little interest in fussy race bikes, that you could fight against their reason for existence to get a MOT ticket.

I want my supermoto's to have key ignition, steering locks, and sometimes even pillion pegs.

By the same definition though you can't call a KTM superduke or 1290 a supermoto, but it's the look and the benefits of having the wheels/tyres and braking power of such bikes that's the benefit. However scorned upon or ridiculed a DT125 is in such trim, it's a better 100% road bike than it would be with std wheels, brakes and big knoblies fitted.

[M.C]

[stevo as b4]

I might just call things wrong?
To me an Aprilia RS125 is a focused sports bike and has a good chassis spec more than it needs for 30bhp.

A YZF125R is maybe more like a Thunderace 125 than an R1 125. It has some looks of its bigger brothers, but the clip ons are not as low and it's more compromised towards being a newbie friendly bike than an RS125, which really isn't much of a learner bike at all, and is far better utilised by experienced riders that can ride it how it likes to used to get the most out of it.

I don't call a YZF125R a commuter bike in frock though, but some will call any 125 or just low capacity bike a commuter no matter what the spec or style of it.

I wouldn't want to commute on a Honda shadow 125, but for cruising around warm coastal roads abroad without annoying anyone with howling pipes or choking trails of unburnt hydrocarbons, it'd probably be a nice relaxing ride.

[struan80]

Thanks guys for your advice and suggestions.

I'm leaning towards a KTM 690. And I'm fancying that one that Albigularis linked to https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2007-KTM-690-LC4-SUPERMOTO-/142175012014?hash=item211a4a84ae:g:ULwAAOSwXeJYI0VO.&clk_rvr_id=1146991412640&rmvSB=true

Now someone needs to buy my R1 and R6 https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=317444

[Irn-Bru]

Them older 690's are ugly beasts I've got a 690 SMC and a DRZ (with loads of mods) and prefer the drz mostly. The jerky throttle on the 690 is quite annoying, feels noticeably heavier than a drz in corners, whereas the drz feels like a pedal bike (supercorsas might be the reason). It's proper quick tho I'm due to sell one of my bikes and am leaning towards the 690 as my 990 is quite the beast with surprisingly smooth fueling and throttle response and the drz you know will always work and is very simple so nice to have around.
____________________
KTM 990 SMT & Suzuki DR-Z 400 SM

[M.C]

They'd be alright if they didn't have a plague mask For 3k you'd have a good chance of picking up a decent one. Duke 690's generally tend to go for a bit more, although you might even get a superduke on budget. For a SMC it would have to be an older one.

[ThatDippyTwat]

[struan80]

What do you guys think of the 390 Duke? After the R! and R6 I'm not after fast, just fun.