XR650R 1x Baja 1000 Replica Build

The IMS tank and forks from Mikey Childress's Baja race bike arrived this week so the forks are off for a service soon as they have been sat for a while. They do feel totally different to my stock forks though, even just pushing on them.

The tank is the 3.2 gallon natural dry-break tank. IMS told me that around 2002 they changed the plastic so that the natural tank would not discolour as much from the fuel, and I am not sure if mine is post/pre that change. Either way it looks nice right now

There is still some tweaking to do under the plastics including fitting the Fluidyne radiators once they arrive (and when I can afford them!), but I have put the plastics on to get some photos and below are the results so far:

what's with the expansion chamber just before the silencer? i would also like to see how your air filter works in the airbox with that batwing.

looks nice. keep up the good work.

laramie

It's for more powa! The XRSonly looks like the same pipe minus the silencer.

As Crypto says, it is a power gain. In short these were never sold to the open market and were purely race pipes designed specifically for the XRR'S and its Baja participation, and below is the difference between the mass-produced Pro Circuit of a similar age:


XR's only was essentially a copy of the same design as the Pro Circuit (race pipe). You will notice mine has the 'quiet' insert which makes the exit a little smaller. This is fitted so that when I do eventually fire her up I don't give my elderly neighbours a heart attack! The race pipe is the full diameter of the chrome tip you can see in the photos.

Interestingly my system is an XR's only header as I couldn't find the headers to buy separately. I have however since managed to get my hands on the full PC system which was on the exact 1x Baja winning bike from 2005 that I am replicating, so the build will be even better than a replica, so far I have forks, tank, front brake and exhaust system that all have connection with the real bike or its riders. :)

Not that it matters, but I am pretty sure my xrso pipe (race edition) is similar to the one on the right with the larger chamber, except I think it has a larger silencer as well. So I don't believe the xros are copies of the mass produced pipe on the left.

That build is looking sweet. It is destined to be put on display behind glass, with really hot chicks gaurding it.

Totally right Crypto, I now see that my post was ambiguous so have edited it - the XRS race pipe was a copy of the PC race pipe (on the right), still beautifully made by hand I believe and essentially the same except for the silencer which was a wider diameter (oval too I think) and had changeable red tips.

Thanks, yes it is looking too good to ride so I may have to re-evaluate my plan to still ride it regularly when it's finished I have to say that after months of studying photos and gathering information and parts I became so focused on the original that every time I now uncover my bike I spend ages staring at it from all angles as it is starting to look just like the photos did - which I guess is a sign of a good replica build?

how about a pic of the airbox w/ filter so i can see how it works with that batwing?

thanks,

laramie

Hi Laramie, there is a photo of the air box near the beginning of this build report with the Batwing fitted. Were you wanting a pic of it fitted to the bike without the filter screen?

i want to see what kind of filter is used. i saw all the pics of the airbox and batwing, i'm just having a hard time seeing how it all goes together with a filter. the one thing i hate about my xr400 is the stupid airbox and filter. would love to find something else i could use.

thanks,

laramie

I see. The filter is the OEM foam filter which goes over the screen you can see fitted in the above photo. The XRR side cover then holds the filter tight to the screen. The batwing is shaped so that it doesn't touch the inside face of the screen. I will try get a few photos of it close up.

just looked it up in the parts file. i see how it works now. wonder if i could jimmy one of these into my xr400? cant even begin to tell you how much i hate the stock box and filter set-up on that bike.

thanks,

laramie

Interesting, I haven't had a XR400 but the old 250's were pretty easy to maintain. Problem with an air box is the small tolerances involved in getting a good seal.

The 1x Baja bike did away with the clunky stock clutch perch. They went for Works Connection's Pro perch which is now discontinued.

The difficulty I had was first finding one on Ebay in the USA, then trying to track down the long decompression lever to replace the common 'hot start' lever which is much shorter and it doesn't work for the decomp because you would need the thumbs of Zeus to get enough power into the silly little lever.

I knew I wouldn't find one for sale with the decomp so I set about contacting Shawn at Works Connection who informed me that Ballards in Australia would have to special order it as they are the distributors of WC products in Australia. Three months it took to get a phone call from Ballards informing me the lever had arrived. Great - well that's what I thought until I realised they had ordered another silly hot start lever, which I already had three spares from the Ebay perch I bought!

An email to Shawn and two weeks later he fast-tracked the correct lever from the States. In the mean time I took my sun-kissed perch components to get re-anodized in red to match the new bling bits.

The results -







The WC lever is shorter than the stock decomp lever and it is operated by your thumb rather. It is however quite a bit longer than the hot start lever.

Howdy brother. Just read your post for the first time. I have that perch sitting in my garage. You are welcome to it for the price of postage. I took it off to convert my racer into a freak supermotard with CBR parts. Clutch is now hydraulic. I'll snap a few pics and post in a few days after I get back from a biz trip.

Jerry

www.maxdumaz.com

Thanks Jerry that would be great!

This is worth watching so I will be subscribed!! :eek1

I wonder if that decomp lever would fit in a ASV setup?
I talked to a guy at ASV to see if I could convince them to make one, I even provided them a design for a slick retrofit fold-away extension for the HS lever, but the guy I talked to (also a xrr rider) wasn't interested.

Great to have you along for the ride!

I have noticed that some of the older ASV perches look remarkably similar to the WC stuff, so much so that I originally thought they were the same company doing two ranges.

I wouldn't know if the long lever would work on the ASV, but if you need any measurements etc. just let me know!

So few bikes had the decomp, even WC themselves took two attempts to send me the correct lever so I can only imagine the market is very small, hence why they don't care.

Love the avatar