bought myself a new bike for my Birthday

[Rusty McNeil]

Finally went and picked up a 2004 Honda XR650L thumper with 3000 miles on it from a friend of mine.......:eusa_dance::clapping:

it's already set up with a 4 gallon tank (ugly but functional) and an FMF Exhaust.

Damn thing is TALL!, I think the seat hieght is around 36" or so....

Kinda wanted a Supermoto Husky SM610, but I'm figuring on brushing up on my on/off road type riding skills for a while before going that route, I don't have a tons (some) off road experience, and a super high performance bike like the Husky I'm afraid might have been a mistake, plus I trust the reliability of the XR more, and it's more suited to the riding I want to do down in the Big Bend region.

Not to mention the Husky woulda cost me $8000, the Honda was $3000, I'm just a cheap (read broke) Bastard really....


I'll post pics soon...When I give it a bath...


Rusty

 

[Buster Hymen]

Dual sport bikes are great! Are you going to use it off road also or only on road? I have a great time with my DRZ400, although I mostly only use it off road.

 

[maleko89]

You should go off roading with the Geo.

 

[Buster Hymen]

You should go off roading with the Geo.

LOL... hey that's a turbo Firefly! Although I admit, I did own a Metro at one time.

 

[Shuriken]

I think riding my Honda XL500r helps me ride the VMax better. I pretty much just dump the clutch on the Honda in all the gears. The tire is always spinning. I'm always riding wheelies on it and so forth. I think this has given me better balance on road bikes. Also, I think it helps me know how to manage wheelspin on the max, since I'm used to wheelspin on the XL.

Nothin' like having a big thumper dirt bike to ride when the Max is down...

 

[Rusty McNeil]

Ok, I've had it a week now and it hasn't been off road yet, although I've ridden it plenty off road before I bought it since it belonged to a friend who had two of 'em (one of which I bought) and we went dirt riding every so often on them.

I have racked up 400 miles tho riding it to work and back and around the general area just effin around..ordered a few goodies for it already too...

Trying to pick my next tire right now, and having issues with that...

I know it's gonna spend the majority of time on the street but going down to big bend couple of times a year is gonna require a true knobby, and the guy I ride with tells me that even the dOT knobbies are inadequate for that terrain..

I may just run a set of street tires on it and spoon a set of knobbies on there when heading for the dirt, I dunno know yet

This thing is a blast, it's perfectly happy on the free way, is very tempting to break the law on constantly, lifting to front wheel while barely past the apex of a corner is kinda fun too:biglaugh:

 

[Shuriken]

I put DOT tires on mine and hate it in the dirt. I have in the past gotten away with dirt tires at inspection - just depends on who is doing it and if they check for the approval code.

I play mostly in the dirt, though. Biggest, baddest tread tire for dirt. Enduro tire for street. Real problems when you run a dirt tire on a rain-slicked street though!

 

[Buster Hymen]

Ok, I've had it a week now and it hasn't been off road yet, although I've ridden it plenty off road before I bought it since it belonged to a friend who had two of 'em (one of which I bought) and we went dirt riding every so often on them.

I have racked up 400 miles tho riding it to work and back and around the general area just effin around..ordered a few goodies for it already too...

Trying to pick my next tire right now, and having issues with that...

I know it's gonna spend the majority of time on the street but going down to big bend couple of times a year is gonna require a true knobby, and the guy I ride with tells me that even the dOT knobbies are inadequate for that terrain..

I may just run a set of street tires on it and spoon a set of knobbies on there when heading for the dirt, I dunno know yet

This thing is a blast, it's perfectly happy on the free way, is very tempting to break the law on constantly, lifting to front wheel while barely past the apex of a corner is kinda fun too:biglaugh:

There are quite a few good dirt oriented DOT rated tires available for dual sport bike, like Kendas. They are rated for 90% off road and 10% on road. This is the rating of tire I always run. As you can imagine, there is a trade off on street comfort but they perform great off road. I can post a list of good tires like that here if you want.

 

[Rusty McNeil]

There are quite a few good dirt oriented DOT rated tires available for dual sport bike, like Kendas. They are rated for 90% off road and 10% on road. This is the rating of tire I always run. As you can imagine, there is a trade off on street comfort but they perform great off road. I can post a list of good tires like that here if you want.

Thanks for the input, I'm getting it pretty narrowed down..

I've figured out there really isn't a "good" compromise.

And also that the stock K805 dot knobbies perform surprisingly well on the pavement and acceptably on hard pack dirt.

I ordered a set of Conti TKC-80 Twinduro's, which oughta do fantastic on the pavement and medium or worse on dirt, but I ain't heading for serious dirt until next spring, for now I'm commuting on it. I'll get real knobbies later or maybe a second set of wheels.

Here's some pics finally,

I added a case-saver cover for the sprocket, a shark fin for the rear disk, a tenperature probe dip-stick, and also went down 3 teeth in the back and a new chain, the thing is prefectly happy at 80 now, and will still pull wheelies throttle only....