Thread: Anyone got experience with the Forza Dirt Bikes?

@XR500
Nice looking bike. How do you go about carrying meat, rifle etc on your bike? Ipurchased a dr650 for some hunting access but have been looking hard at a 2-300 2t instead as I think I'd have more fun on it. Just imagine it'd be hard work with 30kg in a backpack so would be good to put some of the weight on the.

Yep, she is a real workhorse

Back in the day, a deer carcass would be attached to a Suzuki mudbug by taking the front end off (usually shoulder shot with a 308 so was pretty much throw away), then whipping the rear hooves off to just below the hocks, then slipping a knife cut inbetween the bone and tendon, and using small lengths of rope threaded through those holes, pull the legs down to the brilliantly located scrub bar in front of the motor. This is with the animal sitting astride the fuel tank. If taking the entire animal out the head and shoulders were flopped over the headlight protector, and a long length of bungy cord was stretched from one side of the handlebars to the other several times to hold the animal in place. The bungy allowed you to continue to steer the bike (a handy trait considering bike, animal and rider were now nudging 250 kgs) whilst preventing the animal attempting to take over riding duties.

Once I had upgraded to an XR, i purchased an aluminium skid plate that handily had holes drilled in it that permitted a similar deer tie down process being used. Trouble was the XR headlight took a hammering as its not protected like the mudbug was. Heaviest animal I hauled out on the XR almost hit 100kgs on the scales, and riding the bike with that weight all on the tank/front end was quite a work out. Several unintentional stoppies were performed

With the demise of selling wild venison coinciding with my body saying it had had enough of long heavy hauls to get deer to bike, I began breaking down the animals I shot, into meat only packages and back packing them out. Some may say its easier to strap at least some of the meat to the bike, but its a moot point: either way will bugger you if the trip out is steep/long/bumpy/off piste

The rifle can be a real pain in the arse. Shoulder slung they are perfectly designed to swivel and smack you in the head, or flop down and get hooked up in the handlebars at an inopportune moment. I capture the rifle sling under my hunting belt kit, and that restriction stops the rifle from being able to move about and upset the apple cart.

I have tried a takedown, but while that's OK on the trip in, you inevitably need the room the rifle takes up in the pack, for the meat on the way out!

Where I hunt nowadays, the Sika are all pretty small, so one or two shoulder shot yearlings do not present too much of an issue in a decent backpack. Also, if parts of the route out are too gnarly to ride all loaded up, you simply step off and walk the difficult bits with back pack on, then go back for the bike.

The only thing permanently fitted to the bike is tyre repair gear, a tow rope and a couple of key bike tools, stashed under the side covers.

Big 4T's just don't give you the freedom a 2T gives you when in really difficult terrain. The 2T engine characteristics just outperform a 4T when it comes to low rev tractoring in places you cannot afford to fall off on. That, and having the biggest tyre available on the back, and lowering the gearing to something like 12/51/52/53. Makes the bike far too slow for an cross country or farm trail ride, but thats not what I do these days. Anyone who rides with me thanks me profusely when I hand over a spare 12 tooth sprocket I carry at lunchtime

Some great experience in this thread. Does anyone have experience of the Kawasaki KL250 stockman or sherpa? Seems like the ideal bike for what I want. Might do the odd hunting trip but I've got a quad so would take that for hauling loads. The last fast bike I had was a KDX200 which I pimped out the reeds, jets and expansion chamber on, loved that boogie but I want something a bit more sedate to ride with the kids on now and enjoy some more leisurely trail rides and adventures.