It is with great satisfaction that I report the banner image at the top of this page is now out of date.

The fourth bike in from the left, the blue one, is my old Bashan Enforcer (A.K.A. BSR-250, A.K.A.BS250GY-18D, A.K.A. Vitacci Raven, et cetera) which was a bike I bought for my nephew to learn to ride and also to tootle around behind me on adventure rides. This is a task at which it actually excelled. There wasn't a single damn thing wrong with it other than its tiny stature and even tinier engine. It did everything the big bikes did on our trips as long as it wasn't asked to do so quickly, thanks to cranking out only about 14 horsepower. This is much the same platform as the RPS Hawk 250 and its myriad derivatives, except the Bashan is genuinely 49 state street legal whereas the Hawk is an "off highway vehicle" you may or may not be able to talk your state into putting a plate on, and the Bashan is also built slightly better. Most if not all of the parts including bodywork are compatible.

But my nephew outgrew it pretty quickly and despite him throwing quite a bit of effort at it trying to make it faster -- new exhaust, carb, changing the sprocket ratios, etc. -- there's only so much you can squeeze out of a 229cc mill knocked off from Honda by the Chinese circa about 1988.

He was talking about finding a CRF250L Rally or a DR250.

A buddy of mine who flips bikes came into possession of exactly this CRF Rally was moaning to me about how he doesn't like it, because he wishes it was an XR650L. Hombre, do I have the perfect solution for you. So just yesterday we rolled this off his truck and now we have a new member of the family.

It's a 2018 and only has 3200 miles on it or so. Somebody obviously wiped out and put it down on its left hand side at some point in history which seems to be a recurring theme with all of the rescue bikes I've adopted over the years. There's a small dent in the tank and a scuff in the plastic on that side, no big deal in either case, and the rear luggage rack must have hit the ground because it was slightly bent. So I bent it back. Oh, and it was missing all of its reflectors because of course it was, hence the cheap Autozone bullshit screwed to it there just to get it through inspection. I'll do a better job on that later.

Two previous owners, only one not counting my friend who had it for about a week. The original owner was dad who bought this, for some damn fool reason, to follow his kids around on the trails on their dirt bikes. Why the hell he did not just buy a dirt bike in the first place is beyond me, so that's exactly what my buddy traded him for this.