Thread: Anyone got experience with the Forza Dirt Bikes?

There's bikes then there's bikes. What do you want out of a bike?? Answer yourself that question first before you splash out on any machinery to replace the venerable Mudbug. If you want an off road bike to go hunting on, as yourself: how far, how much gear will it cart, how heavy are you, how gnarly a terrain do you wish to traverse???

A Mudbug will go most places, but will be uncomfortable, slow and heavy. It will however almost never let you down. Its frame is made of mild steel: hence its weight. But the seat is low to the ground, so doesn't feel its 100ish kgs. The older ones (TF185's) had large tanks and the engines were bulletproof and pulled far better than the little 125's. I have owned one for most of its life (42 years!!!) and it still has not had the head off, or any moving parts in the engine/gearbox replaced.

When I had a few coins saved up I progressed to an XR250 (the XR500 was waaay back in my teens), and spent 20 years using a couple of XR's to get in and out of hunting spots. they are a bit heavier than a mudbug, at 110kg, but the suspension was a revelation. Comfort at last! The frame was still of mild steel, so the XR's are heavier than necessary, and though the engines are bulletproof, being air cooled 4 strokes and with the basic carb they came with, were absolute bastards to restart once hot, if you had dropped it. Which in gnarly terrain could be often. And of course no electric start.
Still, they were solidly built, and could easily cart the rider and a couple of deer over some pretty interesting countryside.

....And then someone let me ride their 300cc 2 stroke. And the writing was on the wall. And electric leg to boot

To get small cc bikes to perform off road you need to regularly rev their tits off. So they are noisy. Which defeats my desire to putt along quietly, enjoy the view and bump into the odd deer whilst still heading into base camp.

To tackle difficult terrain with a 80-100 kg rider, and have the potential to cart a decent pack back out (mine was 25kg 2 weekends ago) you need a fantastically strong frame and great suspension. The light weight E mountain bikes, and the Forza and FX bikes you referenced do not make the grade. Waitangi weekend coming back out I had the venison from 3 Sika on board, making for an all up cargo of 135kgs. I had several large tussock steps I had to jump off, up to 1 m high. Try that with a Forza and you would find it neatly folded up around your body

People have this misconception that 2 stroke dirt bikes are horribly noisy. Well, they can be. All depends on the nut standing on the pegs, powervalve settings and newish packing in the silencer.

Modern enduro 2 strokes have chrome moly frames and 300mm of suspension travel with 48mm forks. Those 300 cc 2 strokes produce just shy of 40 horsepower (mudbug is 12hp and the XR250 was 19hp). With the modern powervalve design they can be ridden at low revs yet have torque to the moon. Yes, they weigh in around 100kg, but you don't get big engine/massive suspension/tough frame/reliability for 65 kg

Any of the European 2 stroke enduro bikes made in the last 10 or so years can be made into a decent hunting bike. The Japs all but abandoned 2 strokes a long long time ago, and have done fuck all improvements to their stable of off road 4T bikes in the last 15 years: different coloured plastics and a bit of faffing around with suspension internals is about as far as they have gone.

About the only proviso I can give after all that, is that to use a dirt bike to get into difficult hunting terrain you will need some decent riding skills. Forestry tracks and high country station track systems far less so. Any average muppet should cope.