Like I said before, I appreciate everybody's comments and opinions since they make me challenge my own.
Did a lot of serious cogitatin' this weekend and honest appraisal of where I am in life and am really thinking an ATV would be the better way to go. When it comes to street motorcycles folks say "it's not if you go down but when". With dirt bikes, even smaller ones, it's not "if or when, but how many times you go down". At 67 I stay in decent enough shape but definitely don't bend or heal like I used to, that's a fact of life. I know how to ride a street bike pretty well but dirt bikes take some new skills and I'm not sure my bones could stand too much learning these days.
You can get hurt on a utility ATV but you have to work a lot harder at it. The plan is still to have something just to putt putt along the dirt roads and old logging trails and not go anywhere I can't just hit reverse and back out of. The manufacturers don't make hardly any small, basic machines anymore except the Honda Recon which is a 229 cc, air cooled single with 2WD only. It's light and small with a good low center of gravity. Doesn't have near the features of bigger and more sophisticated machines but basic and simple is good. It has a carburetor which I can work on and a pull start backup if the electric start craps out. The only other machine I've found in this class is the Kawasaki Brute Force 300 (an ominous name) but that's liquid cooled which is just extra stuff I don't need.
I know folks recommend something more powerful but I remember my old Yamaha 250 and how perfect it was for what I did back then. If I was 25 years younger I might worry about out growing something small but if I can just keep getting out into the mountains for the next 15 years or more that would be fine by me.
Gonna go look at a few different models and ride a couple this week to get a feel for the seating and all but seems like it's a choice between the Honda and the Kawasaki and at this point that Honda is in the lead.
Gunnery, gunnery, gunnery. Hit the target, all else is twaddle!
