Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

The XR's torquey motor does the trick in the tight stuff. (Below) Six hundred miles later, the Honda looks and runs as good as new. Reliability is one of the XR's best features. The only problem we ever had is when two bolts backed out of the plastic chain guide. Lo.,,-ter_ i_p.re88ion.: Six hundred miles on • Hond. XB350B By Kit Palmer Being a motorcycle journalist, I've had the chance to ride many different brands, types and sizes of motorcycles each year. Unfortunately, I always have to return test motorcycles to their manufacturers; but every now and then, I get a motorcycle I get attached to, and can't bear the thought of S8 returning. A case in point is the 1985 XR!50R Honda. Six months ago, I received the XR to test and I immediately knew I could never give up this motorcycle. So I bought it. Since then, the XR and I have been through many high points and very few low points together. The XR might not be the best suspended motorcycle in the world, nor have the most powerful motor around, but this motorcycle found a special place in my heart. Four-stroke motorcycles as a group have never really impressed me, since I've grown up racing and trial-riding two-strokes. I like having lightweight, powerful motorcycles, and two-strokes have always provided for me. When it comes to four-strokes, I figure if you want power, you have to ride something with 500cc or more, but they're too heavy. U you want a lightweight four-stroke, such as a 200cc or a 25Occ, you sacrifice horsepower. But the Honda XR!50 £ails between these two categories. I realized this the £irst time I ever rode the XR. It has decent horsepower, and it's light enough to throw around in the turns or climb over rocks. In £act, I was so much impressed by the way it performed. that when I had the chance to ride the IS DE qualifier in Trask, Oregon, I figured I had the best chance to do well on the XR. At Trask, my XR was totally box stock, except I had to add a rear view mirror and a hom to pass tech inspection. I didn't change fork oil, fiddle with the shock's damping and preload adjustments, replace handlebars - anything! And what did my XR and I get out of the race? A silver medal. The Trask qualifier took two days, covering over 200 miles. It's a fast-asyou-can-go, check-to-check race, without having any time at all to maintain the motorcycle, except for any few minutes gained by arriving early at a check. That's the only time I could work on the motorcycle without losing any time and points; that didn't maller, because I never had to work on it. To do well in a qualifier, you must ride the motorcycle as hard as you can for the duration of the race, and hope the bike doesn't break. It's an excellent way to test a motorcycle's performance and reliability, as well as the rider's ability to zig-zag through trees and rocks and ride fast over different types of terrain. I was very impressed with the XR!50. It did everything I wanted it to do. The XR had plenty of power to carry me up any hill I encountered, through mud and down long straights as fast as I needed, or could. Only on a few occasions I felt I could have used more power on top, when jamming up a long, sandy uphill. The Trask qualifier consisted mostly of tight switchback turns through trees, some wide-open dirt roads, rocks, stream crossings and mud. all of which the XR handled with ease. The only problem I encountered on Day One was entirely my fault when I mis-read an arrow and momentarily gotlosl. It cost me one minute (60 points). While those were the only points I lost on the trail, my special test times on a grass special test track (a motocross course) weren't to my liking. The first test, I crashed when I slid out on the dewy grass. My second test of the day was £air. Immediately after the finish of a day, all motorcycles are impounded, and riders can't touch them until 10 minutes prior to the start the next morning. That gave me just enough time to clean the air deaner; it's a breeze on the XR. AU it takes to remove the sidepanels is twisting two wire-equipped dzus fasteners on each sidepanel; squeezing two wire clips on the element aUows it to be removed; the whole job took me about three minutes. At the start of each day in a qualifier, the rider must start up his bike and ride the bike 60 feet under its own power within 60 seconds, or else the rider loses 60 points. It was at the start of Day Two that the XR let me down for the first and only time. It just wouldn't start. I had to push it the60 feet and lost 60 points. All of a sudden, three minutes later, it fired right up. I quickly mounted the XR and rode like a madman, hoping to reach the first check on or before my minute. I made the check right on my minute and made the second check a few minutes before. The rest o( the day went flaw lessly and [ didn 'tlose a single point. When the final points were tallied, it came down to this: U [ hadn't gotten lost OT if my XR had started on time the second day, I would've picked up a gold medal. It was that close, and I was very much impressed with the XR. My next adventure on the XR!50 was a three-day excursion through the Rocky Mountains in Colorado with 20 other riders from the motorcycle magazine industry, led by eighttime ISDE gold medalist Malcolm Smith. We covered over 250 miles, and the only modification I made to my XR after Trask was installing a new rear tire. The Rocky Mauntains are rugged, murder on motorcycles, but my XR took everything the Rockies had to offer. Rocks, of course, and extremely high altitudes were the major obstacles in the ride. [ put 20 pol,lnds of air pressure in each tire, filled the bike with gas and the XR was ready to go. I never had the time to jet the bike properly, so I left it at the stock setting. The highest altitude we reached was over 14,000 feet, and I was surprised that my XR motored up the -hills rather easily. It did cough and blubber slightly, but it was nothing I couJdn't live with. Jagged rocks were everywhere. In some places, I couldn't even see the

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