A smaller, lighter, nimble stable mate to the CB?

[the_undecider_imp]

My local dealer is running a sale on a leftover 2013 CB500X, Honda's adventure style version of the CBR500R / CBR500F. They're asking $4799 but they might take a check for $5500 out the door. Very tempting.

Honda only offered this bike in 2013 and only in black.

Honda still sells this bike. The 2014 was white with red decals. The 2015 is black again, but with hi-vis yellow decals.

I'd be tempted at that price. My hang up is the money. I'd end up dropping another grand on farkles. I'm looking at some decent used bikes in the $4k range that I'd have to spend less on farkles.

My general plan is to find something cheap for now and see what the future might hold for a Yamaha FZ-07 based adventure bike.

For only 10% dirt riding and that being gravel roads, anything without a fat tire, preferably light, and not a belt drive, should be OK. When I first rode there was no such thing as an adventure bike. You had dirt/dual sport bikes - for real dirt, not gravel roads, and street bikes which pretty much meant any prepared road (something that saw a road grader more than once a year).

Then put on decent dual sport tires and go at it. Tires and skill set will mater more than anything else.

I have not had the CB on gravel yet, but I suspect she would do just fine. Just a bit heavy to pick up if it slid out from under you. A buddy and I did some speed riding on some back roads in Northern Minnesota back in the day. He was crazy, bouncing off grapefruit sized rocks - on his KZ900. I was on my KZ550. Well maintained gravel roads; we didn't think twice about it. We didn't know any better!

CB does surprisingly good on dirt/gravel. As you said, fat tires aren't the best and the skinny rubber on the CB cuts through the loose surface dirt. Lack of suspension travel is the issue, so you just slow down on bumpy stuff.

I grew up on dual sports, too. Bungee a backpack on the back and take off. The BMW GS was the first mainstream adv bike, in the early 80s, but by the end of the decade, The KLR650, Yamaha Tenere, and Honda Transalp came about. North America didn't embrace the latter two and it wasn't until 10 years ago that we started buying big adv bikes in quantity. I'll admit that this trend isn't unlike the transition seen in the auto industry where people went from buying real SUVs to crossover utilities. "Soft Roader" is a term for both crossovers and ADVs.