Has anyone actually used an MT350 or MT500 to travel on?
 

I am just curious as at a glance these roughie toughie looking ex-army bikes seem like a good choice, apart from the colour which I would want to change if using for travelling, I have ridden the 350 which was pretty under powered but the friend who owned it has just picked up a 500 with a few tuning mods which I hope to try soon.
I have seen a few kitted out models at bike meetings but on talking to the owners they were just used for weekends hiding in the woods under some camo netting rather than crossing continents to far off destinations.

I had various MT500 Armstrongs.
My favourite had a 640cc lump from a CCM, with electric start and I did an extensive european tour on it solo and a 2 up trip with young nephew and camping gear on the back, sing the optional dual seat.
But solo, even the basic MT500 has been used for touring. Larger tanks are available and the motor is very reliable.
The left hand kicker is an aquired art. Electric start requires a frame mod to the front down tube but there should be plenty of info on that on the MT Ridrers Club forum.

I've got the posh version - as made by CCM. It doesn't have the rifle holder or the drab green camo paint but it's the same Rotax engine (albeit 600cc) held in place by the same collection of scaffolding tubes. I bought it to head back to Africa on (to replace my XR600) but to date (for various reasons) it's only been used in Europe.

https://i.postimg.cc/hjYmrjhh/CCM4.jpg


As a travel bike it works ok, if somewhat crude by mainstream standards. The Rotax engine is about par for the course - ie about as good, cc for cc, as the Japanese trailies so, as you've found, the 350 will be pretty gutless. The 600 is about the same as the XR it replaced (although the carburation - a CCM thing - is hopeless). The Rotax, as you probably know, is belt cam drive which makes for a quiet engine and the other internals seem to be a step up quality wise from the competition. The belt does have a hard time with the pulses from a single and has a very short service life (can't remember exactly but single figure thousands vs 50k+ miles for the same belt on a car). They can snap, which is a good reason not to upgrade to an interference cam in the search for power.

I don't know what MT's go for these days but the CCM has depreciated to the point where it's virtually throwaway. Parts are generally ok but it's not a one stop shop like it is with the Japanese offerings. In the UK there's basically one small specialist for the engine bits and another for the cycle parts. Or eBay. Hopefully both of them will have survived the lockdown.

As a marketing slogan this sells it to me, which model of CCM is that?