Why We Picked It:

The Kawasaki KLX300 is just about perfect in the most important ways. It is less rowdy than a Suzuki DR-Z, has better suspension than a Honda CRF, and has as much power as a KTM without you needing to take out a second mortgage on your home. It is not a bike you take to enduro competitions, nor is it the greatest pathfinder adventure bike out there.

What the KLX300 does do right, however, is be the best dirt-oriented trail bike that is also road legal on the planet. It has a frugal 292cc single that puts out a decent 30 HP and 21 lbs-ft of torque, and weighs just enough at 302 lbs that that power doesn't feel anemic nor too much.

If you're looking for a dual-sport to add to your stable, or even looking for a great beginner bike that is a dual-sport, Kawasaki has you covered. As well, being a Kawasaki, it has just about every bell and whistle you could want as standard, and sells at an insanely affordable price. We call it the Goldilocks dual-sport, because it's "just right" in power, torque, performance, road manners, dirt capability, and price.

Why We Picked It:

While the CRF300L is a great dual-sport bike, the Rally model is the one we selected for this year's list. Both are powered by the same 286cc single that puts out 27 HP and 19.6 lbs-ft of torque.

What makes the Rally our choice is that it comes with more standard equipment, as well as is a bit more friendlier with its road manners. You get an adventure-style windshield with a high GPS mounting bracket behind it, handguards, a full bash plate under the engine, and a much larger fuel tank at 3.4 gallons, instead of the 2.1 gallon tank on the non-Rally variant, with the curb weight only increasing to 331 lbs over 306 lbs with all the added kit.

The Rally has also rapidly gained a reputation for being almost unkillable, as it is inspired by Honda's Dakar Rally bikes. As long as it is decently maintained, it will just keep on going, being comfortable on the road as well as a capable of traversing even the most challenging of terrain. If you plan on any kind of adventure riding, then this is perhaps the bike for you.

Why We Picked It:

Let's not beat around the bush here at all: The KTM 500 EXC-F is primarily an off-road bike. It has massive ground clearance, the exhaust is tucked way up high, there is a support brace under the engine, and it has WP Xplor shocks front and rear that have travel you'd expect from a supercross bike, at 11.8 inches front and 12.2 inches rear.

Yet, it still has a headlight, tail light, indicators, and a license plate holder, so you can take this dirt-shredding beast on the tarmac. Powered by a 510.9cc single, it puts out a meaty 40.5 HP and 28.6 lbs-ft of torque, in a bike that weights a scant 255 lbs.

Due to its specs, it is about as agile and fast as a supercross bike as well, and even KTM's promotional material has it leaping tens of feet in the air off of the crest of a hill. This is a bike that loves being in the dirt, and we think that it's a dual-sport only in the sense that you'd ride it on the road to get to the trail or off-road area you have planned to go exploring along.

Why We Picked It:

The old KLR650 from Kawasaki was much beloved, an affordable adventure bike that was as reliable as a wood burning stove and could be dropped off a cliff and the only damage would be a scuff on the plastic fairings.

After a few years away from the market, the KLR650 made its return in 2022, updated with a new engine, a new frame, and several variants. Of those variants, we would pick the KLR650 Adventure, as it is the most utilitarian of the four. It has the most road-oriented suspension and setup of the four, but can still mix it up just as well as its brethren when the pavement ends and the dirt begins. What sells us on it is the inclusion of side cases, fog lamps, frame sliders, tank pad, and a DC socket that can be optioned into a USB socket, whatever you need to power a GPS unit or heated gear for riding in the colder climates.

It carries a 652cc single in its frame, which provides 40 HP and 39.1 lbs-ft of torque, with a weight of 460.6 lbs. This may not sound like much, but the KLR650's entire mission is to be a mule, carrying a lot of weight on its back, including the rider, and still be able to traverse pretty much any terrain. It will still happily ride along the freeway, but where it truly belongs is out there on a trail, kicking up dust and taking you to new places away from any roads.

Why We Picked It:

The Suzuki DR-Z400S has been around, in one form or another, for over 20 years now. It has steadfastly not evolved with the times, as it has never had reason to. It is so "old," in fact, that it is one of the very few bikes you can buy new off the showroom floor that still has a carburetor.

Yet, year after year, decade after decade, it constantly wins the votes of riders that consider it one of the greatest dual-sport bikes of all time, let alone adventure bikes of all time. It is insanely reliable, an absolute tank in terms of the pummeling it can take, and can be fixed with a few curse words and a hammer in most cases.

It does require a bit more wrenching on than your standard dual-sport, as you need to keep the carburetor in the right zone to get the most power, but even that is adjustable with a screwdriver and no complicated tools. A 398cc single with 33 HP and 25.6 lbs-ft of torque, it will just as happily commute you down the freeway as it will launch you off the crest of the hill you just powered up, whooping as you catch some serious air. There is also a SuperMoto version, the DR-Z400SM, for those that want to get their hooligan on, but that one isn't really a dual sport so we can't include it in this list!

Why We Picked It:

The Yamaha XT250 is not the most powerful, or fastest, or most expensive, or pretty much any other metric bike on this list, and that's not a bad thing. It is even air-cooled, in a world of water-cooled bikes. So why is it on our list?

The simple answer is that it just works. It has 11 inches of suspension travel, yet has an approachable 32 inch seat height. It has 19 HP and 14 lbs-ft of torque from its 249cc single, which sounds anemic but somehow feels about twice as powerful when riding it. It weighs 291 lbs soaking wet with a brick tied to the seat, but it is astonishingly flickable and will carve out a rooster tail of dirt as you slide it around a bend in the trail.

The XT250 is here because it is the big brother to the best trail bike money can buy, the TT-R230. It is here because it has very little that can go wrong on it, and can take a pounding and come back the next day asking to go out again on the same bumpy, rocky trail with a grin on its face. As said above: It just works, and has for ages, and will keep working next year, and the year after, and the year after that...

Why We Picked It:

Yes, it is a KTM 350cc dual sport underneath, but the Swedes have their own way of interpreting the rules. Because of that, the FE350S has the light, agile, and versatile feel of a 250cc class bike, with a power to weight ration approaching that of a 450cc bike, but at the price of a 350cc bike.

It is immensely comfortable as well, replacing the KTM style wooden plank of a seat with a bench-style seat that actually has padding in it, gasp and shocked expression! It also borrows KTM's WP suspension, but dials down the stiffness a touch, making it ride beautifully on the road, but also able to soak up any bump, rock, branch, or other obstacle off road.

The only part of the bike that hasn't changed from its KTM roots is its price. It is a superb dual-sport, one of the best you can buy, but it's expensive as hell at $11,999 for 2023. Yet, if you desire something that has a 350cc single that pumps out a mighty 45 HP and 21.8 lbs-ft of torque, weights 259 lbs, and goes like its been shot, then you won't find a better dual-sport this side of an ADV bike.

Why We Picked It:

The Honda XR650L is one of those enigmas of a bike that exist, yet we can't put on finger on just why it does. We simply accept the fact that it exists, and celebrate it. It is not the most powerful bike, at 40 HP from its 644cc single, but it is one hell of a tractor with almost 50 lbs-ft of torque.

Its seat is also up in the stratosphere at 37 inches, and it has just under a foot of travel in both the front and rear Showa suspension. What makes the bike great, however, is that it weights a scant 346 lbs, which is a featherweight in the 650cc range of bikes.

The XR tag on a Honda bike is not one applied lightly, as it means that the bike is as close to a perfect cross-country bike as they can make it. The far more common CRF ("Close-Ratio Four-stroke") is applied to most models that are dual-sports, but the XR650L is truly a full-on, pavement-pounding, dirt-churning, path-finding adventure dual-sport.

On top of all that, it's also screamingly affordable, and like most air-cooled dual-sports, if you have some bad language and a hammer, you can fix most of the things that may need "adjustment" in the field.

Why We Picked It:

The Honda Trail 125 isn't technically a dual-sport, which is why we are giving it an honorable mentions. It is a miniature ADV, and a beloved one at that, as the Trail name has been around since just a few years after the Super Cub when the first Trail 90 came out in the 1960s.

It might seem hilariously tiny compared to the bikes on this list with over a foot of ground clearance, or suspension travel of 11 or more inches, yet this little tractor of a bike is astonishingly capable. It is powered by the same 123.9cc single from the 2023 Super Cub, with 9.7 HP and 7.7 lbs-ft, but it also weighs next to nothing at 256 lbs, and has a decent seat height at 31.5 inches.

What truly impresses is that it can haul up to 400 lbs of load, including the rider, without issue. It comes with ABS, disc brakes, fuel injection, LED lighting all around, and even has a long-distance tank at 5.3 liters (1.4 gallons). That sounds tiny, but the Trail 125 is extremely efficient, and gets a rated 115 MPG, even at wide open throttle. It isn't going to set any land speed records, but it's not meant to. It is staying true to the original intention of the very first Trail in the 60s: Take the reliable and gutsy Super Cub engine, and let people explore off-road with it.