Affirmation of My Inclination toward a Mid-Size "Adventure Touring" Bike

I've considered petitioning the county to rename my "street" from a number to "Five Lakes Road," because that's how many road-width, tens of feet long, several inch deep puddles it gets between the pavement and my driveway when it rains (fortunately, it's reasonably hard-packed dirt until right after my driveway, at which point it turns into sugar sand and ruts). Here's the first and second ones as seen from the paved road.

Look, it's far from the worst road in north central Florida, and it's less than a quarter mile from pavement to my driveway. On the other hand, I have to ride it anytime I go anywhere.

My daughter really hates that road, because she recently bought a 1988 Nissan 300ZX and has a mechanic currently working on getting it mechanically sound (I think there may even be an engine swap involved). That car has a ground clearance of 5.5 inches. My Lifan KP Mini has ground clearance of 6.7 inches. I haven't bottomed it out on that road, but still.

Speaking of the KP Mini: This morning, as I rode out, I saw a large tree limb lying across the road. As I skirted around it, my front tire caught some slick mud at the edge of one of those lakes, and I nearly went down.

Nearly. After a couple of years of riding, I've finally developed the reflexes and skills to get a foot down and save myself during low-speed slides and such, largely from riding on these medieval European goat track things that pass for roads in Florida. I did stall the bike, but nothing that wasn't supposed to touch the ground did, and I was planning to stop anyway (to get that limb out of the road for future passersby). Hooray.

But the experience showed me that 1) I can handle the "nearly offroad" riding well enough to have a more powerful bike, and 2) something like the Himalayan, with its taller seat height and bigger wheels, will address the mix I want well -- higher pavement cruising speed, better handling on bad roads.

I've really enjoyed the KP Mini. It's taught me a lot about how to ride and specifically about how to get out of whatever trouble shows up in front of, or under, me. But it's time to take off the training wheels.