Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127413
both worked, and I figured that if the XR we p lanned to ride was half as good as the ones I had previously rid den, we'd be stylin'. And we were! Within the first few miles, I fell in love with the bike. The motor was simply awesome. Prior to riding it, I was con cern ed that the XR would be too powerfu l for my forearms to handle in such a' long race, but I q uickly learned tha t even though the kitted XR was significantly more powerful than stock, it didn't pr ema turely tire ou t my a rms . T he power delivery was so smooth that I had no problems wh atsoever holding onto the handlebar s. T his year, th e first section of the Baj a course featured a lot of two-track dirt roads, and on them the 628 perform ed flawle ssly. Just rolling on th e throttle coming ou t of th e turns mad e the rear tire slide a little bit, then hook up nicely, and - violal - spit you down the strai gh t to th e next tu rn like you were shot out of a cannon. Since the p ower came on so smoothly and contro ll a bly, sometimes th e tu rns wou ld come up a littl e bit quicker than expected, and a big handful of brake was req uired to slow dow n in time. Lucki ly, both front and rea r brakes were plenty stron g. When the trail tig ht ened up and became rougher, once again, the motor responded nicely . The smooth powerband combined with a mellow hit made the 628 extremely easy to control. The on ly time I cursed the XR, admittedly out loud, was when trying to star t the bike after stalling it whe n I came upon a deep ravine in the middle of a corn field while hauling along in fourth gear. As the dus t from another compe titor ah ead of me dis- (Above) The 628cc factory race kit for the XR600, offered by Honda, will set you back approximately $1000, but in our opinion, it's well worth the price if you're serious about racing. It's a perfect investment for high-speed off-road racing, such as the Baja 1000. appeared over the horizon, I was left behind, kicking the kickstar ter lever over and over again, until, for no particularreaso n, it fired right up. The whole ordeal took only abo ut two mi nutes, but, at the time, it seemed mo re like two hours. After my first 105-mile section, I handed the bike over to teammate Geoff Sanborn, whose first section was the "Summit," an extremely rocky and technical part of the cou rse, which eventually led to a deep sandwash and a sectiori of whoops. Geoff, who owns and races a 1988 Honda XR600, was eq ually impressed with the 628, especially the motor. He felt the motor was (Above) Not incl uded in the kit bu t highly recommended is a Super T rapp muffler, as well as a K&N ai r filte r. (Left) T he Dunlop K695E rear tire laste d the entire race. (Bottom left) Dual Cibie hea dlights lit the way. -- very responsive and controllable wh en negotiating thr ough the big rocks and p lenty powerful for the deep sand. My second stint in the saddle was a 120-mile section referred to as the southern loop, or the Matomi Wash section, which included a var iety of terrain: some extremely fast straights, deep sand, and rocks. Sin ce the XR is not exactly light, it required a little , bit of work in the deep sand, and the extra horsepower created by the 628 kit was helpful. As lon g as you kept momentum up and didn 't sink into the sand, it wasn't too bad After prerunning his sections of the cour se on a 350cc four-stroke, Kinney Jones, the third member of our team, admitted after the race, that he was dreading a long section of whoop-dedoos. It was all for naught, however, as he came in following the dreaded whoop section with a big grin on his face. He also couldn't believe how well the XR performed Jones attributed much of thi s to the new cartridge fork that comes stock on the '92 XR600, and th e power of the 628cc motor. Just past the halfway point of the ' race, with the sun already setting, we install ed the ligh ts. The whole process took less than a minute to complete, then Geoff hea ded off into the neardarkness. H e rode another 80 mi les before handi ng the bike back to Kinney, who set out on a l70-mile midni ght ride. It was during th is sectio n of the race when the fron t tire went flat and, shortly thereafter, Jones hit a rock and crashed, breaking the bottom headligh t mount and banging his knee. Riding the last 70 miles of his sectio n on a fron t flat tire wi th th e headlights bouncin g up and dow n , and in pain, Kinney did an incredible job of nursing the bi ke into the p its where Geoff waited. After changing the fron t wheel and poundin g the headlight bracket back in to shape, Geoff rode th e last 60 miles to th e finish .line. Our team finished fourth in Class 30 (for riders 30 to 39 years of age) and 18th overall. Although th e XR looked a little the wo rse for wear, it surv ived the Baja 1000 extremel y well. The only damage we found were a few healthy dings in the rims, a bent Iootpeg , and tweaked headlights. As for the motor, it felt as fresh crossing the finish line as it did on the star ting line, and th e only ma inten ance we p er for m ed on it du ring the 761-mile race was topping off th e engi ne oil every 200 miles or so, and replacing th e air filt er once. Even the K695E Dunlop rear tire we used held up well , lasting the entire race, although it was wasted and shoul d'v e been repl aced. When it was all over, Ogilvie asked, "Well, what did you think of the bike? Would you spend $1000 on the kit?" Let 's just say that as soon as Geoff got home from Mexico , he slapped a " For Sale " sign on his XR, sold it, and bought a brand new '92 XR600 with th e 62&c big-bore kitl Does that answer your question, Bruce? 0'1 61