Baja Commander

BAJA COMMANDER

One man’s idea of the ultimate XR

AL BAKER KNOWS A THING OR TWO ABOUT BAJA. He’s raced there 20 times and come away with his share of trophies, including four outright wins. Al Baker knows a thing or two about four-strokes. As a teenager he scorched the California countryside on a 650 Triumph “desert sled," and later helped Honda develop its XR series of off-road bikes. If you have a Honda XR (we did) and want to race it in Baja (we did) Al Baker is the man to see.

Since 1986, Baker has run XR’s Only (6944 Sante Fe Ave., Hesperia, CA 92345; [619] 244-2626), a 14man operation that caters exclusively to the popular Honda trailbike. From XR’s Only 32-page catalog, XR devotees can order anything from a quart of oil to an engine rebuild to a fully prepped Baja race bike.

The bike you see here is the XR630 Baja Commander, nearly identical to the bike that Team Cycle World entered in the SCORE Baja 1000. The complete list of modifications that XR’s Only performs on a brand-new 1989 XR600 to arrive at the XR630 would easily fill a yellow, legal-sized note page: About the only items left untouched are the frame, sidepanels and wheel rims. The charge for all this four-stroke fiddleing will rub a $5595 hole in your pocket, reasonable considering a stone-stock 600 will set you back $3600. For those riders with shallower pockets, or those more interested in zig-zagging through the woods than running wide-open down a sandwash, XR’s Only has a 280cc version of the XR250. That package costs $4600.

Besides building what he thinks are the ultimate XRs, Baker performs another service for fans of his four-strokes. For the past two Baja 1000 races, he and his crew have set up a system of pit stops along the course’s 1000-kilometer (actually, it’s more like 750mile) route. With the need to refuel every 60 or 70 miles, organizing pits is easily a team’s biggest head-

ache. Baker and company take away most of the sting for the genuine-steal price of $640 per team. At each of 12 pits, racing fuel from quick-fill cans is dumped into the bike, oil level is topped off and spare parts are available, as are food and water. If required, the air filter is changed and, if rims are too bent to continue, spare wheels are installed. In addition, an XR’s Only sweep rider goes over the course three hours after the race begins to help any stragglers.

So, as stated earlier, if you’ve ever wanted to race the 1000 on an XR, AÍ Baker is the man to go to. But let Cycle Worlds Baja experience be a warning: While riding an XR’s Only-kitted bike and making use of the company’s pit system can make things a lot less difficult, in Baja there’s no such thing as easy.