It's Official... I'm a Tarder!

After much deliberation I resigned myself to the fact that with my son and I getting heavily into dirt riding my track days were going to be limited at best. Last week I decided to put the RC up on CC for trade to see what was out there. I was bombarded with EXCs, TEs, DRZs, KLRs, CRFs, and XRs of all sizes. After considering multiple bikes I finally found this beautiful 04 XR650l. It's got a complete setup for dirt and street and just about every mod you could imagine. These bikes usually weigh in a portly 340lbs or so, this one weighs 265lbs wet! Had I known how much fun SMs are to ride I would have gone this route a long time ago.

So no track day at all huh?

Great looking bike, that thing looks like it will be a blast!

Originally Posted by jinxton

So no track day at all huh?

Signed up and paid for the one next month so the VFR is gonna stretch her legs a little.

I'm enviousy!!! I still can't decide which SUMO I'm going with, but will have one by summertime.

What's an RC?

Originally Posted by bendow

I'm enviousy!!! I still can't decide which SUMO I'm going with, but will have one by summertime.

What's an RC?

Honda RC51

A mean mortorcycle that doesn't play well on the street.

An aircooler, eh? Right on, have fun with it. Watch your temps in town during the summer.

SM's are probably the most fun street bikes you can ever have, unless of course, you have to spend much time on the freeway. The twisties are a blast, though. I just put some Continental SM tires on mine and it totally transformed it. It's a flyer, now. Endless grip.

I looked into the air cooled vs water and in many cases the water cooled bikes tend to have similar issues sitting at idle for long periods especially the KTMs. The L's motor is renowned as bullet proof and hey... it's a Honda.

How the hell did they drop 80 lbs off that bike? You will have blast on it. Try and stay off the sidewalks in front of cops. They don't think to highly of passing on the sidewalks.

DRZ is 295lbs. They're pretty portly, especially when you ride it after riding a CR250. I would say that the mods I've done to mine have dropped at least 10 pounds. heck the tool bag is probably half of that. I might have dropped 15 off.

There are a lot of reasons that bike is light. For one, it's an aircooler. They're always light. No water pump, no radiators, no coolant, no cooling fan. Another bigger reason is that bike is a kicker. It doesn't have a starter or full size battery from the factory. That's a 15-20lb savings right there.

Cool bike. You don't see too many of the L's turned over to SM duty. The guy I work next to has an R. It's a super sweet bike, but he can't keep the motor together. He's going back to mostly stock components hoping it'll hold up better. Those motors really should be bomb proof. His bike is pretty modded, though. Probably got $10k in the thing.

Well after running it over the local dump scale with a full tank it turns out the guy I bought it from was just a liiiiiiittle off. The bike weighed in at 298lbs. Extremely light for this bike but not SMR or EXC lite as he proclaimed. My buddy has a stock L so we were able to assess how he shaved the weight off. Most of it came from a full exhaust swap, removal of the air box, total removal of the battery compartment (placed a gel cell in the fender pack) swapped the bars out, replaced the carb with the Edlelbrock, swapped the oem rims and tires with the Excel SM / Michelins, replaced the pegs, eliminated the rear pegs, blinkers and rear fender assembly ( now CRF tail light and fender). It's a pretty well thought out L series SM at this point. The only thing left would be to bore the top end out to a 683, but the motor only has 5k on it and from the size of the chicken strip on the rear it don't look like he's done much other than to pose around town.

Evan,

I should have taken heed when you proclaimed these things are the shizzzz to ride, I'm absolutely loving this thing!

Ha, ha.... awesome brotha. Glad you're loving it. I just put some of the Conti SM's on mine and it really woke it up. A super sticky set of tires makes these things turn unbelievably well. Super grip in the wet, too. I was amazed at the leans I could get this morning on my way in to work.

I probably wouldn't mess with the big bore kit. Maybe do some gearing changes depending on how it's geared. Mine hits the rev limit at 105mph which is good. You definitely don't want to go much faster. With this gearing it'll roll wheelies in second without a problem. No clutching necessary. Getting into the motor was the start of the downward spiral for my friends 650. Never ran right after that and he used a bunch of HRC parts. Should have been the good stuff, but just doesn't last like stock.

298lbs is still over 100lbs lighter than a light sport bike. Makes riding around town like a sport. 90 degree turns and U-turns that suck on sport bikes are fun on the sumo.

Chicken strips are a way of life on a thumper. You can find the edges of the tires no problem, but the center tread will wear rediculously fast if you're not constantly in the twisties. I think a lot of it is rider weight, too. At 160lbs I got 4,500 out of my last set of tires. Centers were almost to the carcass. Outer edges were still good. Front looked brand new. The other two guys here at work got 3500 out of a rear Conti on a Husky 610sm and, 1500 out of a Conti on the Honda 650. He's a good 80lbs heavier than me, though. Something about the big power pulses of the thumpers just runs through tires. Even with how light they are. Hot freeway days could kill a rear in a thousand miles. Just another excuse to stay off the freeway.

Enjoy man.

Palomar Mountain

Ohh man, I do loves me some 625 KTM! That is a great bike!