Hello,
I'm looking at the Honda XR650R as my second bike. My other Bike is a Triumph Speed Triple, which is just a sweet and great ride with lots of torque, power and fun!

However I'm planing on visiting Romania and Eastern Europe next year (including the Enduromania) and at some point a trip to Morocco is also on the plate and after this lots more of dust biting on dirt roads

So what I'm looking for is a (second) bike with lots of off-road fun, reliability and at least somewhat of a travel ability.

So far I really like the XR650R. It's a Honda so I expect great reliability. The engine seems to be great, with lots of power and a smooth torque curve. There's also some aftermarket parts available that you need on a travel bike (like luggage racks, bigger tank [24 liters from acerbis],...).

In contrast to the XR650L it doesn't have an electrical starter (one less thing to break I guess), but I think I can handle the kick start. I have ridden (rented) XR250s extensively in South Eastern Asia and they were great as well (little underpowered though).

What I haven't been able to find out so far is what the street legal version includes and if there's anything missing, for example one review pointed out that there was no ignition lock on the bike, while another source said there was.

The only catch I see so far is that in Germany the only XR650Rs are grey imports, so there are not that many second hand bikes around. The subframe seems to be an issue as well, but I haven't found a lot about that either. So far I'm not planing to go rtw and not more than three or four weeks, so I'll probably be packing 20kgs (or so)... Would there be need for reinforcement?

At the moment there's one bike on the market with about 25.000km (little more than 15.000 miles). My gut says that's nothing for a Honda, right?

So has anybody any additional comments about that bike? Information about it in general (and especially about the ones imported into Germany) are pretty sparse so I would be grateful for anything at this point.

Thanks!!!

P.S.: Note that I'm talking about the XR650R, which is a watercooled single bike, developed from a Baja racebike. The XR650L on contrast is an air cooled single and an entirely different animal.

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Edit: Typos and some small stuff

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