Honda XR600L - any good?

Kenny

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Have a chance ( not sure if I'll go for it - getting old; me and the bike !!:D ) for a Honda XR600L ( lekky start jobbie ) with 12,500 miles on her.
Looks a good un..anyone owned one?

:beerjug:
 

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Absolutely loved mine, just happened to be at Spike Island in Eastleigh when the van arrived from Italy, this was right by the door, I said I’d have it before the door was fully open.
 

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With some of the big XRs I think you need to look out for camshaft wear because they run in plain bearings.

If my memory can be trusted..!
 
Hi..you do realise that the bikes shown in both illustrated posts are XL trail models, as opposed to the enduro XR models?
Additionally, the dressed up Paris Dakar rally styled LM model was no more than a few body kit parts on an XL?
There are a great deal of differences in many ways between XL and XR models, despite them looking rather similar at first glance.
 
Get something more modern like a CRF 250 L if you want to do backroads and gravel tracks

You can pick them up for £2-3k
 
No you are right...my XR600LM cost me a damned fortune to have the head rebuilt ( I'd forgotten about that !:blast )

:D I think there's a fix which involved machining out the bearing faces and inserting roller bearings. Is that what you had done?
 
I was out with two Honda 650s yesterday. An XRL and an R, both very capable bikes.
 

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Have a chance ( not sure if I'll go for it - getting old; me and the bike !!:D ) for a Honda XR600L ( lekky start jobbie ) with 12,500 miles on her.
Looks a good un..anyone owned one?

:beerjug:

So did ya buy it and if not Where is the advert ??? ;)
 
:D I think there's a fix which involved machining out the bearing faces and inserting roller bearings. Is that what you had done?

The problem was usually the centre bearing, I think the fix was to fit shell bearings because the camshaft is in one piece, maybe roller at the ends? Complicated fix. The 650cc version lived-on until quite recently.

XR and XL are different bikes; XR is Enduro and not strictly road-legal (can be done), XL is road-legal with lights (and electric start for wusses :D).

XR is known as the Big Red Pig. Won everything in desert racing (Baja) in the 80s.

Probably not the best thing to start green-lining on. Huge.
 
I had a 650 Dominator last year - that had roller bearings each end of the camshaft.
I think you`d have to go a long way back to see the cam directly in the head, even the `87 parts fische have rollers on the cam.
The RFVC engine is quite nice - perky, willing, revvy and punchy, but runs out of puff for long distance stuff, ideal though for back lane blatting.

P1010002.jpg
 
I love these big Hondas. I still think the XL600R is a great looking bike.
 

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I had a 650 Dominator last year - that had roller bearings each end of the camshaft.
I think you`d have to go a long way back to see the cam directly in the head, even the `87 parts fische have rollers on the cam.
The RFVC engine is quite nice - perky, willing, revvy and punchy, but runs out of puff for long distance stuff, ideal though for back lane blatting.

P1010002.jpg

A mate had one of those for a while but it shit itself and died (the Honda not the mate)
 
I had 2 XR500's, around 1979 vintage they had cams which ran directly in the head
 


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