I've got a '94 XR650L that I've owned since new. Although it's old school technology compared to today's Dual Sports, it's a good solid bike. Lots of aftermarket stuff available, so you'll have no problem setting it up the way you want it. It's interesting that in nearly 20 years of production, nothing has changed aside from color, so getting OEM parts won't be an issue.

It's hard to believe that someone would have welded the front sprocket onto the output shaft... they must have somehow stripped the splines on the shaft.

I've got an IMS 4.0 gallon tank on mine. I believe ACERBIS offer an even larger tank, something like 6.5 gallons.

I haven't seen the Flexx bars... I'm running Renthal bars on both my XR's.


Mike

 

XR650 was my first bike I ever bought. Memories .................

 

Howdy MotoMike. Have you had any issues with the starter ? Mine seems to have crapped out this past week. I bought a rebuild kit off Amazon but I haven't taken the starter off yet.

Have you experimented much with different tires ? I recently mounted up some Shinkos, can't remember the model off hand. So far they are working great and the price was right. I was surprised how well they did on wet pavement. Time will tell how well they wear.

I dropped 5 teeth on the rear sprocket. It was a big change but it works good for primarily road use. The previous owner(s) messed with the jetting and I haven't gotten in there yet to see how its set up. The spark plug looks ok. Big Gun muffler is loud, I'd like to quiet it down some. When I first started riding it, it proved to be a little fussy about starting. After learning what it likes I haven't had any more trouble.

 

Haven't had any starter issues at all, after 18,000 miles.

I've had a wide variety of tires mounted over the years... After the originals wore out, I had a set of IRC GP-110's, which were very much street oriented and worked great on the pavement, very smooth, but totally sucked on any kind of loose, rough surface. After just a couple thousand miles I swapped those out for a set of full off road knobby Metzeler's, as most of my riding was off pavement. After a few more sets of full knobby tires, I am now running Michelin T-63 DOT Dual Sport knobby tires, which are very good off road, and behave reasonably well on the pavement. Still, they are not a high mileage pavement tire. Sounds like you want a tire that is at least 75% pavement oriented to get a reasonable amount of miles out of them.

I went up a couple teeth on the rear, which made 2nd gear more usable for tight, slower single tracks. Your taller final drive ratio should work well for your road trip, as that motor has gobs of torque and should have no problem pulling the tall ratio.

As for jetting, once you have it dialed in for your area in Ohio, I'd bring a couple Main Jets of the next two smaller sizes for your trip out west when you go up in elevation. You wouldn't hurt the engine if you don't re-jet for altitude, it will just be running a little on the rich side, and won't pull as well especially with the taller sprockets. Still, it's easy enough to re-jet for altitude, so it's worth doing, IMO. Just make sure that you go back to your low altitude Main Jet when you drop back down into the flatlands.

For the high temps out here in the desert southwest, you will want nothing less than a good quality 20w-50 motorcycle oil in the crankcase. 10w-40 oil won't cut it for these big air cooled thumpers in the high heat of summer.