Hello from Malaysia!! I got an invite from one of the local bike groups to go on an adventure ride. The riders on this group all have "proper" adventure bikes. But as I have learned in my old age, people invite you to go off road when they need people to help shovel/dig/pick up things on the trails.

The group I rode with yesterday were riding: BMW GSA 1250's, BMW GS 1200's, and a Triumph Tiger. I was on Belle...a 2019 Tracer. All of the adventure guys had proper tires with a definite "off road" slant. Belle was fitted with Pirelli Scorpion 2. These are an 80/20 on road/off road set up.

The trip was to take the back paved roads almost up to the Thailand border where one of the guys rode some old logging roads a few years ago. The conditions were typical Malaysia....always damp and a little muddy but not greasy mud. We rode about 20 miles of logging roads with plenty of elevation and parts where there was no chance of a 4WD truck getting through. There were deep ruts, river crossings, huge mud bogs, and a few slick and muddy up hill and down hill sections.

The conclusion on the Tracer as "off road": It can go off road if you can. The limiting factors are: ground clearance: 17 inch front wheel vs. 21 inch wheel on the adventure bikes. Pirelli Scorpion 2's are not exactly "off road" tires. Not having a skid plate under the crankcase and exhaust. The adventure boys kept talking about "Enduro mode"..I guess that is some magical thing that gives you skill and handling????

The upside it that the Tracer is actually pretty nimble and light compared the the big BMW's. And trust me...picking up a 600 pound bike that fell on a hill is no easy feat. 

So my thought is this: " take the Tracer off road if you wish. Be mindful of the clearance and stay away from big sharp rocks if you can.  Crank down the dampening on the front and rear suspension and the Tracer will handle most off road items. Will true off road tires help? Of course....but at the end of the day, I was picking up lots more BMW's and Triumphs than my own Yamaha.

Here is the Youtube link for the ride...this clip is about 12 minutes.

 

Edited December 14, 20204 yr by Stinky

Sounds like you had a lot of fun! That's awesome. I've had my Tracer off road as well. It's enjoyable. 

Great story , I bet it was fun ,Tracer is very capable .

I spend a lot of km on dirt country roads, some are better than the tar roads  

 

Most of the good roads around here are dirt, some are graded and nice ,others a tad rough .

I may upgrade tyres to Conti TK70 , but unless its wet and sloppy the OEM Dunlop's are fine on dirt so far .

 

Edited December 14, 20204 yr by Scoti
because I wanted to

I looked at the Conti TK70's...but I could not find any for sale in Malaysia. The Pirelli Scorpion 2's were as close as I could get. The vast majority of my riding is on paved roads...that is why I went with an 80/20 type tire. My experience is that almost NOTHING does well in the mud, wet, and slime.

I purchased a skid plate last year and spent one afternoon trying to install it...The plate won. I lost and put the skid plate back in the box. Now I have to swallow my man pride and go to a shop to have it installed:)

Nice video. I'd be more comfortable riding a trail like that on my mountain bicycle.

As much as I'd like to take my FJ off road I don't. Dropping it and scratching, dinging, and breaking it is not an option. I've had my share of dual sport bikes in the past and they are allowed to be scratched, dinged, etc. 

Riding my XR650L off road meant that it WILL be dropped daily. If it wasn't, you weren't riding hard enough.

I like off road even better than on road except for being on private or state game land property hassles. I do miss it. Here in PA there are very few places "legal" to ride off road.  I went back and forth owning and not owning a dual sport for 15 years.

Going to leave it as just great memories now.

Cool to see riding in a tropical place. I can imagine the smells. That looks like about the smoothest off road one could do. Here in the PNW we have a massive amount of forest service roads (little known fact that the US Forest Service built and maintains more miles of road than any country in the world, at least used to), but they are uniformly pot holed and death on curves. Graveled for logging trucks originally, and because it rains here all the time, making them quite tricky on a bike not suited or without skills. I for one only use my bike on roads, but can foresee doing some off road in the future on a different bike. Wife and I fantasize about a Chile/Argentina trip! Maybe we would both get Yamaha Super Ten 700's?

Salish....the video was at the end of the ride where the roads were in pretty decent shape. There were some river crossings, mud bogs, and some pretty solid uphill/downhill sections that made for some tricky riding.

Instead of Chile/Argentine...think about Thailand/Vietnam!!! Awesome places to ride

Wow that is some great riding you did. Just shows how light ,nimble and neutral handling the tracer is.That said I think I would have wanted a full on dirt bike under me on that terrain.       MIKE

Mike....The track wasn't THAT bad where you needed a full enduro or dirt bike. The adventure bikes did just fine. What I really wanted was a little more clearance and a skid plate. I only bottomed out the front forks one time. I would definitely go back and do that again with Belle.

I'm trying to get a skid plate installed this week so that should help.