So, thanks for all the feedback on this folks. We went to look at the first one in our "interested" list yesterday and ended up driving away with it. It fitted my good lady like a glove, it's not had a service in 5 years but hasn't been used for more than 3000km in the past 5 years - a 2009 with 13,000 on the clock. The oil which was in there came out clean; it started nicely, it ran like a treat. It came with a huge great Hepco and Becker topbox, windscreen and heated grips which some moron installed the controller for on the RIGHT hand side of the handlebars... that's getting changed for sure. All for a very, very reasonable price after some haggling.

I've got a service kit on the way; I'll run it with dino oil for 500Km and switch out to fully synth after that. That should shake the engine down. It desperately needs new rubber; so a set of K60s is on the way.

The kit it came with saves us some cash which is critical at the moment; it's cost her enough to get the license and the bike. The topbox and a rollbag on the pillion seat will have to do for this year - some frames and panniers are on the shopping list for next year. Maybe an additional fuel tank as well, but we can make do for now with some bottles.

It's clearly not a great motorway cruiser but even without the windscreen fitted (it was in the box) I was able to ride fairly comfortably at 130Kmph. The windscreen makes that more tolerable.

What I can't get over are the weight and the torque; compared with my Tiger. It feels like a toy and even with luggage weighs less than my Tiger totally naked. I've never ridden a single before and the engine is surprisingly fun, certainly enough oomph to get in trouble and utterly un-stallable. All this should combine to give her the confidence to go anywhere I go on the Tiger; even as a novice - which is the plan. In fact - I forsee her charging off down tracks and me sitting procrastinating as to the wisdom of going there! At motorway speeds the engine is labored; no doubt - but we do avoid motorways. At 120-130 the vibrations seem to level out and it's actually ok. So I forsee good things.

So a little bit of farkling to do and we'll have a mean little machine on the go. The other perk with this one is that the 2009 yellow has been covered up with white plastic wrap - it looks great. Two very happy people, again, thanks for all the advice!

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[ Tim | History - NW Italy/French Rivera, Swiss Alps, Morocco | 2016 - Greece > Albania > Macedonia > Kosovo > Montenegro > Bosnia > Slovenia > Austria ]

Excellent! Sounds like you've picked a GREAT BIKE! My guess is once you ride the BMW back to back with your Tiger on truly rough off road tracks ... you'll be ditching the Tiger for a good, lightweight single!

Off road and on small, beat up paved roads, singles are MORE fun!

I love Triumph, have owned 3 Tigers starting 1995, then a '99 and now my current 2007 1050 Tiger. All great bikes but HEAVY and not so good off road.

Bit of high speed testing in Nevada Desert!

Sadly, the 800 Tiger is, IMO, not great off road, especially compared to a well set up Dual sport bike like the X Country, which is probably 40 kgs. lighter weight. I nearly bought the 800, but went with a single instead.

I've ridden the 800 Tiger several times, loved it on paved roads, not so much off road. Like most Triumph's, bit top heavy. Not a good thing off road.

X Country Not Smooth on Motorway?
Drive line set up is critical on a single to ensure smooth running on motorway
at speed. Good sprockets and good chain are critical as well as fresh Cush Drive rubber spacers in rear hubb, proper alignment of chain front to rear too ... all will affect smoothness at high speed.

The front sprocket is probably most ignored part. Start with a NEW, quality front sprocket. OEM or JT. A worn front sprocket can make the engine feel "course" at high RPM under load. Get all set up correctly and it should be a bit smoother ... but it's NEVER going to match your Glass smooth Tiger 800 ... one of the smoothest engines made today.

Wind shields make NOISE and cause wind buffeting. If you get lucky, maybe you get a good one that is quiet, otherwise, NO shield may be better. ? I like the smooth, clean air I get on my DR650 with NO wind shield. (I tried 3 different wind shields on my DR650 ... all noisy)

Make sure your X Country has a sealed, MF battery. BMW had bad practice of using NON sealed batteries on many F650's and others.

Good luck, safe riding!

I came upon this site by accident and noticed this XCountry thread. Seems there's interest in the bikes but a lot of misinformation. I know I am only a far-off voice in the colonies but I've been with the X bikes for several years now.

These bikes were introduced in '07 as a trio - the X Country, the X Challenge and the X Moto. The XCo is a dual-sport scrambler-type bike. The XCh is a dirt bike with lights and the XMoto is a motard bike.

I have an 09 XCo version, the yellow one. I won't go into a lot of detail but-

The 650 single engines were designed by BMW and Rotax and built by Rotax until the '09 model year whereupon production was shifted to a new and freshly tooled plant of Loncin in China. The Chinese motors are fine and, in fact, don't suffer some of the little issues of the previous versions- water pumps, fueling and the like.

BMW's 650 singles, including the X series were actually made by Aprilia! In fact, if you remove some of your plastic panels on these bikes and look on the backside, you will likely see "Aprilia" molded into the plastic.

When the arrangement first started in the late '90s, Aprilia was granted the privilege of using the same motor in their own bike, the Pegaso. However, being Italian, they sauced the big single up with a unique-to-them 5-valve head and different tuning. The Aprilia models also had twin carburetors on the big single as well as twin exhaust headers feeding functional twin mufflers. They ran like a bat out of he##. I had one.

Back to BMW, the '09 X bikes were the last of the X bikes. When BMW went to the facelift G650GS, they moved production of those bikes back to Germany but continued to source the engines from China. Of course, the 650 singles, all of them, have now been discontinued by BMW.

Yes, the XCountry is the most versatile of the X series that was sold in the US from 07-09. The XChallenge, offered here only in 07 was much more a tall, skinny dirt bike that did not sell well and the X Moto, with the small super motard wheels, never caught on either.

All of these bikes were youthful in appeal but very much adult in price. They were expensive and the youth market stayed with cheaper Asian brands.

The 09 XCountry was the last surviving spouse of the X trio and came with a slightly lower suspension than the previous bikes. This was apparently an effort to appeal to women riders or first-time buyers who like their feet firmly on the ground at stops.

The 09 did come with an improved and stronger rear subframe produced from steel rather than aluminum as did its predecessors.

Problems with these bikes (09) were minor in comparison to other BMW's. There were one or two recalls. One was for a attachment bracket for a brake line splitter on the ABS versions and the other was for a faulty compression relief lever on one of the cams to help with easier starts.

Currently, the crisis is over rear hub cush drive rubbers that BMW no longer supplies. An enterprising Englishman has taken the liberty to have new ones made for those in need.

We have a very comprehensive thread on Adventure Rider to which I am a regular contributor.

I purchased my XCo new and presently have a little over 30,000 miles on it. I use it for everything.

The limited range of the stock bike's 2.5 gallon tank can be fixed with more than one available auxiliary gas tank. Mine has a total capacity of about 4 gallons now. Another mandatory upgrade is the #@*&!X stock seat. I'm using a Corbin with great results. I have also upgraded my rear shock spring and front forks. I am 6'2" and can barely flatfoot the bike now!

These are fine bikes that are light, fast and nimble.

If you want more information than you probably want, check our thread here-


So we've all heard/seen the 650 xchallenge...let's see your XCOUNTRY! | Adventure Rider


Here's mine during a little 1000 mile trip last weekend:





.

Just spotted this when looking at today's reply to the thread, how right you were Mr Dog. The Tiger was on shaky ground as soon as I took the xCountry out for a spin on the local forest tracks. As soon as we were back from our jaunt to the Balkans it became a 701 Enduro...

Leafman, thanks for the new info - I didn't know about the cush drive, I'll add it to my list of things to do to her bike in spring. Few trips next year, including some fairly intensive offroad stuff, so it's getting some more tweaks. My better half loved the bike last year, definitely the right choice.

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[ Tim | History - NW Italy/French Rivera, Swiss Alps, Morocco | 2016 - Greece > Albania > Macedonia > Kosovo > Montenegro > Bosnia > Slovenia > Austria ]

The cush drive rubbers are not something that require frequent replacement. After 30k miles, mine are still ok.

More info on cush drive rubbers-

BMW XChallenge and XCountry cush drive rubbers. | Adventure Rider


.

What symptoms do the X bikes display when the rubber cush rubbers are worn out?

The Cush drive rubbers are a common issue on the Suzuki DR650. Lots written about it on forums. Poor man's temp solution is to cut little rubber strips out of old inner tube and fit them in the gaps. Works well until you can buy new rubber cush drive part. No need to glue strips in place, they'll stay there pretty much and helps a lot.

When cush drive rubbers are worn (they harden and shrink on DR650 in about
15K miles) on DR650 the symptom is very rough feel from drive line.
Feels like clutch basket is worn out or chain is shot. But most times on the DR it's the rubber cush rubbers that need replacing. You feel it most when lugging in higher gear on full throttle going up hill. With new rubbers fitted everything smooths out nicely.

Question for X Country owners .... does the X Country come stock with the
big Air Bladder shock like the X Challenge does? To me, that air bladder thing was horrible (riding X Challenge). I notice X Country shown above has a normal shock on it. Big expense.

I'm surprised BMW will no longer support the X series bikes. It's only been 10 years. Most OEM's extend parts/service support for at least 15 years.

For me, one of the big negatives on X series bikes is the difficulty in common servicing. Access is NOT GOOD. I'm very spoiled by my DR650, which is a delight to work on, easy access on just about everything. Very nice for owner servicing. Still, the X bikes are very cool, much nicer bikes than my DR650 in terms of styling. Very classy bikes. The DR650 is a Mule, but an ugly, very tough and long lived Mule.

Mollydog, the xCountry comes with a normal rear shock, no oddball airbags.

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[ Tim | History - NW Italy/French Rivera, Swiss Alps, Morocco | 2016 - Greece > Albania > Macedonia > Kosovo > Montenegro > Bosnia > Slovenia > Austria ]

Mine really benefitted from a Hyperpro shock on the back (and a Hot Rod side tank). OE shock was clapped out at <6000 miles
https://adventure-motorcycling.com/2...bmw-x-country/
Have to say though, I've gone off big singles and riding a 701 the other month didn't make me want to change my mind.

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