I find it very strange that in order to go off road on a bike these days, it needs to have cost 10k upwards and have more electronic traction gizmos that you can wave a stick at.

Back in the 80's when I was growing up with no money and rubbish TV. We used to buy cheap bikes and ride them off road. Fields, lanes, woods and pit tips.

Nothing would stop us so long as we had had a whip round for some petrol.

It was common knowledge that a Honda C70 (pig) was the best off road light weight cheap as chips bike going and it would do it 2 up. I bought an engine for £3 for my £10 Honda Pig and bought it home from school in an Adidas bag.

My parents loved me. You could fix the bike with limited tools and everybody knew how to do it.

I then started to play with the big boys and moved up to a CD175. stripped down and rear mudguard sawn off aft of shock mounts. Ran for ages but was a bit heavy in soft mud.

Upgrade to a CB250 G5. Totally stripped including silencers. Instant moto crosser built like a tank. Swapped an electric guitar for it. Could not play guitar but could ride the bike. It was way too heavy but when you are skint it has to do. We went all over on it, often 3 up. Old quarries were a favourite. Got given a part worn knobbly tyre for the rear. Then we were in business.

Finally I passed my test and bought a Yamaha DT175 MX. Loved it, went all over. Even toured on it. Re-bored tuned up, bigger carb and a off road pipe. I had it for a few years before I sold it and bought a car.

Now I ride a Triumph Sprint 1050 ST. Just love it. Happy days in the 80's.

Quite a nice array of bikes there!
It's true, the game has gotten much richer ... you can thank BMW and KTM for that. The Japs never built ADV bikes until early 80's (remember?) when they ALL did Dakar replicas in response to BMW's R80GS released in 1981. (Yamaha Tenere' 750, Honda Dominator and AT, Suzuki DR Big, Kawi KLR650, Ducati/Cagiva Elephant)

After the first R80 GS, all the Japs (and Ducati) jumped into the 1st wave of ADV bikes. Then the bottom fell out big time, Yamaha almost went bust and all suffered ... and by the way ... only three of those original Dakar reps ever made it to the USA: BMW R80GS, Ducati/Cagiva Elephant, KLR650. Sadly, we never saw the AT or Dominator, Tenere', DR Big. But we did get a lot of Dual Sport bikes all along ... going back to the early 70's.

The 2nd wave of big ADV bikes came after BMW had been putting millions of ad money into convincing riders the 800, 1000, 1100, 1150, 1200GS was an easy to ride, light and agile dirt bike. And only $20,000.

KTM started with the big ADV bikes (twins) in around 2004. 1st bikes real junk, not reliable. Better now and lighter. Hey, just UNDER $20,000 USD.

First big "real" ADV bikes from the Japs was Yam's Tenere' 1200 ... and of course now the new Africa Twin. (the first AT was a Pig too and SLOW!).

The good news is there are still a few lightweight go anywhere bikes being made out there. NONE come from Germany or Austria. Honda CRF250L,
WR250R and lots of bikes from China ... which are now struggling but getting better every year at typically half the cost of Japanese bikes. India is coming on too. ... so keep an eye out.

During the 80's I was into Sport bikes and Racing AMA Enduro. In the late 80's we saw sport bikes getting really good: lighter, faster, better looking, and mostly BETTER HANDLING!
In '85 I bought the first Ninja 600. Great bike. I was racing Husqvarna's then switched to Yamaha 2 strokes in 1989. I've never looked back. Great bikes, I've owned most of them.

I grew up 20 years before you ... in the early 60's. My first bike was a Vespa 150 (age 14) but switched to a Honda 50, then to Bultaco's. The Honda 50 was positively indestructible. Then went to Husqvarna after seeing "On Any Sunday" starring my neighbor (yes, really) Steve McQueen.

For modern, simple and CHEAP lightweight bikes, keep your eye on China. They are making some nice 250's and promise to get better. Many are copies of XR250 and such ... so not a bad start.

Real interesting read.Thanks for the effort. Good pub chat. Cheers

Better suspension, handling and FI are all welcome in modern bikes as is ABS. Traction control is a selling point joke on cars and trucks, learn to control the throttle and identify road conditions for the love of god it's simple.

The 80s were a good time, as were the 90s before technology got so complicated it became stupid.
I have never been a want type of guy, my first bike was a honda trail 50 which as Molly stated was indestructible, and believe me country boys will try to destroy anything, it was a beast.
Next was a 72yami endure 360, that thing had crazy power but the suspension of a jack hammer, how people raced bikes with that nonsense suspension is insanity at it's finest. Next came the YZ 400, stupid power and the suspension made you feel like you were playing on a mattress.
My first street bike would be an 82 Yami Virago, I toured on that beast and rode it all winter long here in Montana, the coldest would be -15, that was stupid. wool inserts tucked into leather fencing gloves, a snowmobile suit and off I went! Proof as my boss says that The good lord watches over drunkards and fools.
I rode that bike for 13 years and sold it for 50 dollars less than I paid for it.

I could go n but my list is short, point is people think they need high dollar everything to have fun. IN reality all you need is some balls and a sense of adventure, ride what you got, life is too short not to.

It was more a case of Brit bikes in my youthful days.
200cc Triumph tiger cub mixed in with a really big bike, a 250cc Matchless, or dabbling with a 250cc C15 BSA or the 2 stroke Beezer Bantam which always seemed to be (I got my hands on a few of them) blowing the gasket between the two halves of the crank case.
In those days, it wasn't necessary to get a licence - I rode for years on a provisional (learner) licence.

Later, my life turned toward Honda with the 400/4 inline 4 cyl.

In those days, every machine was an "adventure" bike.

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Dave

This is what passed for big balls and a sense of adventure a few years after I started riding back in the 60's:



It still does but not in quite the same way as it was originally meant - you need big balls for the fuel bills (25mpg) and a sense of adventure to understand that waiting for the breakdown truck can be interesting in its own way.

In the 80's you could hardly give them away - that one cost me £150 (although it was in bits). Guilt is making me think I need to polish it up a bit and use it. Maybe I'll stick some panniers on it and ride it to the UK HUBB meet - I'll do a talk on "no, despite what you've heard you can't use ANY motorcycle to go RTW"

My memory of them is that they only went in straight lines and couldn't get around a bend because of the chassis and brakes.
The F104 was nicknamed the widowmaker and so was that Kawasaki IIRC.

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Dave

It's the same with the 4x4s, lots of debate about whether you should take a new truck on an expedition or an old one. I'm firmly in the old truck camp simply because of ease of repair, less to go wrong, and less chance of a sudden game (or life!) ending breakdown.

Same doesn't apply when in the UK though. Modern cars, as with modern bikes, are generally way more reliable and capable of doing much bigger mileages than ones of old, handle better and are vastly more comfortable.

Back in the 80s it was a rare thing to see a sport bike with more than 20k on the clock, but now really big mileages are common.

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1990 Landcruiser H60. Full rebuild completed 2014