New ride

[GREGT1]

I finally bought a bike to go off road. Not a BMW, although it is a very capable off road machine and is street legal as well. I bought a Honda 1993 XR650L with an oversized IMS Tank and a full supertrapp exhaust. The honda Baja style enduro is not as well suited for on the road, but is lighter and maybe more suited for off road than many enduro style machines.

I just picked my bike up up this afternoon and hope all of you will find it in your hearts to welcome me to this part of the forum. I will post a picture soon, although after getting 16+ inches of snow a few days ago it may not be very soon. Happy riding to all, and may this portion of the forum welcome all.

[JOHNR100RS]

Welcome Greg ,
It doesn't matter what type of motorcycle you are riding ( you will find that a lot of BMW people will acecpt you no matter what you ride ). Your Honda is a great ride . I have a Scrambler (somewhat aged ,but still fun ) .
I hope you can get something out of this part of the forum as well as contribute to it .
John

[Visian]

great choice!

a suggestion, though.... lose the supertrapp exhaust and look for a stocker or something with a bit more "cork." I believe you will find it makes plenty of power without needing a lot of free-breathing improvement.

noise (or excessive motorcycle sound as the AMA calls it) is something that is costing us off-roaders to lose access to millions upon millions acres of riding area.

With a dual-sport tire on it, your bike will carve the twisties quite well, but if your riding includes mud, maybe not so much for those types of tires.

keep an eye on the valves... iirc, your motor has the RVCC head and valve adjustment is important to long life. Also, if it ever gets hard to start, check the stator... they are known to go south.

welcome here and enjoy that bike, it's one of the great ones.

ian

[Polarbear]

We Beemer folk ride everything else too. My '08 KLR is quite a fun ride and I just did Death Valley,CA and Arizona, 1600 miles on it last week. Glad to welcome a fellow dirt guy. The Honda products have always been bombproof machines and I've had a few of them too, in past years.

[Polarbear]

I could actually stop and put my hand UP to stop under this large ledge overhang thingy! This is in Titus Canyon, Death Valley. Almost banged my Arai helmet on the rock doing this dumb stunt, but the helmet has been there before and shows some scars. Randy"Polarbear"

[GREGT1]

I have all of the stock parts such as the gas tank, exhaust, plastic etc... I was told they make different baffle spacing for the supertrapp so I should have the ability to make it less noisy if necessary.

My next thing is buying some accessories such as a 60CSX GPS, centerstand, lower fork brace and such. I am very excited to have this machine and am looking forward to all of this snow melting. We will try to ride in March.

Thank you guys for the warm welcome especially since I have the BMW machines in my heart, just not in my budget right now.

great choice!

a suggestion, though.... lose the supertrapp exhaust and look for a stocker or something with a bit more "cork." I believe you will find it makes plenty of power without needing a lot of free-breathing improvement.

noise (or excessive motorcycle sound as the AMA calls it) is something that is costing us off-roaders to lose access to millions upon millions acres of riding area.

With a dual-sport tire on it, your bike will carve the twisties quite well, but if your riding includes mud, maybe not so much for those types of tires.

keep an eye on the valves... iirc, your motor has the RVCC head and valve adjustment is important to long life. Also, if it ever gets hard to start, check the stator... they are known to go south.

welcome here and enjoy that bike, it's one of the great ones.

ian

[Visian]

I have all of the stock parts such as the gas tank, exhaust, plastic etc... I was told they make different baffle spacing for the supertrapp so I should have the ability to make it less noisy if necessary.

yes, you remove those baffle plates on the end to make it quieter, add them for more sound. fewer plates = less flow and vice-versa.

the other problem with the supertrapp is that those baffles cause the hot exhaust gasses to exit the muffler in a big circle instead of a flow, and sometimes those gasses melt the plastic or discolor the paint over time with exhaust byproducts.

worth a look.

Ian

[Polarbear]

I put a 16t sprocket on the front of the above KLR and made it much more a touring/ dirt dual sport friendly ride. Cruising at 70 is easy and you lose very little off road capability with the 16 up front, less rpm's makes happier road use. You lose about 400-500 rpm's at the same speeds, 15t vs.16t...A 650 makes a fine tour bike if set just right. Randy

[AKBEEMER]

And as I tell my many friends who own a KLR with Jesses mounted, at least now if the bike gets stolen they have a reason to call the police.

[Polarbear]

I know Jesse's are a pricey opt for a KLR, but still a very fine ride I'll keep. I also added the CeeBailey 275$ tilt shield and a Kaoko 100$ cruise control, so I get crazy with toys. Actually ther KLR did equally well to my GSA1200 in comfort, lacking only speed and HP and maybe a couple other little things. 1600 miles and no sore but. Happy Trails, Randy

[Polarbear]

The red rope on my rack is for towing GS/GSAs out of deep sand and mud. Now I dish myself, as a GSA owner too. Just the KLR does not get stuck. Randy

[GRAHAMM]

I have a KTM525exc... I have ridden it ~ 12000 kms over the past two seasons in Ontario, almost all off road tons of exploring to do in these parts if you ever get this way... I have the R100 GS but the 525 is totally thrilling to ride when I get the time... it is fully street legal. Doing a 800km day in a single seating "actually standing mostly" is what I call real fun. It goes places that the BMW would be simply too much work... The GS will be used for the longer dual track rides with camp out on crown land, just picked up a extra set of rims so that I can run full knobbies when I tour with buddies that have KLRs, TE630s and XR650Ls...