Top 5 Motorcycles For Dirt Bike Riders On The Street

Ever notice how dirt bikers often make the best street riders? You can stick a proficient street rider in the dirt and watch him/her flounder, lose control of bodily function, etc. But put a dirt rider on a streetbike and they'll fly through corners. While you're hanging off like Marc Márquez, your dirt bike buddy is becoming a small dot in the distance, sitting upright and hitting apexes like Kevin Schwantz.

A similar scenario plays out in the music world. As a kid, I’d do my best Jaco Pastorius impression on the electric bass, and then pick up a guitar and be completely lost. Which made it really frustrating when some no-talent punk who only knew three chords on a guitar would pick up a bass and be halfway decent.

Maybe it’s because to be somewhat passable on a guitar or on a dirt bike requires a bit more skill and effort to get there—also more crashes and wrong notes. If you’re used to plucking multiple strings at once on a guitar, it follows that if you take two away and only have to strike one at a time, you’ll probably be in good shape. Similarly, if you can feather the clutch and get the rear end loose in the dirt, keeping things nice and tidy on a paved switchback is no sweat.

Here are five bikes that would make a dirt biker feel right at home on the street. Feel free to suggest your own in the comments section below.

Your dirt-riding buddy will feel confident behind the controls of a KTM. The 790 Duke—with wide bars, cutting-edge tech, and a spunky parallel-twin motor that produces more than 100 hp at the crank—is just the package to strafe corners like an old pro. In fact, KTM practically proves that the dirt-to-street transition can be done masterfully.

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Well, here’s a logical choice. A supermoto is pretty much a dirt bike with street tires and lowered suspension anyway, so it doesn’t take a genius to know this’ll be a good fit. But the Husky SM uses the potent mill from the KTM 690 Duke, which means there’s plenty of oomph off the corners. And, since it isn’t a 450cc dirt bike motor, the oil doesn’t need to be changed after, like, every trip to the supermarket.

Never mind that Honda calls this thing a Neo-Sports Café, which sounds like some weird Euro version of a Buffalo Wild Wings where the scarf- and beret-wearing patrons sit around watching soccer and sipping coffee out of tiny cups. In the hands of a good rider, the CB300R can really rail through the corners thanks to its 313-pound curb weight. That's 35 pounds lighter than the outgoing CB300F. Its svelte dimensions will also feel familiar to the dirt biker who wants to show up her street-riding pals.

Since practically every Ducati ever has been all about performance, really any bike from the Bologna brand would be a good go-fast option. The Hyper, however, takes a tried-and-true 937cc Testastretta 11° motor, puts it in a weird-ish more-streetbike-than-motard package, and says, “Go nuts.” Not a bad idea, Ducati. It seems to be working for the Bolognans. For 2019, the Hyper gets a refresh that will give hooligans something to scratch their chins over.

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Naked bikes like the Aprilia Tuono V4 1100, KTM 1290 Super Duke, and Yamaha MT-10 put excessive superbike performance numbers and racetrack-derived chassis, into more familiar ergonomic packages that should be less confounding for our dirt biking friends than clip-ons and rearsets. The Yamaha MT-10—though it looks like something out of District 9—takes the cutting-edge tech of the R1 and makes it more dialed in for the street. Weird looking? Yes. Watered down? No. Should the throttle be pinned, expect excessive speeds to happen quickly.