1996 xr650l engine upgrade?

[Chitown]

Hello,bought a 96 xr650l off Craigslist for $1500.from what Guy told me it was in storage for 4 years.registration was correct to this.he put new battery in.bike started and ran other than a bend in back rim on one side it looked stock vIolet and white.3500 or so miles it said sounded awesome.i bought it.oil was horrible.so after getting it home and riding it around I realized speedo didn't work,Lol but that means odometer doesnt work either so who knows how many miles is on bike.Well that has almost 4 months ago,and I'm not lieing when I say It's my daily driver.grant it I only work 4miles from home.work or girlfriends where ever,I drive it ever day.rain snow sleet normal Chicago weather.i give it a oil/plug change ever month.i have fallin in love with it.starts every time,have nothing bad to say about the bike,other than broken speedo.i believe bike to be original.i wondering what engine upgrade are out there.from pipe to big bore what works and what breaks.need more......

[ScottRNelson]

Add a free flowing pipe, open up the airbox a bit, do "Dave's Mod" on the carburetor and you'll have most of the easy stuff done. There are dozens of threads in here on each of these topics. Search back through the topics a bit.

If you want more serious power, have some head work done, different cams, high compression piston, and maybe enlarge the engine. But then you start running into reliability problems in several different areas.

Do the easy stuff first and see if you're happy with the bike. I have no desire to heavily modify the engine on mine, since it has enough power, and I like the reliability.

Edited June 11, 2013 by ScottRNelson

[HeadTrauma]

Welcome to TT.

Please refer to the FAQ thread pinned at the top of this forum. Your question is very frequently asked.