Best green lane / winter bike ?

Fast Eddie

Fast Eddie

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Most winters me n’ some mates have a similar discussion / debate...

“What would make an ideal, fun, winter bike that could also be a useable country lane / green lane bike in summer”?

Needs to be fairly light, droppable and pick-up-able, without destroying itself. Simple, so ideally a single or twin. Four stroke. Mild off road use, MX or Paris Dakar capability NOT required. Needs to be decent on today’s roads too, so min 500cc I think.

Yam XT 500 is a good example, but they’re now collectible and priced accordingly. The Triumph TR7T Tiger Trail is a favourite of mine, but they are extremely prohibitively expensive now (especially for a winter bike FFS)!

Open to ‘classic‘ and ‘modern’ versions of answers.

Waddya all recommend ?
 
Years ago I ran a Honda xl500 year round here .... as you can guess our winter weather is much more extreme than you endure in UK .... I was much younger and didn’t have too far to go to work .... always started never let me down , great for going to beach, back country fishing etc. in ride season , never ventured out on the big twinned highway though .... would think a DR650 would make a reliable bike for what you asking ...
 
I think you're asking too much of a 'Classic', perhaps? (Brit, anyway) To be small/light enough to be of use off road, it will probably be too slow on it?? Conversely, anything Brit that can hold it's own in traffic may be too heavy off road??
2 stroke, I'd guess.....
 
Honda XL600R any year. Built like a tank, light and skinny
 

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KTM 450/525 EXC will do over 90mph so road usable, although decent off road tires are a bit squirmy on the road, but that is preferable to dual purpose tires which are totally useless off road in mud.

They don't float in bogs though.

My 450
Best green lane / winter bike ?
 
Yes I also think it’s a big ask of a classic, some are good off road like unit BSA/Tri singles or the Tri 500 Adventurer, but they’re slow on the road IMHO.
Also, which I should have said in the beginning, at just over 6ft and 14 1/2 stone, I don’t want anything that’s physically too small.
Which I think would apply to the KTM Ralph.
The XL looks appealing, as does the DR, but I think I’d have more faith in the Honda’s ability to withstand winter use.
Of course, an electric start version of the Armstrong MT500 would be a bloody good contender, but they seem to have gone from ten a penny to rocking horse shit !
 
I believe people have taken the the B50 out to over 600cc (needs crankcase work, though), but you'd need a good leg to kick it!!
CCM?
 
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Yes... CCM. Not one of the ‘impossible to start unless you know the secret code’ hopped up BSA derivates, but the 600cc Rotax / 644cc Suzuki engined R30 has often caught my eye.

I recall them having a pretty dire reputation for reliability though, things breaking etc. And I believe winter salt might just erode one away completely!

I’d be delighted to be wrong about this though. Anyone?
 
Any bike I have in my shed, I have taken my Norton in places no one would even think about taking it there, same with all my other bikes and for the real off road adventures I have my Honda CRF450X, it can be rego but mine is for pure off road bush basher with the best knobby tyres set at 12lb pressure, so really I am covered.

Ashley
 
Fast Eddie said:
at just over 6ft and 14 1/2 stone, I don’t want anything that’s physically too small.
Which I think would apply to the KTM Ralph.
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Not so Nigel, I needed a box to get on mine, they are very tall 36.4" seat hight, 60ish HP and only 250lb dry, fun bike. I got rid of that EXC for a CCM 404e and that was taller so that had to go too. I am on the lookout for a Beta X trainer just now, a little bit lower bike.

Be wary of taking road bias bike on green lanes, that pic above happened because the other guys I was out with were getting stuck in a muddy bit and I decided to go round, it was very hard to get it out of that bog.
 
When riding green lanes the heavier both you and your bike are, the easier it will be to get bogged down on soft ground, and it's not necessarily power that will get you out of it.
 
I'd go for a unit single BSA
Easy to work on and very rewarding when they are right
How fast do you want to go?
 
If you want a big thumper that has an electric start, there were 2 versions of the Suzuki DR 800.
These are IMO a town and jungle bike, the suspension is soft enough to ride over road speed humps without slowing down, but you see few of them now.
 
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Fast Eddie said:
What was the CCM like then Ralph ?
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One of the reasons for getting rid of the KTM was the focus of the bike, it needed to be ridden a lot faster to feel right than i was comfy doing on green lanes. another reason was its 15 hour service intervals and two oil filters. I went for the CCM because of the Suzuki engine and figured it would be a bit less focused, wrong, it had a slightly higher seat and just as competent as the KTM.

The service intervals were better and it was still a lot of fun but not as powerful.

The last time I took it out.

Best green lane / winter bike ?
 
Maintain? They probably just toss it and steal another when they take over the next town!
 
storm42 said:
One of the reasons for getting rid of the KTM was the focus of the bike, it needed to be ridden a lot faster to feel right than i was comfy doing on green lanes. another reason was its 15 hour service intervals and two oil filters. I went for the CCM because of the Suzuki engine and figured it would be a bit less focused, wrong, it had a slightly higher seat and just as competent as the KTM.

The service intervals were better and it was still a lot of fun but not as powerful.

The last time I took it out.

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Thanks Ralph, what about the build quality and reliability of the CCM?
It’s the bigger 644cc Suzuki engined variant that piques my interest, not for the increased power, but for the increased ‘big single grunt’ grin factor.
But I don’t want to buy something that’s gonna be on the lift half the time... or turn to dust when used through a British winter...
 
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