[yetibone]

I have a '97 XR650L, which is a nice bike that's well built, and durable. Parts are also easy to find when they're needed. Honda made a blue million of them from the early '90s 'till now, and they haven't changed much throughout they're span of production.

So, here's what I hate about it:

First and second gears are too far apart. On a slow trail, you need to go faster in first, without the BIG torque coming on right there at the speed you need to negotiate rocks, or tight trees. Second gear at that speed means slipping the clutch. If it were a six speed, this wouldn't be an issue.

The seats' hard. If you ride on the road, you'll want to stand up every 45 minutes after the first couple of hours, then every 30 minutes for the next couple of hours, and so on until you have to get off to stretch, and then scratch yourself all over.

It's buzzy. Real bad on the highway, but I've got DOT knobs that are more dirt, than street intended, but even when I wore the last set bald, the engine is still thumpy enough to be noticeable at higher RPM.

The fuel mileage is not as good as I expected. I can get about 90 road miles on a tank, before reserve.

No kick-start anymore, which isn't bad I guess because I doubt it would be easy to kick start anyway. Sucks though, when the battery is flat.