Big single cylinder motorbikes

TINAS

A bike for proper off road use will be rubbish on road. Low gearing, high seat, knobbly tyres, small tank. tolerable for short distances only on road.

A tourer will be rubbish offroad. Too heavy and wrong tyres steering and suspension

A single will not be much use as a tourer. Too slow and vibratory

Many "trail styled" bikes are not offroaders but offroad styled bikes

You need to decide what you want and get a suitable bike

Hah! I was just going to suggest one of these:

A mate had one and it was a whole lot of fun.

Suzuki DR 800 BIG

There are about 5 bikes that fit your wish list but you dont seem to like any of them. Tenere 3aj model, Honda XL600 P-D, TT600 with Acerbis tank, DR600, KLR 600.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SUZUKI-DR-600-1986_W0QQitemZ310187194535QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Motorcycles?hash=item483898f8a7

Regular bike shops arent going to stock thse kind of bikes you will really have to hunt for them.

we're getting somewhere 🙂 cheers pigface, I'll go research those, I've been using the internet to find bikes for sale as I'm shoping outside stuff from the last 5-6 years which seems to be all dealers have.

Aprilia Pegaso. Loved mine when I had it, loved the thumping when you wound it on from low revs (had 12 points on my license for a while so needed low speed thrills). Went all over on it and could occasionally feel my hands and feet on arrival as well!

I've had a couple of thumper trail bikes in the past – a Yamaha XT600E and a Suzuki DR350SE. I quite liked the DR but I wasn't a fan of the XT, however I preferred 2-stroke off-roaders so didn't keep either for long.

Earlier this year I got an old Honda XBR500 as a play-bike and it's a lovely little thing:

It's economical, reliable and has an entertaingly punchy engine. It's not that fast (it'll break 100mph but not by much) but has decent mid-range acceleration and fun handling. I wouldn't want to do 500 mile days on it, but messing about on A and B roads or in town it's great.

Moto Guzzi Quota – two big single cylinders one either side of the engine & limited off road capability, what more could you want?

Forget to had BMW F650…

Had a couple of these in my youth, a red one and a beautiful metallic blue one:

CB250RS.

You don't need a huge single cylinder bike to have fun, this is one of the best Honda's ever made – revs higher than a big 'un, minimal vibes, great handling, easy to fix and cheap.
Almost as fast as an FT/SRX/XB too, and much more fun IMO.

None left now though – cam ran directly in the head, and by the time I could afford a really nice one, they were mostly all dead. 🙁

OMG is this still going.
TINAS: Are you female?

Tandem Jeremey idea of a Transalp is sensible idea, as is say an Africa Twin. TJ is hitting the nail on the head.

If you want a single, then go XT600 for a good old round compromise (main prob would be motorway stuff: transalp, africa twin etc better at this). If you want smaller more offraodable get a DR350, if you can find one in rght cond for money.

I'd be dubious of a single any bigger than a 660cc. DR600's were ok, but you'd get a much newer XT (in whatever guise)for the money. Dan Walsh from bike rode XT round the world. I know of a group who took DR350's round the world.

I see Yamaha now do a re born Tenere.

No photo of a Dominator?

Here's mine. Bought while my wife was away and I was drunk. £100 on ebay in a vaguely bolted together painted with a stick kind of state. A few days and a couple of hundred £s later…

It was a bit of fun but I got bored of it fairly quickly.