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Does anyone here venture far off the beaten track on their bike?

I'm just interested in how serious and what modifications they might have made to assist with that. Gearing, tyres, what else?

Thanks

I did when I got my Kangaro back on the road last year, went down several green lanes that are local to me, found that it was good fun when it was dry but hard work in the wet, especially when I fell off which was quite often. Good for a laugh but a smaller lighter bike might make me look like a better rider.
Regards Pete.

I used to take my Kanguro off-road, though only on farm tracks, with no real problems - but only in the dry and slowly!
I then bought a Suzuki DR125 which took me on far rougher, wetter tracks at far higher speeds. I now have a DR350 which is even worse (better?) and takes me places I really shouldn't be going now.
I suppose it comes down to your own confidence and willingness to possibly come home with a banged-up bike (at the least).

Ming wrote:I used to take my Kanguro off-road, though only on farm tracks, with no real problems - but only in the dry and slowly!
I then bought a Suzuki DR125 which took me on far rougher, wetter tracks at far higher speeds. I now have a DR350 which is even worse (better?) and takes me places I really shouldn't be going now.
I suppose it comes down to your own confidence and willingness to possibly come home with a banged-up bike (at the least).

The Morini 'Wombat' I built back in the days of the 'Bitza Trio' (1982) had a 250 twin engine in a 350 frame with the Marzocchi fork legs and front wheel from an SWM 250 MX bike (you can work out what the other two trio members were). It was surprisingly competent off-road. I remember attempting a couple of sections of a classic trial organised by the AJS/Matchless owners club that I HAD acted as an observer for, once the trial had ended. I actually managed to get through one of them for a '3'. The right (suitably low) gearing and trials tyres helped.

You are brave venturing in to French wilderness off road. On your own? When I had a place near Peyrat le Chateau I acquired a genuine 1996 Yamaha WR250Z. 2T, not a forgiving 4T. I would ride it in to the forests on tracks and sometimes where there weren't any. Very foolhardy. I suppose I thought that as long as I was in a long crawl distance of the bungalow I'd be OK. Thinking about it, if it went very badly wrong I might not have been found for days. They clamped down on off-road riding in the area though, as it had become too popular because the Giles Lalay Classique Enduro (billed the toughest in the world) had been held there for a few years. Riders were coming from miles around, parking cars/trailers and vans in the town car park and going off on full on endure bikes to attempt "Dead Crow" hill.

Many years ago I did the Caldwell track day on my X3 Kanguro then the following day somevgentle trail riding in the area. Conclusion was the X3 is a good road bike.....

Front end vague off road and a bit weighty in the wrong places. The bike was the same......

MickeyMoto wrote:..Front end vague off road and a bit weighty in the wrong places. The bike was the same......

72degrees wrote:...You are brave venturing in to French wilderness off road. On your own? ...

No, not brave, just a bit daft! It's not really wilderness, just lots of 'Routes Agriculturel', though with the size of some of the machines they use, quite chewed up.
And I slow down as soon as the back end starts doing that 'half a crown / sixpence' thing!
Anyway - use it or lose it!

I would like to try a Morini trail bike for it's intended purpose. Need a running but not concourse Kanguro X X1 X2 or a Camel, me thinks.....

I run my Camel with Pirelli MT43 trials tyres and lower pressures for off-road use (about 18psi front, 15psi rear. Or lower if its really slimy, though I've got security bolts on the rims). As long as its dry and you're riding gently you should be OK with a typical road biased trail bike tyre.

Lower gearing might be kinder to the clutch on rocky climbs, but on a Camel it'd make the road gearing unbearable. As it is you're in top by 35mph. And obviously its a heavy bike if you have to pick it up, which you should assume you'll have to at some point.

Lighter, more modern, trail/enduro bikes are clearly better off-road, but then you end up riding them faster, which isn't really compatible with other trail users or with keeping your collarbones intact.

Just drop your tyre pressures and take it out for a ride on a dry day and see how you get on.

Have fun.

Hugo

OK - Thanks.

I've done some dry and dusty enduro style stuff out in Morocco on more specialised Yamahas and KTMs. My dream trip for the Camel at the moment is a two day trip out into the wilderness somewhere with an overnight wild camp cooking up a steak and drinking the beers I carried in with me. Don't know where I'm going to find that kind of space in the UK mind (and I'm mid-Essex based).

Going to construct a rack for the back of the bike to carry the essentials. But with the limited agility of a road biased bike, and then with some extra load, you can see that the trails won't want to be too tortuous.

Mid Wales or Scotland.