The legendary Honda XR400R review! Should Honda bring it back?︱Cross Training Adventure

http://crosstrainingenduro.com http://tractionerag.com This was a trip down memory lane, riding a Honda XR400 (more corectly the Honda XR400R) last week for the first time in 20 years. The first Honda XR400 came out in 1996 and it was a great dirt bike in its day. Bulletproof. Heaps of midrange power. Long travel suspension. Relatively light. I had an absolute ball on mine so here is our Honda XR400 review. It was capable on and off road, incredibly reliable. The only real known issue for the Honda XR400R was some could be tricky to kickstart once they were hot but I never had that issue. It was definitely a wheelie machine too. Excuse the old footage, but this was filmed before action cams were even available. Filmed to tape in glorious Technicolor. Plenty of guys were racing the Honda XR400 too, not surprising given the massive popularity of the XR600 in events like Baja. But everything was about to change. The era of the mainstream high performance four stroke was about to kick in, with the Yamaha WR400 in 1998 and KTM 400EXC in 2000. I can still remember riding a friend's brand new 400EXC, one of the first in Australia. I was staggered at how light, smooth and powerful it was. The XR 400R was introduced in 1996. Its frame, plastics and suspension components were similar to those of the XR250R, and it had a similar air-cooled engine with RFVC cylinder head technology. The XR400R had more suspension travel and a longer wheelbase than the XR250R of the same year. Many XR400Rs were heavily modified and raced. The 400 was perhaps the most versatile of the XR line-up; many were raced in amateur motocross and enduro events. Equipped with street-legal lighting it also worked reasonably well as a dual purpose bike. It was simple, reliable and long lasting. Hard to break and easy to fix. In 2004 Honda discontinued the XR400R. And I realised the days of the Honda XR400 being a great dirt bike were over. However, it was still a great dual sport bike and kept selling well. But then the Suzuki DRZ400 emerged, with water cooling, more power and an electric start. It became incredibly popular but instead of updating the XR400 Honda simply gave up in 2004 and discontinued it. Why? Who knows? In 2005 Honda released a motard version with an electric start but they detuned the engine and it never seemed to take off. The Honda XR series is a range of four-stroke off-road motorcycles that were designed in Japan but assembled all over the world. Some of the XR series came in two versions: R and L. The R version bikes were enduro machines designed for off-road competitive riding. They were fitted with knobby off-road tires and were not always street legal. The L version models were dual-sport trailbikes, fitted with lights, indicators, horn, and street-legal tires. The Honda XR400 engine continued to live on in a model called the Honda NX4 Falcon made in Brazil which is actually fuel injected and has an electric start and a big fuel tank. It would probably sell quite well but it's only available in Brazil. Everyone will have different opinions about the Honda XR400, but I wonder if the turn of the century is when Honda really started to lose the plot with their offroad bikes in many respects. Suzuki has sold a huge number of DRZ400s over the past two decades, why didn't Honda update the Honda XR400R and cash in as well? It would be great to be a fly on the wall at the Honda marketing meetings. What do you guys think? Has Honda made some weird decisions over the years? Should the XR range have continued? Keen to hear what you think. Small XR models include the XR50R, XR70R, XR75R, XR80R and XR100R. The sound effects are that of a two-stroke engine for dramatic effect. The XR50 is a small four-stroke 50 cc (3.1 cu in) child's entry level motorcycle, introduced in 1969 and still in production as the CRF50 in 2021. Originally it was called the Z-50, then Trail-50, the XR 50, CRF 50, and the mini dirt bike. They are much smaller in size in comparison to the other bikes in the series, and are designed for children, smaller riders, as pit bikes, or for recreational fun. The XR80R was used in the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day, ridden by a young John Connor ( Edward Furlong ). In some scenes the taller XR100R is used as Furlong's stunt double was an adult man.
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