Dual-Sport or Adventure Bike?

Ok , I am talking only about real conditions on trails , and real possibilities .
Along the transportugal trail, with some harder places, was a 250 honda running really good, except some times on roads or climbing . Right . the rider was good, really .
A truck was carrying the heavy stuff.
In morocco the same.
the DRZ would be the possible limit( as a 535 ktm or maybe a 690 if you can handle it) for a trip WITHOUT assistance for me .

the desert sled, i tested iti on road , really very nice twin, easy, reliable , smooth.
I will never take it for any of these rides .
- 200 kg to lift in case ( plus luggage)
- a scramb' not a trail
is it possible on easy track ? of course like I said somewhere . But not for me .
saying 80/20 ???well, it depends of the 20 ...
10 days ago , i had followed a VTT single in the woods; once there was a kind of a bridge over grass and mud, made with wood and fil de fer . I walked first. was OK . Even if I had fallen , could have been possible to handle the case . Not with a big adv bike . easy way with the DRZ, on the side , wet grass ..

Sometimes you have to cross a river, a little but maybe strong. Necessary because the bridge has broken or the road is closed somewhere else . In Morocco or Albania or Kazakstan I dont know;Or the BAM ah ha .
so you have to ride your 250 kg adv in the middle of the stuff . Do not fall but you have to put gazzz....
I knew some who had done iti. Later most of them ride lighter bikes.
fro exemple some BAM riders or multi RTW .

Here take 100 GS , maybe 10 had been on tracks and 1 in a real stuff.

My WR250R is my dual sport bike. My African Twin is my adventure bike. My dual sport is for rides that might include some single track. I might have to lift my dual sport over a tree that is blocking a road. My adventure bike is for rides that require a long stretch of slab, some off pavement and maybe some mud or sand.

Great example on the AT.

She is the best example of a 50/50 ADV Bike. Any of the three trims will do. I'm partial to the DCT, cuase it's just a little more weight, which is low, and you can't stall the bike and I do not have good clutch skills.


I hope in 2018 we get another 50/50 ADV Bike that is even lighter than the Honda.
Seems like a easy task.

Well
THe AT ? you mean the new 1000 ? Why not if you can handle it and change the sprocket.
@DFarm , i would definitively not ride a 250 for a major trip ( said why before) and ,for a 50/50 or more pavement , in case i may be really aware of passing issues ( said before too ) like Russia or Caucasian , will take an old expandable twin on even single.
easier to fix, no target for robbers/rough , cheap ( 5 times at least ) .

Both the phrase Dusl-Sport and Adventure-Tourer are relatively new ways at segmenting the motorcycle market.

Everyone has their own definition of what makes a bike what. One way to look at it. Imagine a circle; at 12:00 is Adventure-Touring and at 6:00 is Dual-Sport, at 3:00 it's more dirt focused and at 9:00 it's more street focused

Then fill in the rest. I would put the BMW R____GS or the Honda Africa Twin at 12:00
and a Yamaha WR250R or KTM at 6:00
At 3:00 it's the BMW HP2 or the KTM super enduro and at 9:00 the Suzuki VStrom or Kawasaki Verses.
Every other so called DS or ADV will fit into this circle. It is not cut and dried and a lot lays with the person who makes the segment chart. Because as these two segments mature manufactures seek out a place to offer a competitive bike. And they further slice up the segments and/or refine models.
The BWM GS of today is a wildly different model vs the same model from ten,twenty or thirty years ago. Yet it has still anchored that top spot of the Adventure segment. Or there's the Honda XR650L which has anchored the Dual Sport segment with hardly a change since what 1993...

well so clockwise means more offroad , and reverse the reverse. But it doesnt work from 06.00 to 09.00 ?
maybe il might be useful to put the third dimension : up for RTW
down for local short rides ( whatever they may be )

The difference between a dual-sport and an Adventure bike is not defined by the bike, it's defined by the tires.

Adventure bikes run street oriented tires with a 5k plus mile range. If you change oil more often then tires the bike is a PIA.

If your routes allow you to change your smoked out knobbies every 1500 miles the bike is a dual-sport. If you change tires more often than oil the bike is a PIA.

Huh. I could buy into this philosophy....

MFS

I easily get 5 to 6k miles out of a set of D606 knobbies on my WR250R...oil every 3k. So, oil more often than tires...hardly a PITA though and still a dual sport. But I've done several 5k+ mile trips on it too. So also an adventure bike? Confusing with all these hard and fast definitions and rules...

But a 690 with the same tires is a different story. So a Wr250R is less dual sport than a 690 enduro? Must be more variables than just tires. Just my $0.02

I will second the Dunlop 606 tires. One if my favorites for this area and used them on my dirt bikes.

Congrats on the D606 tire life. You could get even more range out of a D908 - but that is not the right tire for a whirl.

On the sport side of dot-knobbies give Pirelli Scorpion mid-hard, Kenda trackmaster, or Goldentire a try. Those dot-knobbies will add more sport to the trail side of the WR and may even match up your oil change interval to get you in the dual-sport tire range.

Small displacement bikes are easy on tires. Take advantage and run a more aggressive knobby. Get the right trail conditions and you just might be able to show a WR is a better dual-sport than a 690 forced to run D606 to get a 1500 mile range.