For years now I have been hankering for a small dual sport bike. I had a Honda Mini Trail 50 as a kid and many of my fondest childhood memories involve riding it along old roads and deer trails near Grants Pass where I grew up. Sadly, after we moved to Klamath Falls, it mostly languished in a shed as a few acres of pasture just couldn't compare to the hills and forests of my former home. I finally sold it.
I had looked mostly at small dual sports as the larger ones would just about require a step ladder for me to mount. The Honda NX 250 looked intriguing, but finally was ruled out as finding parts seems to be more and more difficult. The Yamaha WR 250 looked to be a bit too much towards "dirt riding". Even as a kid I was more into "riding to explore" than "pretend I am in the Baja 100". Longing for something that would have good road manners to get me to where I would want to take the bike off-road, and not desiring to do "motocross" type riding, something fairly sedate would fulfill my needs. I also considered the KLR 250 and the Kawasaki Super Sherpa. The Sherpa got the nod for having "the magic button", yes, I like electric start.
I found a lot of appeal in the Yamaha Tenere' 250, but it seems that it is being test marketed in only Brazil! I also fell in love with the funky Yamaha XTW250 Ryoku, very interesting features. But...while it felt it would take me years to save for a dual sport, I didn't actually want to wait years to start riding off the highways.
The problem was, with my income, I was looking at saving for several years for even a low cost Sherpa, so when a KLR 250 project bike appears in the SF Bay Area for $200, with a title no less, I jumped on it, and arranged for a guy from advrider.com to arrange to pick it up for me, and he was willing to bring it to near Redding California. Unfortunately for me, other matters demanded my time and attention and the bike has sat, not being a project after all.
Thankfully, last year was a much better year for my finances, and I was able to really start saving some money towards a bike purchase.
In February, I found another, much more complete specimen in Seattle. Could it be that buying another parts bike would give me enough pieces to build a complete running dual sport? Considering the price was $600, I would still be under a grand for the bike purchases. Okay, my wife approved and we had our friend Rowan pick it up, and she was able to bargain it down to $400!
Unfortunately I am still waiting for an opportunity to get it home...I hope that my life will allow me more time for "fun" work and projects!
