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/127804
·RIDINGIMPRESSION 1997 Honda XR400R two-stroke riders buying the bike and fanning the heck out of the clutch," . Ogilvie theorized. He also pointed out that the small metal piece between the clutch lever and the plastic hand guard designed to keep the hand guard from being pushed in by brush can get bent inward against the lever, thus eliminating freeplay. The lack of freeplay can cause premature clutch-plate wear, resulting in burned-out clutches. The XR400 also suffered carburetion problems last year ('96), and to our disappointment, so does the '97. Our first ride on the new ('97) XR400 again.. revealed a noticeable hesitation, or burble, off the bottom. Evidently, the 36mrn Keihin carburetor on the 400 comes jetted from Japan without the noise-reducing diffuser installed in the muffler, an~ this, Ogilvie believes, causes the XR to run rich off'the 15ottom. This leaves us with a choice. Do you pull out the diffuser at the expense o.f approximately six decibels (89dbs with the diffuser, approximately 95dbs without), or do you leave the diffuser in and rejet? Since most of our riding on the XR400 would be on the trails, on public lands, we chose the less-noticeable route - leave .the diffuser in. However, we discarded the plastic noise su ppressor on top of the airbox. Not only does the suppressor reduce noise, but airflow as well. The human ear can't tell the difference with or without the suppressor. At least ours can't. Following Ogilvie's recommenp.ations, we changed the stock #162 main jet to a leaner #158 jet; swapped the #62 pilot jet for a leaner #60 jet, and readjusted the pilot screw (which adjusts the fuel! air mixture after it goes through the pilot jet) to two and three-quarters to three turns out (our test bike came. one and three-:quarters out, and, according to Ogilvie, most bikes come set at two and one-quarter turns). Ogilvie also gave us a "special" dualtapered needle (part number] 6012NKK-OOO), a part that won't be availabl.e to the public until the end of October. We installed the new needle (#AI6A; stock #6DF) with the clip set at the number-three position. The XR400 comes stock with a foam By Kit Palmer Photos by Cameron Coatney o longer is the Honda XR400R the most eagerly awaited motorcycle of the decade. Well, maybe not for those who couldn't get their hands on the first crop of the all-new XR400R. Those who hesitated, lost out. Only a few months after the first XR400 hit the showroom floors, they were already long gone. Sold out. As a result, Honda reintroduces the 397cc XR400 as an early-release model for 1997, and, as expected, the new XR400 isn't radically changed over the '96 model. In fact, it's hardly changed at all. The first year of a brand-new model, such as the XR400, you can expect some teething problems. In the case of the 400, one such problem with the '96 model was the clutch. Many XR400 owners experienced fried clutches. So, in response, Honda installed stiffer clutch springs in the '97 model and made refinements in'the clutch's lubrication N The Honda XR400R's encore performance Is much like Its first ,very good. Right out of the crate, however, the 400 stili needs some carburetlon finetuning. Once dialed, the XR400R runs really good. cure system. But was that enough to the problem? According to Bruce Ogilvie, of American Honda's product evaluation department, it was. "We believe that most of the burnedout clutches didn't really have much to do with the design of the clutch," Ogilvie said. "After all, it's basically the same clutch design in our other XRs and they haven't had any problems." So what caused all the burned clutches? "People running synthetic oils and filter element; a change to a gauze element will require further (richer) jetting changes. We left the filter alone; after all, Team Honda runs foam filters in its race bikes. And there's more. ....