Forestry Service Road. Roads made for logging trucks that are easy with good suspension travel, maybe 80/20 or 90/10 tires but some people use street tires just fine. I’ve taken some FSRs with my previous street bikes. All my scooters have had too little suspension travel.
A full "dirt bike" helps if the road has been decommissioned with bridges removed. Safer too as there is no actual truck traffic. The water bars on some of these can be downright nasty. (earth berms set at an angle across the road to direct rainwater runoff. The bars can blow right through 10" of travel on a bike. Punishing.
You guys seem to be spending more time rebuilding engines and forks than actually riding though. That doesn’t seem fun.
There is nothing better than hauling ass offroad. Things that on road would get you thrown in jail is on the table. Just let it hang out and do what you want. Want to pull a 3rd gear wheelie down a straight? No problem. Perhaps play super moto and kick the rear out on some switchbacks. See a game trail near the top that may or may not be climbable? Grab a fist of throttle and give it a try. Perhaps slow it down to walking pace and try to ride the length of that log. Freedom. BC/Idaho/Nevada ia just so massive.
Maintenance is required but not crazy. Oil/filters every 20-30 hours depending on how hard the riding was The 501 will do 600 hours + before needing anything serious. . Forks? Maybe fluid every couple years and a shop service every 4? The 300 will see a top end every 4 years at current rate. Nothing else to do from Nov-March lol.
The bigger ADV bikes can do 80% of it but they just kick your ass so much and they are slower. Last year at the Horizons Unlimited Mountain Madness event we ran some of the trails os some 990s. These guys were excellent riders (much better than moi) but what took them 1 hour to get up and almost as much down we did in about 15 minutes. At the end of it they were done. Of course they had a much more resonable time on the connecting sections lol.
Anyhow enoughing droning on. Mr Wongpong sounds like he would be best served with something like the Yamaha 700 Tenere. I am looking at one for myself (or perhaps an Africa twin). Too bad there are no demos this summer.
