RIDING THE HONDA XR150L: THE WRAP

 

We’ve been riding a Honda XR150L for a couple of weeks now and loving it! It’s a legitimate dual-sport bike that’s approved by every government agency that has a say in the matter, and it sells for $3099. You could have four of them for the price of one Husky dual-sport! It’s been taken to the track on every test day and photoshoot as a work mule.

There are motorcycles that cost less than the XR150L, and some of them have all the equipment to look street legal. Most are fake. In order to be legitimate on the street, a bike must be approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation. Some states will issue a license tag for virtually anything, but they leave it to local law enforcement to sort out legitimacy. Very few of the imports from mainland Asia have actually gone through the expensive and time-consuming certification process required by the U.S. federal government. The Honda XR150L has, and somehow, it’s still less expensive than most of the purchase-on-line counterfeit dual-sports.

It’s easy to see where Honda shaved production costs. The little XR uses technology from 30 years ago. It has an air-cooled, two-valve motor with a real-live carburetor. Don’t ask us how that slipped by. The rear wheel has a drum brake and the suspension is non adjustable. It does have electric start, a six-speed gearbox and a hydraulic front disc brake. If you want to jump in a time machine, you can go back to 1995 and pay $3149 for a Suzuki DR125ES with most of the same features.

The XR150L is cheap transportation that happens to be capable of off-road excursions. The XR has performance that’s similar to a Yamaha TT-R125, but with considerably more weight. It comes in around 270 pounds without fuel, whereas most small-bore four-stroke trail bikes are about 200 pounds. You have to plan all your off-road adventures with that in mind. Hard-core trail riding and racing are off the table.

Here’s what you can do with an XR150L:

• You can commute to work or school.
• You can go on leisurely trail rides as long as you trade the stock tires for rubber with real knobbies.
• You can put it on the bumper of your motorhome for transportation around the campsite.
• You can go over 70 miles on a gallon of gas.
• You can get away with very little maintenance. Nothing will break, but you might have to charge the battery and oil the chain.
• You use it for transportation in the pits at the track.
• You can sell it for almost as much as you paid in two or three years.

Here’s what you shouldn’t do with the XR:

• Don’t try to keep up with full-time off road bikes. The weight and ground clearance are the two biggest limitations, followed by suspension and–oh, yeah–horsepower.
• Don’t go hill-climbing. The stock tires are too street-oriented and the stock gearing is too tall. On the flip side, the clutch can deal with surprising abuse and doesn’t fade.
• Don’t jump anything. Again, the bike will put up with abuse, but make no mistake, jumping more than a few feet on the XR is abuse.

We will have a full test of the XR150L in the July, 2024 print edition of Dirt Bike.

THE OUTDOOR NATIONALS START HERE

Media day took place on Thursday for the opening round of the 2024 National Motocross season at Fox Raceway. Connor Moore was there for us with a preview of who’s hot.

Sadly, there won’t be a network broadcast–you have to subscribe to Peacock in order to watch all the National MX events live. Thunder Valley on June 8, however, will have a NBC show. Here’s how it will breakdown throughout the season.

ERZBERG NEXT WEEK

The 2024 Erzberg Rodeo will take place next week, with qualifying on Friday and Saturday when 1,308 participants will take on the  15-kilometre-long  Iron Road Prologue. The selective, high-speed gravel track, peppered with a number of chicanes, winds its way from the start next to the Red Bull Erzbergrodeo Arena across the open-cast mining tracks of the Erzberg compound to the finish. The riders start individually, with the faster of the two running times deciding victory.

The Red Bull Erzbergrodeo main race on Sunday is generating a lot of interest this year. In 2024, the legendary signature checkpoint Carl’s Dinner will be served in the first half of the race. Carl’s Dinner is a section of the track littered with boulders, some as high as a man, that demands everything from the riders and requires excellent riding technique. With a total length of 3,700 metres (divided into 3 sections), the section is considered one of the toughest tests in Hard Enduro sport. “By moving Carl’s Dinner to the first half of the race, we want to give as many participants as possible the chance to experience this iconic section with all its challenges for themselves. We are expecting around 200-250 riders in Carl’s Dinner this year, so spectacular motorsport action is definitely guaranteed. Extreme Enduro athletes love to take on the most difficult tasks and the Red Bull Erzbergodeo offers exactly this challenge!”, says Karl Katoch…

The other track highlights are of course also back on the Red Bull Erzbergrodeo menu in 2024: with 24MX Wasserleitung (CP1), Blakläder Zentrum am Berg (CP4), Wacker Neuson (CP6), George Avenue (CP12), Machine (CP14), Elevator (CP17), Motorex Highway (CP23) and Dynamite (CP25), all the classics await the 500 qualified starters on Sunday. The international live stream on Red Bull TV will be hosted by Pat Parnell and Ed Leigh as well as experts Darryl Curtis, Billy Bolt and race reporter Paul Bolton on Sunday, 2 June from 12:30 pm. The international livestream will also be available to Red Bull Erzbergrodeo visitors on site in the Acerbis Action Arena.

See you next week!