As I am approaching 50, three years away... projects, no matter the age, take a while to develop. I currently ride a ATK605DS & Honda XR400 but there have been many times were I wished I had a smaller dual sport bike. While spelunking around on ThumperTalk, I have discovered this thread by "Chuck4788" titled: Honda XR200 Weight Reduction.
"Several members have posted their conversion projects on this forum; the most popular seem to involve stuffing an XR200 motor into a MX chassis. I have one of those in my garage and while it is a good bike I thought I could make some improvements in my search for a more “perfect” bike for the type of trail riding I currently ride. A long time riding buddy and I have been fussin with riding dirt bikes since the mid sixties and thru the years our riding and priorities have evolved, and the bikes have ranged from open class MX bikes used in the desert to Trials bikes. Also during this time we have had a variety of XRs in our stables and the power delivery of the XR200 engine seems to suit the type of trail riding we currently like to do. During this past year we have been attempting to define an ideal bike for our use on technical trails in the PNW, we started by riding different types of bikes in side by side comparisons, and evaluating the results to find what we thought suited our riding style and terrain. I tend to focus on improving suspension and he focuses on light weight, as a result we have some lively discussions, and different bikes. At this point I’m just a recreational rider that likes single track along with some tight technical stuff, plus mountain trails with switchbacks and stair steps. My friend has a really cool Montessa Trials bike (Honda owns Montessa and this bike has a Honda 250 EFI Unicam engine); while it has one of the best engines for trail riding attempting to make the chassis trail worthy would require a lot of work including suspension upgrades. This engine would be my engine of choice for a trail bike. The 450 bikes just have too much power and weight for tight woods. MX bikes have a nice chassis but too long a wheelbase for tight trails. Two strokes are short on good low speed torque but I like their power delivery and light weight. Mini bikes have the light weight but lack enough tractable power; but most important is that the ergonomics of the cockpit are terrible for an adult on a long ride. So let’s get started."
Here is his thread:
http://www.thumpertalk.com/topic/720551-xr200r-weight-reduction/
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