Top 5 Off-Road Classic Motorbikes | Footman James

Top 5 Off-Road Classic Motorbikes

Cold days, frozen nights, and mud-spattered roads are all very good reasons to tuck up your classic car or motorcycle over the winter months. They are also a brilliant excuse to head off into the wilds and make the most of a classic off-road motorcycle, whether it’s to explore some green lanes, tackle something a little more rigorous, or even have a dabble in a bit of competition. What form the two-wheeled off-roading takes will also dictate the motorcycle you choose to do it with, so here are some of our favourite classic off-road motorcycles.

Many of us will have started our motorcycling lives on a simple off-road bike and they don’t get much more straightforward than the Yamaha DT125. It arrived on the scene in 1974 and didn’t just look the part. Knobbly tyres, plenty of ground clearances, and raised, wide bars gave the Yamaha more than passable ability when you turned off tarmac and into nature. During its long life, the DT received an upgraded monoshock rear suspension and the rugged two-stroke motor became liquid-cooled in 1982.

These later DT125s are the ones to aim for if you’re not a purist simply because they are easier to live with, though any DT125 will happily whirr along tracks and dirt paths without requiring Dougie Lampkin levels of talent. It’s a brilliant entry to off-roading and you won’t need to pay a great deal to own one, plus the DT is also decent to ride on the road so you can head off for the day with mates without being limited to just local lanes.

If the DT125 is the perfect way to earn your off-road spurs, a Suzuki DR250 is an ideal stepping stone to greater performance and off-road excitement. The Suzuki is very similar in style to the Yamaha, with its long front forks, ‘full floater’ single shock absorber rear end, and exhaust mounted up high to aid ground clearance. A sturdy bash plate under the engine’s sump helps when you encounter rocks, while the 21bhp 250cc single-cylinder engine will keep on plugging away as only a four-stroke single can. It’s maybe not the quickest off-road machine, but the DR250 has a mountain goat ability to get you there.

While the original DR250 is very much a bike of the early 1980s, the updated S model that arrived in 1990 has a look that still feels current. It also gained more power and inverted front forks, so this is a bike you can turn up to the local motocross track with and feel right at home. The same applies to the R version that came along in 1995 that is even better equipped for a life of mud and ruts. Tidy, ready to use DR250s are popular, which keeps prices steady so you can find them for reasonable sums, improve your skills and move them on without losing any cash.

For those looking for something a little older than the Suzuki or Yamaha, there’s little to touch a Bultaco. These Spanish-made motorcycles dominated the off-road scene for much of the 1960s and 1970s, and they were the choice of the legendary Sammy Miller, who won the Scottish Six Days Trial on these bikes in 1965, 1967 and 1968.

The one to have is the Bultaco Sherpa T, which revolutionised the trials world. Small, light, and powered by two-stroke engines, these bikes made it look easy when scaling steep, slippery banks or picking their way through apparently impassable gullies. Think of this motorcycle as the original Jeep or Land Rover SI of two-wheelers and you’re on the button. Unlike its four-wheeled counterparts, prices for the Sherpa T are not prohibitive for anyone looking to ride such an iconic machine. Later versions are less coveted and can be found for £2,000, while earlier bikes that qualify for entry into classic competitions will be in the £6,000 bracket.

A rival to the Bultaco in the post-war scrambler scene was the Dot 200. The name came from the phrase “Devoid of trouble” and this is what the company’s simple bikes aimed to be. As well as the strange name, Dot fitted its bikes with a tough and unusual front fork arrangement with looked like two sets of forks. Odd it might have been, but it was also very effective, and many scrambler competitions soon became easy pickings for Dot riders.

The Dot 200 Scrambler was the choice of many keen and amble amateurs as it was a less physical bike to ride than many of its heavier rivals. It also used a perky two-stroke Villiers engine to let it keep up with bigger capacity four stroke bikes. As with the Bultaco, such pedigree doesn’t cost the Earth to park in your garage. Around £3,000 will net you a very tidy Dot Scrambler, and all you have to do is turn up and head into the wilds.

While the Dot and Bultaco are at the more dedicated end of the off-road motorcycle track, for anyone looking to commute through the week and tackle some gnarly terrain at the weekend on a classic, the Honda Dominator 650 is as good a bet as you’ll get. First off, the Dominator is one of those bikes that Honda has built its impressive reputation for reliability on. The thumping single cylinder motor has more than enough get up and go to keep you ahead of traffic and pull you out of the mud.

It may not be the outright best off-roader, but the Dominator will go anywhere a modern BMW GS can, and you won’t be worried about scratching expensive parts – everything on the Honda is easily cleaned or replaced.

With its Paris-Dakar presence and 15-year life span running from 1988 to 2003, the Honda Dominator is another classic off-road bike available at sensible money. Around £2,000 will get you one that’s ready for adventure, which feels like a bargain in the classic motorcycle world for something you can use all year round and will take you anywhere – and we do mean anywhere – you want to go.

Do you agree with our top 5 list? Let us know in the comments below!