How are dual purpose motorcycles for expressway riding?

Question

I've never had a dual purpose motorcycle. I'm thinking about getting one, but how are they on the freeway? I'll be riding 200 miles or so, maybe more.

Answer 1

The knobby tires are lousy at gripping wet pavement. You might want to be careful about that. And they wear down very very quickly (under 3000miles) on asphalt. Some, who can afford the effort and money, keep a set of rims with street tires on it, and another with the knobbies, just so they can switch out. It's a hassle. Street tires though, are even worse off-road. If you're set up for dirt, you have to be verrry cautious on the street, and vice versa.

As for other aspects, the larger displacement duallies are actually quite comfortable on expressways. The BMW GS series is an awesome touring bike. And the KTM 950 Adventure has enough power to cruise the expressways well. A dually over 600cc displacement is adequate for expressway speeds at length (which means I'd consider klr's, bmw650gs, ktm 650's etc), but you also get a bigger beast to lift when you drop it off road. And seriously...anyone who knocks around one of those 500 lbs beasts offroad has to expect some damage to the bike, if you drop it. If you come from a dirtbiking background, this is probably no surprise to you. But alot of newbies get on their big honkin' GS, and get all bent out of shape when the manage to get their bike...bent all out of shape. :)

Answer 2

The whole bike is about compromise, and thus they aren't all that great at any given job. But, you can easily swing the bias one way or another with some simple mods. For instance, I used an XT225 to commute through DC (75 miles a day) for about 6 months when my truck died a miserable death, street bike was crashed beyond repair, and new streetbike blew an engine and had another installed.

to tackle the job, I put 85% street tires on the bike, modified the gearing so it didn't sound like it was going to explode at 70mph, and not much else. It was barely able to get anywhere on the dirt though (hard-packed, but slightly sandy, trail). As soon as I got a reliable streetbike going again, I put dirt tires back on the bike, lowered the gearing and took it off to the local trails and it did Much better. But riding the streets over there were not pleasent.

So if you can live with the compromise, the bikes can do most anything. 200 miles in one strech though, you'll likely be wanting to take a few breaks along the way. 37 miles one way on my commute was easy enough, but I bet my limit would have been about 60~80 miles... (and I just did an 800 mile day on a streetbike the other day, I'm accustom to long days in the saddle).

Answer 3

I have been told that dual sport motorcycles are a compromise and sometimes good on the street, but more often better on the dirt. I looked at the BMW's. They are rated well, but I always worried about cost of the bike and maintenance.
I settled on a Buell Ulysses because it is cheaper, hopefully less maintenance with easier parts availability and it's dirt road capabilities. It's so comfortable on bumpy roads that I tend to go faster than I probably should and it rides dirt roads great too, so far.
I would advise, if you need two capabilities, then you need two bikes. If you need one and would like the capability to occasionally do the other, then buy the one with the capabilities of that first need and tune it or tweak it to get the compromises you can tolerate to get the second's capabilities.
Good luck!

Answer 4

Dual purpose bike 650 or larger are fine on the highway just put 70/30 or 60/40 tires on before you leave an a long trip.

Answer 5

Yes, it's the best bike to start riding on the road with. It's what I did, when I was 16. That knowledge base I gained, has saved my life a few times. I miss my dual sport bike, that thing was a blast to ride.

Answer 6

street legal dirt bikes with dirt tires have very poor handling on asphalt. u'd be much safer having a bike with street tires. if u like the looks of sport bikes, but u know u'll be doing over 50 miles 1 way at a time, the sport-touring bikes would be the way to go. sport bike looks, cruiser comfort.

Answer 7

I assume you're talking about a street/trail bike. From personal experience they're not very good on highways at all. The knobby tires will wear down very quickly and don't give good traction on hard roads, especially highways.

Answer 8

The bigger Dual sports are really great .Go for it.

Answer 9

If you get a KLR 650cc it will have enough power, but the BMW would be a better bike.