I know you chose the Honda over the Yamaha for good reason. Just curious, why didn't the Yammie make your list?
Gary
darksider #44
Certainly.
My first requirement for an off-road bike was that it had to be street legal. Here in BC, you can no longer retrofit a bike that isn't street legal from the factory. Right away, that narrowed the choices down. When I did my online research, three bikes kept coming up again and again: Suzuki DRZ400, DR650 and Honda XR650L. I did look at KTM, Yammie and Husky but very briefly. I sat on the KLR to for about 5 seconds. Of all the bikes mentioned, only the first three were even remotely affordable too. I found my options to be somewhat limited at this point as well, unless I wanted to spend bigger $$$, it seemed I had to choose a 250 or a 650.
I took the DR 650 out and didn't care for it, but my expectations were kind of high at this point; this was sometime last summer. After sitting on the Honda in a showroom, I also concluded it was the one most suited for my height of 6'4". After riding it now for some time now, I don't know how someone shorter than me can actually ride it without a lowering kit.
For the next 8 months or so, I looked online for a used one and they were very rare. Additionally, they were ridiculously expensive. I'd say most were 80% or more of their new price and these were for bikes as old as 1999 which over 10,000 miles!
When a friend of mine called and told me je bought the Honda CRF 250 Rally, I went down to the dealer with him and ended up going home the 650.
I got the bike at 0.9% financing and didn't haggle the price but did insist they include a SHOEI Neotech (for the FJR), which they did. No regrets.