How to Choose Your Adventure Bike w/Lyndon Poskitt

Lyndon's Youtube Channel -

In our recent Patreon only Livestream with Lyndon Poskitt we covered the subject of building the perfect adventure bike. Choosing the right bike is a massive question.

Lyndon breaks down his approach to helping other people choose their perfect bike for adventure riding.

[MrMegaPerez]

The bike you already have is a perfect adventure bike :) save the money for trips and adventures

[FanOWater]

Great discussion -especially about how adding weight affects smaller bikes handling more than big bikes. Most people just assume you will go slower due to the (normally) lower horsepower of the smaller bike. Cheers

[ATRocker]

Good discussion. You have to sit down and really quantify the key aspects to starting adv style riding. Budget range for bike, gear and travel, rider age and skill, home location verses where you want to ride, what kind of bikes do your buddies have, plans to advance skill and bike capabilities and comfort level of dealing with or worrying about mechanical issues along the way.

[BritishBikerPhilippines]

Lyndon's spot-on, even a C90 would be brilliant fun. Maybe even more fun than something bigger actually, providing additional challenges.

[ExplorerJude]

I think the very first question to ask yourself is: What does Adventure means for you? It does not mean the same for all riders. Making a trip across British Colombia to Ancorage Alaska is very different then going down the Baja peninsula offroad, but they are both adventures. I would recommend a big adventure bike for Alaska and a midsize for Baja. To save weight on midsize, go with soft luggage and even rackless if you can and plan to have one good meal per day (super) at a restaurant and feast on protein bars and Gatorade all day. Wear breathable second skin that you can just let dry over night and wear again the next day. I could go on and on, all I am saying is: Think about what you really want to do before choosing your bike and your gears.

[RollModel]

Placement of stuff on the bike makes a difference. I feel more comfortable putting a more weight on my Himalayan over my Transalp because of how well the center of gravity is situated, and how I was able to place the weight on the Himalayan front and back

[themosaito]

Two of my favorite bike commentators on one vid! Excellent! Is there any more of this interview?

[zzxxmh]

Having now 250l, your advice about the weight is true, must consider..must mods the rear suspension and calculate..Can't be loaded as big ones, ..

[Arachnoid_of_the_underverse]

It also depends on the amount of fast roads you want to cover to get to and from your ideal location or weather you will ship the bike and fly in i.e. Morocco from the UK. most riders who have been before seem to want to ship their bike so they can have the maximum amount of time on location rather than a week going and coming back .This allows a smaller, lighter and more fuel efficient bike in the country of choice. Something around the 650cc size [ cough Suzuki DR] might be a good compromise for long rides and off road riding.

[russhendrix]

Nice video. For me a middle weight or less is best. Have you tried to pick up a gs 1200 with gear that you know your going to drop?

[manuelfvdias]

Wise words "the smaller bike you go for the less luggage you've got to take" (Lyndon dixit).
If i may i had my rule: never carrying more than 25kg total. For a month or 3 months adv.
The weight always mater the most.

[swedbear]

Great points and discussion! Keep it up! 👍
May I ask for your advice though, as I'm a complete novice looking for a bike to get started and training for my license on?
I'm 187 cm and 95 kg and currently set to get a used dual sport of some sort with low maintenance, to be able to try out different types of riding along the way. (Highways are really low priority, but twisties on the other hand...)
So far I'm thinking WR250R would be a good idea, since I should be able to keep it without outgrowing too fast. I like buying and keeping, as long as I'm able to find the good stuff! 😄
What are your thoughts? Have you ridden the wrr and how did you like it? Do you think it would be too tall to start off on, despite my height? Do you have better suggestions?
(I have also considered a Versys-X 300, but leaning towards a more off-road oriented bike because of their lighter weight and easier to start out in the terrain on as a noob).
Thanks in advance! Greetings from 🇸🇪

[yorkchris]

I was riding with two other guys and it eventually came time do the laundry. We threw it all in one machine and they asked me to pay more because I had a bigger bike.

[DB-mejt]

If you go to a remote or poor part of the world it would also feel a bit awkward stopping in a village with a bike that costs twice as much as the entire village.

[tolgacool]

Sooo, is the discussion about fuel injection coming as well?

[anthonybaiocchi]

You can take my XR650R when you pry it out of my cold dead hands!

[pasomonte]

How about 1.8 pounds of cargo ratio for every 10 pounds of dry machine weight. Subtract (or add) from that, 25% of rider weight that is beyond (or under) 170LBS. This gives a 701 with a 200lb rider- 50.1Lbs of cargo(mostly rear-loaded). A 1200GS would get 71.7 Lbs under the same scenario. A 500EXC gets 37lbs capacity. A KLR gets 70lbs. This assumes the bike has been sprung for the resulting weight. Perhaps the ratio should be more like 1.6 for bikes that were never intended to carry cargo or ride two-up.

[mohba]

this chap to known to sell expensive stuff that he calls bespoke motorcycles and claims his engineering is better than KTM's ... very questionable claims always, ..