Any opinions on this bike. I have only ever ridden street bikes (Victory Cross Country). Have a Tiger 800 but feel it is too big for trails. (Selling the Tiger in the spring. Was an impulse buy. )

I want to ride trails and back roads. (no track!) If I get in the air, it will not be by design.

Thank you in advance for your comments.

Great value bike. $4200 new, $2000-3300 used. You'll grow out of it in a year or two as your off road skill develops, though

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KTM 500EXC
HONDA CRF450R
HONDA 919 (HORNET 900)

My wife learned to ride on one of those. Super reliable. Had it for 5 summers and never did a thing to it besides oil and filters, always started easy and drove good...but as was noted above, it's not a performance machine

I've never heard a bad thing about those bikes, probably a real good bike to get some dirt skills. Don't think it will be street legal though. And maybe undersprung if you are heavier than 180lbs?. I really like my cousins CRF230 though, you can get those street legal.

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2016 FE 501

Excellent bike that has long term use for any rider. While it's suspension and power isn't the same as a performance bike it will still outperform you on off road (unless you're quite fast). One of the A class guys I ride with almost always takes his CRF230F (same bike in red instead of blue!) to the mountains for gnarly single track riding. I'm a strong trail rider and it takes everything I got and then some to keep up with him on my 500 EXC. He prefers this bike for seat height (easy to touch the ground), plush suspension for offroad and smooth power. He tells me the only noticeable "weakness" this bike has for him is lack of power for monster mountain climbs (stuff I won't even attempt) and suspension that can't handle nonsense drop offs, mx style jumping or desert style speed over rough terrain. Anything else is fair game. To put it in perspective this guy has a KTM 250 SXF, Honda CRF450 and CRF250X to choose from in his garage and still uses the 230. You will not like this bike if you just like to wheelie in 5th gear. It ain't gonna do that. As a bonus the bike will feel like you could backpack it compared to a Tiger 800!

TLDR;
Excellent bike
Will surprise you how well it can tackle technical terrain.
You won't like it if you like going fast in a straight line on rough stuff or high speed wheelies

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2016 FE 501