Tuesday, April 4, 2017

XR650R - A Legend

The world is finally waking up to what I discovered several years ago. The finest single cylinder adventure bike is no longer made. That would be the Honda XR650R.  Getting one plated in California is a non-trivial exercise.

XR650R

I went through the pain, and have two of them. Both very well sorted out. Pic below.
























The bike on the left is a Johnny Campbell pre-runner. Campbell and team won the Baja 1000 several times with this type of bike. It has the Honda factory installed power up kit, and the forks are reworked for the Honda Baja team. What this means is that the bike is basically not rideable for a normal person. It is scary fast, and beats you to death at normal rider speeds and style. The bike on the right has the standard XR650R engine, and reworked suspension for B/C riders. It is a very pleasant scooter.

Both bikes have 6.3 gallon Acerbis tanks which give a range of 250-300 miles depending on terrain and throttle usage.

Eat your heart out people.