Originally Posted By: webfors
Originally Posted By: Spazdog
For the purposes listed? Save $1000 (and probably on insurance) and get a DR200SE or leftover CRF230L
Yeah, they are slow but durable and easy to maintain.
I've been kinda' wanting to do some easy trail riding on a Ruckus.
All the used Ruckuses are stretched and have golf cart wide rear tires
I can get a Piaggio Typhoon 125 for roughly the same as a new Ruckus.
I've looked at the DR200SE, I'm just not sure it if will hall my heavy butt around well enough.
I'm 6'3 200lbs. I had an XL185 for years. Off-road in lower gears it was fine. Full tuck on the freeway would indicate a bit over 75. (probably actually 65-ish). The problem wasn't the power though. It was what the rain grooves would do with universal trials tires from the '80s. Anything above 55mph on rain grooves was downright scary. My current ride has a 10" tire and it is much more stable in rain grooves at speed. That's how bad it was.
I raced my XR200 cross-country. I did okay vs the 125 two-strokes. They were more powerful to be certain but I could ride the 200 at 10/10ths more, the powerband was more predictable (well, maybe I shouldn't use the word "power" when describing an XR200), and I was never left running on fumes at the end of a race.