5 Reasons Why Dual Sport Motorcycles are the Best #everide

Hey, what's up, ladies and gentle tubers? Welcome to the Everide Chan Chan. My name is Tyler, and here are the top five reasons you should get a dual sport motorcycle. Number one, they are some of the most versatile vehicles on the planet. Now, this one is obvious, and why most people get dual sports in the first place. Now, I'm not talking about touring bikes with knobby tires and cup holders, or scramblers, or plated dirt bikes. I'm talking about the real thing. Dual sports can function on and off-road, but they're more than the rock-crawling Jeeps of the motorcycle world. They're more like flame-spitting, high-revving, quick-shifting rally cars. They're not as fast as street bikes on the road, and they're not as fast as dirt bikes off the pavement, but they're infinitely faster than a street bike off-road, and fare far better than a dirt bike on-road. And that brings us to reason number two, road trips. Dual sports have ergonomics more suited to soak up bumps than highway miles. And while gearing is higher than a dirt bike, it's far lower than most street bikes, so dual sports are not amazing tourers. But, unlike plated dirt bikes, they have all the oil capacity, range, and gearing to reliably maintain highway speeds for long distances. A few simple, cheap mods will make a dual sport quite comfortable for longer trips while still maintaining fierce off-road chops. It would take an enormous amount of money, skill, and work to make a street bike as good off-road or a dirt bike as capable of reliable long-distance travel as a dual sport. And unlike tourers or street bikes, once you get to where you're going, you can immediately enjoy where you're at in its entirety without the hassles of a truck or sacrificing much off-road performance. And that brings us to number three, freedom. On a dirt bike, you're often chained to a trailer or truck, and you're either continually looping back, loading and unloading from the truck, or hoping the 5.0 turns a blind eye as you roll by on public roads to get from trail to trail. Even then, range can limit exploration. On a dual sport, you're untethered and not limited by roads, freeways, or even some of the gnarliest terrain. Many street bikers wax poetic for the freedom of the open road, yet only experience about 30% of that neatly-lined, well-traveled, speed-limited freedom because in the U.S. anyways, about 70% of all roads and trails are still unpaved. Sure, there's a lot of freedom to see great things here alongside the minivans and RVs, but what about all the negative space? You can be free here or free here. One final thing about freedom, single track. Sweet, glorious, flowing single track, only narrow enough for two wheels and brutal enough to keep all the dual sports and dirt bikes at bay. It also means freedom on trails closed to OHVs, but since you have a plate and are therefore on highway, you are legally allowed, and there are rarely speed limits on these trails. But tough trails require a tough bike, which brings us to reason number four. Dual sport motorcycles are built for function and leave out the other BS. Unlike its road-faring counterparts, the dual sport motorcycle is nearly all function. They're ugly, utilitarian, and every piece on the bike has a job to do. There's no fakery, no waste, and no engineering to make them look or function like obsolete technology. This lack of sexy fragility means that dual sports are extremely rugged, and were built for the abuse that you or the toughest trails you can take can throw at them. Unfortunately, many dual sports are so reliable that the manufacturers never update them, so while the technology doesn't harken back to the 1940s or lend more to aesthetics than function like some street bikes, tech is still a decade or more old in many dual sports. The good part is the parts. 20 years of a parts catalog tends to make those parts readily available and very cheap. And while dual sport tech is old, it works well enough, and most riders like me will never even come close to reaching the true capability of their dual sport motorcycles, even with the aging designs. Not only that, but without the excess crap, they're pretty simple to work on. Most serious repairs are a matter of a few bolts, and anything cosmetic can be accomplished with duct tape and zip ties. Maintenance is also a breeze. Change the oil, clean the air filter, keep your chain clean, and they just go. Because they last a long time, are simple to work on, and have a huge catalog of parts, because they don't change much over time, dual sport motorcycles are cheap. Almost anybody can afford a used one, and that brings us to the final point, the community. The dual sport community is the best, most inclusive motorcycling community in the world. The vast majority are excellent human beings. Why? Because dual sport riders see their motorcycles as a means and not the end. The cheap bikes we love are not tied to socioeconomic status. There is no barrier to entry. You don't have to make six figures in retirement to afford an old dual sport. You don't buy one to make your neighbor jealous, because dual sports are not a status symbol. This lack of social clicks and fashion statements is what makes most dual sport motorcyclists focus on intrinsic happiness instead of outward appearance. This results in a community focused on the ride, and not the style. They're not race bikes, so how fast one goes doesn't determine coolness, and they're not based on chrome and the dollars spent on said chrome, and so the girth of a man's wallet is irrelevant. Gone are the fashion statements, the leathers, the hoodies, bandanas, flannel, skinny jeans, wayfarers, and the pointy orange tinted face shields from the 70s. And while they have a legitimate function, you don't need to wear full motocross garb or expensive matching adventure jacket pant combos. Now I'm not talking badly about any of these styles. Dress however you want. That's just the thing you won't be elevated or looked down on by wearing one thing or another. Come as you are in whatever you're comfortable riding in. Just make sure you've got a helmet and some decent boots, because it can get kind of rough out there. There is no concrete demographic for dual sport riders. I've ridden in groups with 14 year old girls and retired farmers. I've ridden with liberals and conservatives, men of faith and men of science, brand new riders and former racers, moms and kids and students, guys who back groceries, guys who write code, guys who own companies worth millions and guys who could barely scrape enough together for a tank of gas. And it all comes down to the experience. So when all that superfluous competitive ego driven nonsense is removed, riding and fun and camaraderie and challenging oneself and working to get the entire group over that next nasty obstacle to see every last inch of the world around us, whether in our own backyards or in foreign places, that is what this community and the motorcycles we ride are really all about. So if you are on the fence about what type of bike to buy, or perhaps riding your motorcycle is becoming a little boring or out of style, then take a good hard look at why you really ride. If the competition and status symbol scene is for you, then dual sporting isn't. If you'd rather leave all that behind along with the road and its limitations, then by all means, join us. So if you want to know more about dual sport motorcycling, or if you've already discovered the goodness and are trying to convince your friends to get dual sports too, subscribing to this channel is a decent place to start. We cover everything dual sport, riding tips, bike reviews, rider reports, location highlights, light wrenching, gear, and a lot more. It's totally free to subscribe and we'll even send you some free stickers. To follow our adventures through pictures, check out the Everide Instagram feed. And if you'd like to join a tight knit community of dual sport fanatics, join me on Facebook. Thank you so much for watching, ladies and gentle tubers. Much love as always, Everide out.