As in the title, anyone have any experience with the Forza Dirt Bikes. In particular from the Big Foot and upwards. How they go in the field, if anyone's used them for hunting and transport etc...
Reliability, performance etc...
Thanks in advance
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As in the title, anyone have any experience with the Forza Dirt Bikes. In particular from the Big Foot and upwards. How they go in the field, if anyone's used them for hunting and transport etc...
Reliability, performance etc...
Thanks in advance
Sorry none but maybe try the Kiwi dirt bike forum?
Chinese and shit goes hand in hand in the same sentance. Havnt owned that particular brand but had other chinese shit bikes and quads. Japanese is the way to go for motorbikes
"Cough!!" or European:DQuote:
Originally Posted by northdude
Ticking over 450 hassle free hours on my Euro 2 stroke enduro hunting bike. Hauled 3 deer out of the back blocks two weekends ago. Snuck up on two Sika whilst riding in. Got to 75m before they twigged. So not a noisy bike if you ride them right.
Total weight on board 130kgs:cool: Terrain hard enough to break lesser bikes:ORLY:
Chinese bikes belong in the local park, NOT 70 km from the roadend:omg:
My Euro dirt bike is cheap as chips to maintain, many parts are common with other Euro and Jap bikes. The cheapest part of owning a Chinese bike is purchasing it. You will not be able to put a price on it shitting itself with you and a bundle of hunting gear on board, miles from nowhere.
You have been warned.
(hunting using a motorbike since 1978)
Thanks for the advice everyone! Yeah theres surprisingly very little detail online about the Forza's, atleast for the amount of time they've been around in NZ. But that's much as i'd expect from Chinese bikes at this point.
XR500 whats the 2stroke Euro bike you use? I've got a TF mudbug, but was after something lighter and easier to lift and manoeuvre etc...
I'd love one of these FXMoto bikes, but the kiwi guy developing them has been doing so for years and there still not commercially available.
https://www.fxbikes.com/
Next cab off the ranks then would be a CRF150R. They only weigh in at 73kg or so
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:ORLY:. And electric leg to boot:thumbsup:
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:yuush:
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.
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Awesome thanks XR500, plenty of food for thought. Much appreciated!!!
Came across these videos whilst doing research. The guys quite the character, very good rider and pretty talented i'd say!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsoyyVbStlA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk0s86aYt8Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX21Js2y5Ic
I see these bikes have been re-released in a mdernised version:
https://www.hondamotorbikes.co.nz/sc.../CT125#Gallery
1 sexy Italian lady there. Had Betas for many years but the seatless variety.
Bit of a fail I reckon, no high/low ratio gear box, which was the biggest appeal.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dublin
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Those CT 110's have their place...just not where I ride:ORLY:
Attachment 160950
Yeah and there also a bit over 7k! For what it is i think it's a little steep, certainly for what i'd be using it for.Quote:
Originally Posted by XR500
I think i'll be sticking to the mudbug for the time being and will add a decent recovery kit so i can get to a few places i had in mind.
Love the shots with your bike there XR500! Amazing country side, and getting there on a bike is awesome! Certainly some very skilled riding involved!
I came across this video too of a race down south, theres a guy doing it on a mudbug obviously for kicks and giggles. But certainly proves well what you can do on them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLOmYwGKPi0
Found these recovery kits which should fit the bill:
https://greenchileadv.com/products/g...ecovery-system
Steer clear of anything Chinese, the purchase price might be nice but getting someone to repair it or getting parts may not be nice in the future.
I'd also steer clear of any 4 stroke MX bikes and would definitely not want a CRF150R. Any of these bikes need a fair bit of maintenance and IMO lack the bottom end torque to do what you want for a hunting bike, WRF and CRF-X being slight exceptions.
A mud bug can be modified to give a heap more power but will bea bit of work.
I'd be looking for something with a nice low seat for a hunting bike, CRF230 would probably be my preferred choice or maybe a DR200 although the DRs feel a lot heavier.
If you had $$ to spend and wanted the best of the best I agree a 300 2T is the way to go, but would need some mods to set up for a hunting bike.
Prior to the 300 2T revelation, I toyed with picking up a yammie YZ 125 or 250 with a blown motor, and shoe horning a refreshed Suzuki Mudbug 185 donk into it. Best of both worlds:cool:
But now I have seen the light...I may know where a decent 300cc 2T is for sale. One careful owner:thumbsup:
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In SA we used to run yz125/250s with a weighted flywheel and a wr gearbox for the bush, that with revolved suspension and an 18” back tyre made them really usable in the slow gnarly stuff.
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Depends what you want it for. If you are looking for a cost effective option to get kids/new rider into riding with causal trail rides etc then they will be sweet. My brother and dad have owned a few different chinese models for this type of stuff in the family and never had any major issues. Parts is the biggest problem if they decide to discontinue that make/model though.
If you are after a bike for more serious riding then get on something reputable from Japan or Europe. I’m on my third YZ250 after being through 450 MX four strokes and 300cc KTM EXC 2 strokes etc. The good old YZ for me is just so hard to beat. Fun on an MX track and a weapon on Enduro when setup accordingly. Not really suitable for a hunting type application though. I ride dirt bikes for two wheel fun haha, hunting etc for me is done using two feet or the quad.
@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 :thumbsup:
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:omg:
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:D:D:D
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.
