touring?

[hippiebrian]

Just curious, has anyone done any long term (2 weeks or so) on the D.T. 300?  I just picked up a People 150 and am hooked on the cvt and the gas sipping, and would love to get a touring rig that sipped gas almost as well.  So, is the 300 big enough or whould I save for the 500?  Thanks for the info!

[Cortez]

I haven't done any big miles on mine yet, just a few hundred mile rides, but there's
no doubt it's a better touring bike then my 650cc Kawasaki (ER6F) was.

The 500 (xciting) is just marginally faster and has one of the worst fuel consumption
figures in the 500cc class - it'll easily consume twice as more fuel as the 300i, and
the 300i will average just about the same as your People up to 40-45mph, and
will be even better at 60mph.

The 300i is also faster 0-60mph and a lot easier to ride around town.

I put a huge windscreen and a huge topcase on mine and will go anywhere
anyone on a big bike will.

[axy]

Well, i did many trips with various scooters, single and in pair, including two states away on 50 cc 2-stroke (I was younger then, obviously).
However, I find scooters to be slow and boring (never drove anything >500 cc), and on top of that they handle poorly, have the worst possible suspension and brakes.
I also DO NOT LIKE having anybody as a passenger behind me.
Combined, this means that I would not consider scooters for traveling, neither would motorcycles unless I am single up. If I had to drive with somebody else, or if I had to choose between scooter and a car, I would rather drive a car and enjoy the luxury of stereo, air conditioning, not caring about weather and boot for storage.

And this comes from a person that has been driving his scooter around the year for almost 15 years.

However, that`s just me. I want fun riding bikes and fun is nowhere to be found on a scooter with a thumper that has top speed of barely 140-150 km/h and suspension/brakes of a wheelbarrow, that is typically overloaded two up etc.

[hippiebrian]

Maybe I need to define what I consider touring.  These days, anyhow.  Typically 200 or so miles a day, stopping to look at all the shiny things, beaches, rock formations, or whatever else I want to stop for!  No destination, necessarily, just wandering. 

I've toured on a KLR, old Harleys, an old BMW R-100, a new model Triumph Bonneville (gas mileage sucks on those!), a V-strom 1000, etc. etc.  I am now over the speed, just want to wander at the speed limit and sip gas.  So far, seems like I may be saving money for a Downtown, some time next year. 

Anyone else have touring experience on these?

[axy]

Well, you can do that on pretty much anything including bicycle and rollerskates. DT 300 will be more than sufficient.

[Cortez]

Well, i did many trips with various scooters, single and in pair, including two states away on 50 cc 2-stroke (I was younger then, obviously).
However, I find scooters to be slow and boring (never drove anything >500 cc), and on top of that they handle poorly, have the worst possible suspension and brakes.
I also DO NOT LIKE having anybody as a passenger behind me.
Combined, this means that I would not consider scooters for traveling, neither would motorcycles unless I am single up. If I had to drive with somebody else, or if I had to choose between scooter and a car, I would rather drive a car and enjoy the luxury of stereo, air conditioning, not caring about weather and boot for storage.

And this comes from a person that has been driving his scooter around the year for almost 15 years.

However, that`s just me. I want fun riding bikes and fun is nowhere to be found on a scooter with a thumper that has top speed of barely 140-150 km/h and suspension/brakes of a wheelbarrow, that is typically overloaded two up etc.

Amen to that, but only one thing.. the DT300 and XC500 have better brakes and suspension
then a lot of entry level bikes (like my Kawasaki 650). Sure, there's a bit of frame flexing involved
in spirited riding, but the corners I took at 85mph on my Kawasaki, I can take them doing the
same speed on my DT300.

I DID have touring in mind when I decided to go from the kawasaki to a maxi scoot, and other
then power, I've gained in every other area.

[racewalker]

Just curious, has anyone done any long term (2 weeks or so) on the D.T. 300?  I just picked up a People 150 and am hooked on the cvt and the gas sipping, and would love to get a touring rig that sipped gas almost as well.  So, is the 300 big enough or whould I save for the 500?  Thanks for the info!

This is with my DT300I. The longest I have done testing my setup is 600K in one day. Next month I am doing a 6-7000k trip planing to do 800k per day for 4 days from Saskatoon Sk. to Ottawa ont. Do some running around there for about a week and then back in 4 days. If you check back after the first week in July I will have something on how the trip went.

[hippiebrian]

Sounds fun, Racewalker!  I look forward to hearing how it went!  And thanks for all the replies so far...looking like a DT 300 may just be in my future!

[hippiebrian]

Well, I have a Kawie KLR 650 sitting in the garage that I am currently setting up for dual sport touring...love to get another scooter, but I really should just use the bikes I have...

[Vivo]

I think the Dt will do just fine for your purpose. Hmmm.. I like that... riding to nowhere...wandering... I'll do that sometimes...

[duesouth]

I've done a 3 day 1000 mile trip on the DT through all kinds of weather and a number of shorter day trips. It will do it fine and I didn't have any problems with speed or handeling and I was riding with an 1100cc Bandit. Leg room and power could be a bit more, we traded off a number of times and the Bandit was far more fatiguing. I wouldn't pick the DT if you plan on doing lots of touring, but the occasional weekend trips is fine. Larger scoots (BMW, Burgman, etc..) I imagine are more comfy better tourers than most motorcycles. I've been riding for 25 years. In my opinion the DT handles better on the street than any of my dual sport bikes and lets not even venture into bad handling of most Harleys and other such cruisers that I've ridden. When I bought the DT I thought I'd really miss shifting, turns out I don't. I now dream of a BMW C600 or the auto Honda NC700x...

[Cortez]

I just got back from a 1000 mile trip in 3 days.
It did everything my 650cc kawasaki did, only overtaking needed some thought.

The handling was amazing, and bike was actually faster and more capable
then I expected. However, I wouldn't ride it stock since WOT throttle will
only give 5500-6000 revs, and it won't pull that well below 6500, so it
needs some CVT work.

[ailixhomes]

Generally i used honda bike for riding and I did many trips with this bike and get lots of fun with this bike. I did few hundred mile on one day and its really good experience for me i think it is the best bike for ride. I have no any experience for ride on DT300.

[racewalker]

My trip starts this morning in about 3 hours. I plan to post with pictures each day as the trip unfolds. The plan is to be in Winnipeg Man tonight. About 800K from here and to run about 800K each day. I am planning on recording the entire trip with a Gopro hero 2 camera mounted on the dash behind the wind screen. This will be the longest trip I have ever done on any bike.

[bdrannik]

My trip starts this morning in about 3 hours. I plan to post with pictures each day as the trip unfolds. The plan is to be in Winnipeg Man tonight. About 800K from here and to run about 800K each day. I am planning on recording the entire trip with a Gopro hero 2 camera mounted on the dash behind the wind screen. This will be the longest trip I have ever done on any bike.

Good luck on the adventure.  Are you bringing any spare parts such as spark plugs or drive belt?  I'm considering doing the Scooter Cannonball in 2014 and trying to figure out a spares list.

You should record the track of your progress with a GPS or phone (on Android the Google "MyTracks" app works well) and then we could watch your progress on Google Earth/Maps..

Waiting for the photos!