does anyone know if or when honda is going to put the liquid cooled motor from the xr650r into the xr650l bike???

why would you want to do that? they're chalk and cheese!
on a recent trip to Algeria, I rode an L while Martin rode his R. sure, some more power would be nice on the L, but the R motor would get it tied in knots and add liquid cooling where I'd happily do without. the R is surprisingly good "as is" with big loads: Martin had up to 40 litres of fuel and 10 of water +++.
if you really want the R motor, take the R. you might want to soften the suspension as its rock hard which makes it ace off road, but IMHO a grind on-road.

My guess is that they're in no hurry. All of the Japanese manufacturers know that big-bore dual sports are not huge sellers and therefore put little effort into updating and marketing them, at least in North America. The XR650L hasn't changed significantly since it was introduced in 1993, KLRs haven't changed much in a long time, the DR650, well - I don't know anyone who rides one and I don't know much about them - the KTM LC4 doesn't sell many units, etc. I can't speak for Yamaha's offerings overseas.

Right now Honda's putting most of its efforts into staving off Yamaha's advances in ultralight 4 stroke racing engines, which is there the money is right now. Next year they will offer Enduro versions of its 4-stroke CRFs, which could end up replacing the XR250 and XR400. If this happens, it will be interesting to see where future trailbike designs go once they're based even more heavily on these motocross designs.

On the other hand, if something like the KTM LC8 is a huge success, Honda may rekindle its dual-sport enthusiasm and create a new bike. But They're definitely not going to put effort into anything unless they see that there's a lot of money to be made. And right now, they know it's a niche market.

As Rich said, there's nothing wrong with the old design, at least when you weight it against the new R design, which has its flaws as well. The L can make plenty of power if you make some simple mods, and it's mechanically simpler and therefore less of a headache - and probably less finicky about gas.

But if you're dying for this bike, there's nothing to stop you from putting lights and amenities on an R, you'll only be missing out on a electric start.

__________________
Wright Bagwell
http://www.geocities.com/wwbagwell/