Hi all,
I'm wanting to get a bike for the summer than I can ride on or off road... Been looking quite closely at an XR250 but I'm quite big (6'3") and these appear to be small bikes. Would I be better off with a 400? (I've only ever riden a KTM 2-stroke 125 before and am not sure I could handle a 400) Otherwise, what elso would you recommend? I'm wanting to get used to this bike off-road for a few months and then go for my bike test. I'm 25 so would hope to go for direct access so there's no issue with restriction.

Reason I want a 4-stroke is NOISE! I love the sound of them and like the idea of smooth power and torque throughout the rev-range.
Reason I want MotoX/Enduro is that there are lots of green lanes where i live in North Yorkshire, many of these I've tackled on my mountain bike but always dreamed of riding on a powerful bike!

Well....it looks like you don´t have your license yet, so on road it´s out of the question.

don´t know if you need a license to ride it off road though....

00Just some form of public liability insurance as far as I can gather. And of course permission from the land-owner

License aside, I used to have the XR650L. I am 6'3 and it was fine for me. These bikes are single pots and rev very low so HP isn't very high. Torque however is high due to the long stroke. Once you are legal a 400 of this category would be fine and your right, they have a fantastic sound.

If you're doing DAS I wouldn't bother restricting yourself to a 400.. I would get a 500/600..

Don't wanna kill myself straight away tho... If a 4-stroke 400 is about as much of a handful as a 2-stroke 250 then I'll be fine but if I'm getting used to it in a field and on a dirt track I don't want something that's gonna chuck me off every 5 minutes.

I was going to go off-roading before I broke my leg - had been offerred a loan bike to try it on. One of the reasons I'm not now going to do it is that everyone who rides offroad will tell you that you WILL come off on a regular basis! If you're not prepared for that then don't do it!

If you do go for it, adjust the fasteners on stuff like mirrors and controls so that they just hold, then when the bike goes down they are more likely to twist round than break. My mate offroads regularly and thats a little tip he told me. He's broken his ankle twice offroading! The first time he rode home with it, he's barking!

Also I think you don't want too big an engine for offroading, or too big a bike even, cos you will be picking it up quite often.

Have fun tho!

I expect to fall off now and again but I don't want something that's gonna THROW me off. I want something fairly forgiving but with a half decent amount of power

There isn't much difference IMHO between the size/feel of the xr250 & xr400 and I think the 250 is 32 or 33 bhp, which means test training could be done on a 125

Sorry - didn't read the first line of your post where you said "on OR OFF road" ignore my comment about a 600 - a 125/250 would be plenty..

we used to ride at Carlton Bank in north yorks (when it was legal do so) and use to take a RM 125 and a 250 honda, the 250 all in all was the better bike but hell that 125 was quick!
a 400+ 4 stroke apart from the weight difference would be just as easy to ride as the KTM, a lot more power low down so you wont have to ring a 4 strokes neck to get anywhere...
the DR400 Suzuki is a tall bike, very light and sound awesome, i'm 6'4"... i only ride road bikes so sitting on the DR felt really alien to me, how tall?! lol or even a DR650 which are feckin huge!

My brother has a Yamaha YZ426 and its HUGE!!!! The exhaust sounds fantastic and is fairly forgiving on the throttle. Ive ridden it a few times off road and it wheelies for fun so you'd have to watch it on the road but it would be an alright bike to start on. Or maybe a Honda CR250 is also a good choice.

Good Luck!!!