You must have missed a lot of the late 1980s. Seems the Honda XL350R won dual sport bike of the year in 1985 with an incredibly good engine and decent if non-adjustable suspension. Had to be the 85 for the engine with the good torque delivery, the earlier ones had more horsepower at the sacrifice of rideability. 9" front and 8" rear suspension, front disc, and not horrible with a claimed 302 lb - with a six speed to boot,



The XL200R was very good for a 200 having Pro Link rear suspension and a proven strong engine - with the odd possibility for the tinkerer to replace it with an ATC200 engine to get an auto clutch set up, but that's beside the point and more an oddity.

Just sayin' the Honda XL series was pretty darn good through the 80s.



I'm never wrong! Well... not in this case... and absolutely always wrong when the wife says so...

1979 KLX250

 

Hmm, I'll keep that in mind. Its been a while since i did the 351 and related jetting, and the ol' klx doesn't get run too much anymore since i got the Husky. It pulls pretty hard with the 135 in there, so id be impressed if the 152 made much of a difference. Will have to look in the bag of jets i bought way back when, and see what other sizes i have.
Thanks, Dan

 

N. Illinois elevations, and given its' current configuration - Oh yeah, you'll be impressed..

Just be sure to pull off the lid with K152/N1TC@2N.. Also, I'm assuming you're running the stock slide spring on that drilled slide..

 

This is a good thread.

 

Yeah deej, small words, nice pictures..

 

Yeah stock spring, and the lid is pretty well ventilated , snorkle pulled and probably 6, 1" dia hole bored in lid. When i'm at elevation in Co I'v found that to get it to run ok i need to pull the lid. Not a fan of the sound from the open airbox but could overlook it with the right power increase.

Pics

 

I had one of those '79 KLX250's. A pretty creative combination of mating a '78 KX125 chassis with a slightly modded KL250 engine. The engine produced a whopping 18 hp in stock trim, but you could ride that thing wide open because it handled so good...and it wasn't heavy. With slight mods like we do with our KLX's, the power was a reasonably torquey result.

Four of us at the motorcycle shop I worked at part time owned these bikes during a period when we were all racing the full enduro circuit in my state. All of us were in the "B" class which is the same distance as the "A"/Expert class. For our whole year's effort in the whole season, one guy won the entire 250B class. Another guy installed a Powroll 318cc kit on his and won the Open B (unlimited displacement) class. I placed 2nd in 250B for the year. This is over a 14 race series with the 250cc class being the most populated and most competitive.

These crazy, little, ancient KLX250's were handling fools with outstanding suspension for the era. Power ain't everything when you can't use it all.

 

So nice to be an old fart listening to other old farts talking about old fart stuff, doze off, miss dinner and Rawhide/Bonanza/Have Gun will Travel/That Girl/The Flying Nun/Family Affair/I Dream of Jeanie/Bewitched/The Dick Van Dike Show/Green Acres/Green Hornet/Time Machine/Twilight Zone/Mission Impossible....

Shhh, Gpa's asleep at the keyboard again, yall keep it down..

 

They looked awesome. I was riding an old Bultaco Pursang 175 with forward mounted shocks on a self-modified swing arm and my friend had I think a 77 Maico 250.

It would probably still be a fun ride if a disc front brake was grafted on it. I remembered Kaw had an ad where the rider was crossing water with the front wheel three feet in the air.

Sorry to wake you up KLXter...

 

Yeah, I was dreaming I was on a Greeves being chased by "Festus" riding a Rickman..