Articles - Projects

The Honda XR650L is a capable adventure machine, but like many motorcycles, it has its weak spots. While we've previously covered the notorious CDI failures, today we're diving into the transmission-related issues that affect XR650L owners. Based on our years of experience helping our customers with the XR650L, as well as its dual-sport peers like the Suzuki DR650 and the Kawasaki KLR650, here's what you need to know about keeping your XR's drivetrain running strong.

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The Honda XR650L's CDI unit is well-known as one of the bike's m

We are excited to continue work on our project XR650L with the installation of a skid plate from B&B Off Road Engineering!

In this short video, Tom and Rob replace the stock armor on our XR with a beefy 1/8”-thick aluminum skid plate. This is a must-do upgrade to help protect vital components and keep you from becoming stranded while riding off-road.

Happy 2024! We have been hard at work on our new project bike for this year. Hot on the heels of our TW200, we’re excited to introduce our project Honda XR650L! We’ve also been working with vendors to develop new products, so stay tuned. Check out our intro video!

It’s been about a year since we started work on our Project Yamaha TW200, and the transformation has been huge! Tom and Mike put together a video to showcase all that we’ve done to improve the bike.

Starting from the bottom up, we replaced the stock wheels with a 17x3.5” rear and a 19x2.75” front, giving us a lot more tire options. We were finally able to get a knobby set of tires on the TW, and the upgraded wheels and tires provide a much more direct road feel.

By now, most of you are familiar with our project Yamaha TW200 and our attempt to bring more aftermarket support to this wonderful little machine. As part of these efforts, we have been continually working with our suppliers to test and develop new parts and bring them to market. One of these items, which we worked on with Rick's Motorsports, is a larger stator for the TW200, so that our customers can power up more electronic gizmos. Like with all freshly installed items, particularly a new product, we needed to take our rig out on a test ride.

We recently completed all the “Stage 1” modifications to our Project TW200.

We significantly improved the responsiveness and power curve with:

• DG RST Exhaust
• Uni Air Filter
• ProCycle Jet Kit

We improved the ergonomics, particularly for taller riders, with:

We wanted to improve our support for a long time favorite in the dual sport market,the Yamaha TW200, so we started a project bike! The TW200 is a motorcycle that first saw light back in 1987 and has undergone minimal changes through the years. You can still pick one up brand new at your local Yamaha dealership. We picked up our 2021 TW200 pre-loved from a ProCycle customer here in Oregon. We bought it in great shape, with the only modification being a different front tire. We will start from scratch and create a video series on building out the bike with different stages of modification.