Wino Triumph is out of rego so I went to the Ducati stealsership (thinking of a Scrambler) to see what trade in on it would be (needs a major service and tyres) and they offered me $6k for it which truth be told is not a bad price at all, but eh i'm kind of attached to it.
Anyway reason I want a Scrambler is to start exploring the dirt, but figure for the $6k change over into one... I could just spend $6k on an actual bike made for the dirt that would be far better at it than a Scrambler and also not have to worry about crashing a $12k bike. Also, the Triumph gets to sit in the shed and I get to look at it.
Criteria:
~$6k
Registrable
< 299cc for cheap rego
Pre 1980 (My uncle rides vintage enduro bikes so would like to partake in VVMCC events on it, will be on full reg though)
Tame enough for a dirt dunce (and general riding dunce in general)
Preference for Spanish over Japanese but not a hard rule
Ideas?
All of those ideas together, make it a bad idea.
Drop the pre-1980 criteria if you're actually going to use it off road.
Registerable dirt bikes went through a big period of transformation from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. The capabilities of a 1980 model is well below anything modern, so they are simply less good even for a dirt novice. Add in things like crap brakes and hard to get parts and you don't want to be riding something old for the novelty value. A 1970s bike is not like using an E21 as a daily - it's more like using a 1920s car.
On top of that, dirt novices never accurately predict the riding they will actually do - I've seen gung-ho blokes sell their WRFs after two rides and buy adventure bikes, and I've seen timid folk become wanna-be Graham Jarvises in no time.
Broadly speaking here's some better paths:
Buy a cheap do it all bike - Yamaha TTR250 is the go-to, but a DR250Z or KLX250 also do the job really well. $2k will get you a good one, and you'll get your money back when you decide what you really want. The older DR250R and XR250 are also good if you can find one in decent condition. They are definitely not the sexy choice, but the rider will limit where they go and how fast they get there, not the bike.Buy a pre-80 bike to do old bike things with. Good fun on the roads and fire trails at the Cotter/Brindies and that sort of thing. Also the non-competitive "Vinduros" (aka vintage trail rides) are a great way to get into slightly more difficult stuff. Any of the Yamaha DTs are excellent and still easy to keep running. $3k will get you a stunner, but there are other good choices.Split the two options and buy something from the mid 1980s or early-mid 90s. Still old enough to be a novelty, but still competent off road. I do this a fair bit because I am fulfilling my teenage dreams thirty years late - but I wouldn't recommend it to a sane person. Funnily enough, my first recommendations here are the older TT250, first model TTR250 and 86~94 XR250
Nobody rides Spanish bikes regularly. Too hard to live with, in terms of parts availability and required maintenance - they stopped making them for a bunch of reasons...
