Which bike route would you take? Supermotard, Sportsbike, MX

[Blink]

Hey folks,

Background: 22, full license, currently own an RS125 and been riding since 16.

I have a few motorcycling options....please help me decide...

Summary: It boils down to this: 1)Van & trackday/motox 2) Sportsbike route 3) Supermoto route

- Buy a Van - get a motox bike and keep motorcycling hobby for the weekends. Could possibly take RS on 125 trackdays, if such a thing exists. Don't bother with road bikes...they're dangerous yada yada.

-Get an R6/CBR/R250equivalent of. Handy because my Uni house is 200 miles away from my parents/hometown. Good for long distance, ultra fun, ultra fast. Not great for the city.

- Get a supermoto. Probably a DRZ SM (most likely), XR or WR. SM's are great fun, really manouverable and great for the city(Newcastle). Good for the commute to Uni/Work.

Cheers,

Rich
____________________
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.

[Itchy]

Buy a halfie? , ie a Thundercat , which is a really upright sports type bike , or a streetish bike like a Fazer which is good for the city , ok if you ride it hard out of the city and on track.

EDIT further thought:

A KTM super duke the 640 version , its super moto styled but its wheels can take lots of sporty grippy tyres and ridden well it can give sports bikes a run for their money on the twisty stuff, not very practical though and they need lots of maintenance.
____________________
Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[matlow]

Why not get the DRZ SM and then get some off road wheels etc.. from ebay?? two bikes in one and ticks 2 of the three boxes.
____________________
Hornet 600, CBR600F, 929 blade, 07 R1, R1200GS, 09 Blade, 750 SRAD, ZZR1200, 954 Blade, KTM 990 Adventure, Ducati 749s

[J.K.R]

[EddyJones]

How much money you got?

Why not get a cheap sportsbike/commuter and a SM?

[G]

What's your budget?

My usual advice recently seems to have been 'get a CCM 404' to such questions. Uses the DRZ-E engine, pretty light and is designed to do road and off road stuff from the start.
It's light enough and has good enough suspension to hack some pretty serious riding, while it's reliable enough to handle daily riding.
I've done 200 miles of twisty back roads on it in a day. Not sure I'd want to do that on a motorway or straight A road though with the standard seat.

However, I'd also be tempted to look at two bikes;
Get a bike for doing distance and faster road stuff. Then a trail bike, with the possibility of SM maybe, for muddy stuff and fun-thrashing.

To my mind SMs aren't that much more flighty than bigger bike with wide bars and dropped yokes - or at least few people would take advantage of the extra offered, anyway.

[Blink]

Already saved £4k but i'm working so i'd say £5-6k at a stretch.

For some reason i've always wanted a van and to do motocross? Is anyone else into motocross?

Suzuki DRZ 400
Aye, I like the DRZ idea, however surely i'd need to play with the suspension? Plus, if I was doing jumps off a DRZ SM it'd end up losing its value quick! Do love them though. Few mods and they look/go great!

CCM 404
CCMs...heard a few bad things, but taken into account the people that dissed them tended to be keyboard bikers so i'm unsure. Plus side....cheap, look nice, Suzuki engine. Any rider reviews?

Supermotos are ace, had an XR 250 for a month abroad. Could flick that bastard around any corner, jump kerbs etc So light and so much fun.

All that said, I reckon £2'000 could get a fairly decent RS250. Track-day toy perhaps?

The weather is so nice right now and ALL i can think of is bikes, yet being a poor student...yada yada yada
____________________
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.

[G]

Have a look in the sticky at the top of the show and tell section; there is a link to a review of my CCM404e.

The DRZ is going to be a bit heavy for mx, especially if you’re talking the SM version which is slower and heavier than the ‘e’ version.

That’s a pretty decent budget you’ve got there, if it was me, I’d get something like:
Van: £1k
250cc KTM EXC 2 stroke: £1.5k
600cc track bike (with V5): £1.5k
ZZR600, FZR1000 etc for distance: £1k

The 2 stroke enduro bikes like the KTM EXC weigh only a little more than a MX bike, have good enough suspension to handle MX stuff, but offer the added flexibility of being designed to be used on the road too. Add some supermoto wheels for road-sillyness. These shouldn’t be /that/ far off the power of a RS250, but with 1/4 less weight, though a flatter power delivery and the fun of premix.

Van insurance can be nasty for young people, so worth looking into. However, if you get one with a reasonable speed and economy, you might decide to use that rather than a bike for distance.
£1k should get you a decent enough example of a smaller van, don’t need to spend that much if you’re happy with something a bit tattier.

Go for an older 600cc sports bike that’s been setup for track and you’ll get a well setup bike that despite being cheap will be limited by you, not the bike. Find one with a v5 and you’ve got a summer fun bike for fast road blats too.



Alternatively, I have found the CCM to be a pretty good ‘do it all’ bike (a sorted DRz and various others is also worth considering), so could be worth looking to actually start with something in that area, then take it to do some gentle off MX or enduro stuff etc to see if you like it. Reckon it could handle a trackday fine too, though it’d be better to stick to a track with not too long straights. That way you can have a go at a variety of things before deciding if you want to pursue them further (sadly, in most cases I decide I do want to pursue them further .)

Finally, something like the DRz/CCM will never peform amazingly compared to a competition bike – it’s a trail bike at heart, not a fire-breathing enduro/mx bike designed to win races out of the box.
Unless of course the IAM person who told me his son had tuned their DRZ to 90hp and it was still reliable was actually telling the truth, anyway .