Are adventure conversions of big bore enduro bikes worthwhile?︱Cross Training Adventure

crosstrainingen... The unicorn adventure bike! Light weight. Powerful. Great suspension. Is it really possible? Many have tried adventure conversions of enduro bikes like the 450 and 500cc dirt bikes. Gordon is in his late 60s and he's constantly searching for the perfect motorbike for dual sport and adventure riding. His most recent choices? A DR650. KTM 690. KTM 390. Husqvarna 701. Welcome to Cross Training Adventure, we are into all things dual sport and adventure on the east coast of Australia. And now a Husqvarna 501. Gordon's health issues have put a real focus on light weight nowadays. What an epic motorbike. If you like dual sport riding in Australia then you might like our adventure riding vids. KTM should be sued for discontinuing this model. A Beta RR480. Big tank. Custom seat. And the light weight is evidently agreeing with him. I love the DR650. But I am seriously thinking of a new adventure project. Converting a big bore dirt motorbike... again. I have done adventure conversions of enduro bikes in the past. A Yamaha WR450F. Cush drive hub. Check out our reviews of various adventure bikes and dual sport bikes. Added a one litre oil cooler. Comfortable seat. Next was the Husaberg FE570. Cush drive hub. Repadded seat. A G2 Throttle Tamer to reduce that 'snappy' fuel injection. As the tracks got rougher, they were incredible to ride as an adventure conversion of an enduro bike. But they completely sucked for road riding. If you spend a lot of time on bitumen, there is simply too much compromise involved. Lets start with all the good points of adventurising a big bore enduro. Light weight. Great power. Lots of suspension. Brilliant in gnarly terrain. What sucks? Road riding is usually terrible for lots of reasons. No windscreen. Keen on adventure riding in Australia? Check out our vids. The lack of a cush drive hub just makes this worse. In some cases, you'll have a narrow range gearbox which sucks for dual sport and adventure riding. There's lots of engine noise and more vibration. You pay for all that engine performance with higher maintenance. The short stroke engines with small piston skirts mean you really shouldn't ride these motorbikes at low revs or you can dramatically increase piston wear. There's a wide range of windscreens that can adapted for enduro motorbikes. There are even rally fairings if you want to spend a fortune. The G2 Throttle Tamer is brilliant for reducing that snappy throttle response. The road equipment is usually poor - crap headlights, tiny indicators and an ineffective horn. The hard narrow seats will see you standing a lot. No pillion passengers of course. The low stator output can cause issues if you want to run better lights, heated handgrips and electronic gadgets. And there are no quick puncture repairs due to spoked wheels with tubes. Cush drive hubs are expensive but reduce drivetrain wear and make things much smoother on the road. Sell it separately when you sell your motorbike and you'll recoup quite a bit of your money. Gearing? Ensure you have good wide range gearbox. Oil capacity? Choose a motorbike with at least 1.5 litre capacity if possible. Some examples? The WR450F sucks with only 800ml. A KTM 500EXCF has 1.5 litres. An SWM RS500R has a respectable 1.7 litres. No price announced yet but the AJPs are usually very competitive when it comes to price. There's a lot of talk about the Kove 450. Personally I wouldn't buy a Chinese made motorbike until they'd been around for a few years and lots of owner reports indicated the long-term quality was reasonable. Also it ain't light. It has a reported 145kg (320lb) weight without fuel. What about you? Ever converted an enduro model for dual sport or adventure riding? Happy with the results? What sort of modifications? Let us know in the comments. If you hate oil changes, avoid the Beta RS500 which has separate engine and transmission oils. If you are tall you can modify existing seats with a wider block of foam and then just staple a vinyl cover on. In some cases there will be aftermarket seats but they are bloody expensive. Do you hate puncture repairs? Fit the TUbliss system and just plug any punctures in two minutes. Awesome product but expensive. I have it on all my motorbikes. But the good news is the range of budget models available. We already mentioned the SWM RS500R. The engine is based on the old Husqvarna TE510 model. It has the narrow range gearbox but an excellent oil capacity. But the price is brilliant. It's almost half the price of a Husqvarna 501. I'm seriously tempted to look at this as my next motorbike. A very similar model? AJP has announced the SPR510R which is also based on the old FE510 engine but with lots of extra bling. If they put a wide ratio gearbox in this could be very tempting as well.
#crosstrainingadventure #adventureriding #adventurebikes #dualsportriding
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