ATK 560 Rotax 1985

[Marc.com]

It's not that. I was just waiting for some other outrageous claim from our off-shore 'Good 'ol Boy'. Thought you might have been eating the fish or something.....
[/quote]

No having read about Minamata disease (absorption of Mercury through fish) earlier I decided the coastal sushi was a little too spicy.

Anyways the claim that an XR600 could hammer on an MX track wasn't too outrageous, if I had claimed a BMW Funduro (Rotax engine ) could do it now that would be more outrageous,,,

[mustanggrahame]

I'm normally fairly easy going with people's opinions about different manufacturers products. But when it comes to XR's being pucka race bikes, I can't keep quiet. They are excellent trailbikes, no more. I know heaps of developement work has been done to them, and I was racing in the era of Glen Bell, at the Thumpernats. Fantastic riders winning on hotted up trailbikes does not mean that the bike is a winner.
Honda did a great marketing campaign with the XR, Australian Safari and Thumpernats wins included, but this was achieved through lots of money and talented riders. Just my opinion.
Cheers, Grahame.

[Marc.com]

They are excellent trailbikes, no more. I know heaps of developement work has been done to them, and I was racing in the era of Glen Bell, at the Thumpernats. Fantastic riders winning on hotted up trailbikes does not mean that the bike is a winner.

Can't disagree Graeme, but I think one of the issues was that their was a big gap between the 74 CCM and another purpose built 4 stroke MXer the YZ400 turning up. In the meantime discounting Armstong, ATK and the weird ones you were pretty much stuck with Husky (ok and CCM) as the only purpose built 4 stroke MXer.

By purpose built I mean the engine and suspension were set up for MX rather than just knocking the lights off your trail bike like arguably the LC4 and others were. so I guess with pre 90 or pre 85 4 strokes you basically choose which Enduro converts to MX best, TT600 was HEAVY, LC4 was expensive and not common, Xr did the business. Also of course the tracks make a difference, in the green grass of NZ you would do much better on an XR as mentioned by Craig than wooped out sand track.