Originally Posted by
SRTie4k
Being convinced to buy an adventure bike is the best thing that's ever happened to me, honestly. All I ever rode before was street bikes (aside from riding my mom's V-Strom around a little here and there). Street bikes are great when you've got miles of smooth, twisty tarmac, but up here in the northeast the pavement is garbage and the twisties are lacking in most places. The northeast is no place for a street bike IMO.
My Super Adventure is hands down the best bike I have ever owned. I've put 47k miles on it in 4.5 years, it's done everything from riding down to NC and ripping twisties down there, riding the entirety of the BRP a handful of times, to riding the MABDR and NEBDR, to bashing it off rocks on snowmobile and ATV trails in VT. It's been on damn near every dirt road that exists in VT, NH and MA. It's both a phenomenal street bike, a hooligan machine and it's more than capable enough to tackle nearly any offroad short of single track. It's got plush suspension to soak up the bumps offroad and on, the upright seating makes riding 500 miles pretty easy, it's got heated everything, ABS, TC and cornering ABS, cruise control. It's got so much power it'll power wheelie in 4th gear over crests.
The biggest downside to the bigger adventure bikes is, of course, their weight. Throwing them around offroad is not easy, primarily when the riding starts to get technical. That is why I own both my Super Adventure and a CRF250L Rally (which is similarly adventure outfitted). That didn't stop me from trying for 4 years, though.
I don't think I will ever not own an adventure bike. They are just too practical and, if you buy something like a KTM, ridiculously fun. If it's going to be your primary or only bike, I'd get a big or mid displacement adventure bike. If you only want to ride dirt within a ~200 mile radius of your home, I'd be getting a dual sport, like a CRF Rally (the upcoming CRF300L Rally looks pretty amazing), a WR250R or a KLX250/300. They can be made into very comfortable and capable dual sports.