What did you used to ride? What are you riding now? Which one did you love the most? What's laying in a torn apart pile in your garage? Any stories behind them?
My first squidbike. Rode this thing EVERYWHERE, but then I busted the 2nd/6th gear dogs. Successfully replaced them, but it leaked oil from then on from splitting the cases.
My second less squiddy bike; I really loved the SV. Great handler after the RT prog springs and Penske rear shock were put on.
Number 3. I could never get the hang of riding this correctly. It wanted to go very fast and I didn't.
Number 3.5 (basketcase). Rode it, like, twice. Intended to restore it, but ended up giving it away for free. It was super dangerous to ride (i.e. brakes? what are brakes?).
Current (old man bike):
That last one is similar to my first! Mine was a Suzuki, a TS 185. I'd love to have that back, it was so easy and fun to ride. My current R110RS is... not.
I hate how all 'dual sport' bikes are huge displacement now. I guess it's because the speed limits are so much higher everywhere.
Agree about large dual sports. I've been eyeballin' the Honda XR150L pretty hard as of late. Someone nearby also had a 2019 G310GS for sale for below $4k which got my wallet quivering a little.
Road-going two-strokes like your TS are rare to see anymore. The last two-stroke I touched was a YSR50.
Love my XR15L but I don't love going more than 55ish mph in turns with it due to the tires and upright nature of it. Hard to get any lean and feel comfortable with it. It tops out for me at about 65 on the highway. It rides like a dream on dirt roads here and it badly wants to sit in 4th gear.
Great little bike with some "cheap" parts. I.e. the drum brake in the rear, no abs, brush guards are just there for looks. Everything else is solid, though. The motor is hella reliable. They wouldn't be as popular on the world market if they weren't!
Ditto. I love my big KTM but I'm thinking a smaller single (DR400? Honda CRF450? Street-legalized WR450F?) or parallel-twin (a friend has a Yamaha Tenere 700 that does pretty much everything but isn't significantly lighter than my KTM and gives up 50hp and traction control) is the right bike if I have dual-sport ambitions.