New 2001 XR650R owner

Hey there,

I just got myself a 2001 XR650R with a Baja Designs dual sport kit on it. Previous owner was a student of mine and knew I was looking for something bigger than my 1984 XL350R. (I was smart enough that last time I rode his bike I said "If you ever want to sell this, let me know".)

The bike seems to be in very good shape, and only needed fresh gas and a carb cleaning and she started right up. *he says, limping away

I'm kinda surprised, but she hasn't been uncorked yet. If the uncorking truly helps with easier starting, I'll definitely be doing that! I really want to put on a Britannia Composites Lynx fairing, HDB handguards, and a larger tank. She'll get a few of the standard farkles like guards and stuff to keep her running cool as a DS bike.

Anybody here know which oversize gas tanks work with the Lynx and also provide enough room to put a fan on the radiator, or would I be better off bailing on the fan and getting Fluidyne radiators?

Regardless, looking forward to many miles on this steed, and to learning about her peculiarities and quirks. Hope to see you out on the trails!

Cheers!
Dan

Hi Dan,
The fact your bike is corked or uncorked shouldn't make any difference to starting...either way they should start easily; are you sure your doing it right, I can start mine in slippers and normally first kick and away she goes.
Welcome to the forums and post some pictures of your new baby.

Thanks Mauser.

I've found the most important factor in starting it is that little tiny slide on the light switch that does the engine kill. (Seems important! LOL) I'm still used to the large kill switch on the right hand side of my XL350R.

I go through the whole TDC/decompression routine a couple of times, and then go right to "screw that I'm just gonna kick her over!" She'll start up after a couple more kicks. I think I'm still so used to the relatively easy kick required for my XL.

I thought that I'd read on here that the uncorking did make them easier to start though. I think I'll still uncork her, and I'm hoping that another cleaning and some tuning will provide me with what I want. She does seem to run much smoother as the throttle gets poured on, and feels like she's surging at idle/low throttle after being run hard.

I'll post pics as soon as I figure out where I'm going to get my pictures "hosted". Whatever that means... Is there one place that most of the folks here use because it's easy and reliable? (I'm rarely on a desktop/laptop. I'm pretty much a phone guy.)

Cheers!
Dan

welcome  

get ready for a surprise [ around 15hp], there's a major difference in store for you, if your going to do long distance, better have an iron butt, or get the seat upgraded, type in' seat concepts' on google, mine's road legal , love' b 'road riding, gravel rallying impressions, trail rides +abit off supermono impressioning, the brp.. does everything

if your planning on puttering through traffic jams, or idling through deserts, fit the fan, if not, flag it &fit a 1.8 rated radiator cap, the chinese twin core rads do as good a job as the fluidynes, and they're are a third of the price, im wary of the never boil coolants, as you can warp your cyl head if you dont notice your mtr's overheating, the only time ive had heating issues is when stuck behind some slow rider on single track trail rides[ till i blast pass them ]

temporary kiwi wrote:if your planning on puttering through traffic jams, or idling through deserts, fit the fan, if not, flag it &fit a 1.8 rated radiator cap, the chinese twin core rads do as good a job as the fluidynes, and they're are a third of the price, im wary of the never boil coolants, as you can warp your cyl head if you dont notice your mtr's overheating, the only time ive had heating issues is when stuck behind some slow rider on  single track trail rides[ till i blast pass them ]

Where do you get these Chinese radiators from, which site?

i got mine off our local version of ebay, its called trademe, ive heard they sell them on american ebay, probably something simular where you live?