Motorcycle Beginner Researching Dual Sport/Adventure Bikes...

Hello Everyone,

My name is Jake. To be honest, I am a college student at San Jose State University studying Product Design and a complete beginner to Motorcycles (only rode once on my Uncles KTM 450 MX, but I do ride quads). I am currently designing a mid to heavy weight Dual Sport/Adventure motorcycle (not a mx conversion dual sport, but more like a KTM 690 or BMW G 650GS) for a Project and I would really appreciate it if you could take the time to help me out with a few questions I have!

Please start off by introducing yourself and the bike you ride, skill level or rider experience, how often you ride, what type of riding you do, and hobbies... etc.

Questions:

Do you ride your Dual Sport/Adventure motorcycle more On or Off the road?

What features about the bike do you most admire or lead you to purchasing the motorcycle?

What do you generally look for in a motorcycle when it comes time to purchasing one?

What type of emotions or experiences are evoked when riding your Dual Sport/Adventure motorcycle?

Again, I would really appreciate your help!

Thank you!

Inspector wrote:

Designer Jake wrote:

Hello Everyone,

My name is Jake. To be honest, I am a college student at San Jose State University studying Product Design and a complete beginner to Motorcycles (only rode once on my Uncles KTM 450 MX, but I do ride quads). I am currently designing a mid to heavy weight Dual Sport/Adventure motorcycle (not a mx conversion dual sport, but more like a KTM 690 or BMW G 650GS) for a Project and I would really appreciate it if you could take the time to help me out with a few questions I have!

Please start off by introducing yourself and the bike you ride, skill level or rider experience, how often you ride, what type of riding you do, and hobbies... etc.

2008 WR250R(not what you are looking for, but all i got). Riding dirt for 4years, probably an intermediate rider. On average I ride almost 3times a month. Lately I've been riding in ORV area, the tight single track stuff. But I will love me some fire service roads come spring. Riding and shooting are really the only hobbies I have.

Designer Jake wrote:

Do you ride your Dual Sport/Adventure motorcycle more On or Off the road?

Off pavement. The whole point of riding is to get off pavement. Mid-speed two track is the funnest for me.

Designer Jake wrote:

What features about the bike do you most admire or lead you to purchasing the motorcycle?

LONG interval in maintenance was what sold me. Plus a real "do-all-bike", just underpowered now.

Designer Jake wrote:

What do you generally look for in a motorcycle when it comes time to purchasing one?

Reliability, maybe the little things like ease of maintenance, how fast wear items are going to need to be replaced. You could say build quality, but I think most manufactures have proven themselves.

Designer Jake wrote:

What type of emotions or experiences are evoked when riding your Dual Sport/Adventure motorcycle?

Forgetting about everything else. Living in the moment. Grinning from ear to ear.

Designer Jake wrote:

Again, I would really appreciate your help!

Thank you!

Sorry I don't ride the bigger bikes you are looking for. Others do and maybe this will get you started and others going.

No worries! This was totally helpful! At the moment my team and I are just trying to get an idea of who our target consumers are, what they value on their motorcycles, and how they like to ride.
Thank you!

Yes i have Adventure motorcycle more On or Off the road many times.

Please start off by introducing yourself and the bike you ride, skill level or rider experience, how often you ride, what type of riding you do, and hobbies... etc.

-I am a 57 years old food industry professional. I ride a Yamaha WR250R for dual sport and trails, and a Suzuki DL650 Vstrom for highway, back roads, and gravel roads touring. I have been riding (mainly dirt) since I was 14 and started getting into street/dualsport/adventure riding about 10 years ago. I ride weekly about 4 months of the year around home either dirt or steet, do 2 or 3 trailer to the trail trips per year, and do 1 to 3 longer tours per year. I also enjoy alpine skiing, hiking, mtb'ing, and carpentry.

Questions:

Do you ride your Dual Sport/Adventure motorcycle more On or Off the road?
-WR250 about 50/50 and DL650 about 90% street.

What features about the bike do you most admire or lead you to purchasing the motorcycle?
-WR250 Reliability/low maintenance, reasonable weight, trail manners, fuel range, some luggage capacity
-DL650 Reliability/low maintenance, reasonable weight, fuel range, luggage capacity, ground clearance

What do you generally look for in a motorcycle when it comes time to purchasing one?
-I am dyslexic about this. On the one hand I want a bike that is "kewl", that will pin the woodometer. On the other hand I want low maintenance and high reliability.

What type of emotions or experiences are evoked when riding your Dual Sport/Adventure motorcycle?
-Basically when I'm riding I don't worry about anything, so let's call it theraputic. I also enjoy exploring the outdoors and seeing interesting geography and biology. Having a beer with riding buddies at the end of the day is good too.

- Good luck with your project! When I was at Oregon State in mechanical engineering, I built my own motorcylce in the shop at school. Welded the frame out of 4130 tubing using a gas welder, machined the triple clamps from billet aluminum. I used a motor and forks from a Yamaha DT250 I bought at a salvage yard. The bike sucked but I learned a lot about fabrication and design.

Hi Jake, my name is Pete and I'm 50.  I've been riding since about 10 and ride street and dirt.  I roadraced for 10 years, raced Supermoto for about 7, and raced most types of bikes at least once. I usually ride several times a week, but currently have a broken arm which has kept me off bikes for a couple months now.   

Do you ride your Dual Sport/Adventure motorcycle more On or Off the road? 

I have a Christini AWD 450 dual sport, which I ride off road about 90% of the time.
I also have a Honda XR650R which is plated and I ride on road about 60%.

What features about the bike do you most admire or lead you to purchasing the motorcycle?

The Christini is my latest toy and I bought it to investigate the advantages of AWD, as well as replace my CRF450 trail bike.
The XR is my semi Supermoto and adventure bike.  I usually run 19" wheels with street biased tires, but have the stock wheels with knobbies for serious off road as needed.  I like to explore fire roads locally and use it as a short hop street bike.

What do you generally look for in a motorcycle when it comes time to purchasing one?

Reliability, power, lightweight.

What type of emotions or experiences are evoked when riding your Dual Sport/Adventure motorcycle?
 
Freedom, joy, and purity of thought at high speed.