"Sport Adventure"

[Tumbleweed]

Amid all my speculation about how much cheaper it would be to buy some abused sportbike and convert it to an adventure bike, I found an article on MCOnline that completely validates everything I was thinking.
http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/blogs/...me-my-bike
Love it. I also found a few threads on ADVRider that gave me hope as well.
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=330726

So, I'll be on the look out for a bashed up triple to do this to, because why not?
What are everybody's thoughts on doing this?

[the falcon]

Where to begin, first the front end. Too heavy, bars are too low,too short. You have 3 inches of suspension instead of 9-13. Clearance of motor to ground, there isn't any. You wouldn't get far on any of these dirt roads around here before you knock a hole in the engine. Street bikes handle like shit in the dirt especially sand washes. Best just to get a dirt bike, you would have alot more fun and be able to go more place than any road machine.

[The Doctor]

(09-10-2014 05:51 PM)the falcon Wrote:  Where to begin, first the front end. Too heavy, bars are too low,too short. You have 3 inches of suspension instead of 9-13. Clearance of motor to ground, there isn't any. You wouldn't get far on any of these dirt roads around here before you knock a hole in the engine. Street bikes handle like shit in the dirt especially sand washes. Best just to get a dirt bike, you would have alot more fun and be able to go more place than any road machine.

I don't think the point is to make an awesome adventure bike. I think the point is more of "HAHAHA I feel like a mad scientist now!"


With that being said.... for some reason I actually really like the look of knobby tires on all those bikes.

[ars0n]

Half the fun is BUILDING IT!!!!

[Tumbleweed]

(09-10-2014 05:51 PM)the falcon Wrote:  Where to begin, first the front end. Too heavy, bars are too low,too short. You have 3 inches of suspension instead of 9-13. Clearance of motor to ground, there isn't any. You wouldn't get far on any of these dirt roads around here before you knock a hole in the engine. Street bikes handle like shit in the dirt especially sand washes. Best just to get a dirt bike, you would have a lot more fun and be able to go more place than any road machine.

Where to begin: Of course I would swap the clip-ons for bars, that's the cheapest mod needed. I would swap for some junkyard adventure bike forks or even dirt-bike forks, and rear spring. Name me one Adventure bike that's not a KTM 690 with more than 9 inches of travel. 13? That's squarely dirt bike territory dude. With the suspension swap the 4 inches of clearance on sport bikes would jump to 8-ish, which is plenty.
I've gone on plenty of dirt on my Daytona, which handled itself surprisingly well, save for rider comfort. If I wanted a straight dirt bike, I would get one. I said adventure, as in probably 60% highway and 40% fire roads and light-to-medium trails. GS or Tiger territory.

With all this said, I'd probably go with a cheap SV650 than an actual supersport, for the sake of having a de-tuned motor. I'm not looking to climb rock gardens or do jumps, I'm looking to go distance on highway and back road, see a cool looking dirt road, and explore it without the fear of rupturing my pilot powers or bottoming out on a nasty bit. All for less than a used GS or V-strom.

As for the other two, exactly my point!

[the falcon]

Get a KLR 650 for a couple k and be done with it then. KLR's motto, triple sport, street,trail, and hiway!

[Tumbleweed]

(09-10-2014 10:31 PM)the falcon Wrote:  Get a KLR 650 for a couple k and be done with it then. KLR's motto, triple sport, street,trail, and hiway!

I'm allergic to carburetors.

[Rev. That Guy]

(09-10-2014 09:55 PM)Tumbleweed Wrote:  Where to begin: Of course I would swap the clip-ons for bars, that's the cheapest mod needed. I would swap for some junkyard adventure bike forks or even dirt-bike forks, and rear spring. Name me one Adventure bike that's not a KTM 690 with more than 9 inches of travel. 13? That's squarely dirt bike territory dude. With the suspension swap the 4 inches of clearance on sport bikes would jump to 8-ish, which is plenty.
I've gone on plenty of dirt on my Daytona, which handled itself surprisingly well, save for rider comfort. If I wanted a straight dirt bike, I would get one. I said adventure, as in probably 60% highway and 40% fire roads and light-to-medium trails. GS or Tiger territory.

With all this said, I'd probably go with a cheap SV650 than an actual supersport, for the sake of having a de-tuned motor. I'm not looking to climb rock gardens or do jumps, I'm looking to go distance on highway and back road, see a cool looking dirt road, and explore it without the fear of rupturing my pilot powers or bottoming out on a nasty bit. All for less than a used GS or V-strom.

As for the other two, exactly my point!

The SV would make a decent platform for this conversion, however not for the reasons you mention. The SV is in no way a de-tuned motor per say. It is a v-twin. big difference from an inline-4 and thus may seem de-tuned for its displacement. That being said, the low-end grunt of the v-twin and the slight weight advantage it offers is a plus in this type of application.

For the purposes you describe, FI vs correctly set-up carbs is a moot point. My 30yr old magna runs like a top and has NEVER given me a fuel issue and it has 70K miles and the carbs have NEVER been out of the bike. On the flip side, FI is more electronic components that are sensitive to heat and vibration and thus more points of failure in a "not its intended design" situation. FI does have its advantages over carbs in a few ways too so im not saying its better or worse - again its just a moot point.

Also, for swapping front ends, I have done this a few times with many different bikes and setups and it is much more involved than just bolting things together. You need to have the components working together. You cant just slap the front end from a bike that weighs in at 275lb to a bike that is nearly 400 and change. You have to change springs, valving, oil, ect or the bike will handle worse in all situations. Putting a dirt front end on a bike designed for mostly street riding would be detrimental to the project as a whole unless configured correctly but even then, you are looking at compromise across the board as to what it can do. There is an old saying about OEM dual-sport bikes.... they can do everything, but they cant do anything well. You have to decide what you want the most out of it and run with that. Then there is wheels, tires and brakes. doing a dirtbike swap and staying with dirtbike brakes up front would be a quick way to find yourself in a 6-foot deep hole so you will need some fabrication work to figure out a wheel setup that will cater to suitable brakes.

So lets assume that you find a suitable front end and get it set up right, then you have to work with the rear end. Modern street bikes are, by design, poor choices, in terms of rear suspension for anything off-road. They usually have very short swingarms in comparison to the off-road counterpart and often times linkages and design limit total travel so one would usually need to re-engineer the rear end to allow for more ground clearance and travel. This is where you see many doing entire rear end swaps to make up for that so you will need to find something suitable. Once you do that you have to make it all fit and work with that.

Now after all is said and done, and you have found suitable front and rear ends that will do what you want it to do, you have spent a lot of time and money making a FAR less capable, uglier, and more expensive cobbed-together version of a KLR.

Buy a KLR.

Im not trying to discourage you but there is a reason that they make DS bikes in the first place. It is far easier to start with a dirt platform and convert to street, than to go the other way around.

You may want to consider picking up a cheap dirtbike to ride for a few months so you have a better understanding of the demands that dirt makes on a bike..... even if just on nothing more than dirt roads.... then sell it and make a decision.

most of the examples in those links you posted are mainly for "Because I can" purposes and while most there say they did it so they could go on dirt roads or whatever, most of the mods done, for that application, really make no difference and are not needed.

but all that's just my opinion. Im not actually trying to discourage you from doing this, but instead opening your eyes to the fact that it would likely not ever be anything you would want to have to rely on and would basically be just for novelty purposes.

- Justin

[tomy]

Justin you writing a book

[Tumbleweed]

Jeez, dude.
To invalidate most of this, I'm NOT looking for a dirt bike. I said adventure. As in road bike that's comfier on dirt roads than a super sport.

The SV is indeed de-tuned compared to a super sport, less compression and whatnot. The other perks are already known, and nice.

I am allergic to carbs, also for the purposes described, the better fuel economy of fuel injection matters a lot. I'm not jaunting to Apex, I'm crossing state lines. The KLR would be marvelous if it's 55ish mpg were bumped up to 70, like the GS 650. And yes, the GS is also a great option, but we lose the "budget mad scientist aspect", and get just over half the KLR's tank size.

Finding and configuring a nice front end is part of the fun. Of course there's a compromise, but that's what I'm looking for. The brake issue is why I'd rather stick to adv forks, they're generally beefier in that department.
Same applies to the rear.

A dude did a Versys drive train swap into a KLR because why not, which would be cool, but that's more money than suspension would be.

The whole point of the post was to show some guys doing neat, crazy things to bikes because they can. Yes some of the examples are extreme but the point is there. We ride to have fun, and we can have fun building, too.

Or, in the end, I'll buy an SV or Street3, put TKC 80s or PR4 trail tires on, and a couple of Rotopax, and be comfy doing the same thing I'm doing on my Daytona, without putting holes in the Pilot Powers.