i've just bought a 92 xt600e it dosen't seem to have the same amount of rear suspension travel as my old 86 model does anybody know if i am seeing things or did yamaha reduce the height of the bike for this year, also if i am right is there anything i can do about it? would a different rear shock sort it out if so what year or do i have to buy an after market one? please help.

George

Replace the XT600E with a XT600 43F (older model) will be a plug and play work, will add 2 cm shock excursion and your bike will be 2 cm higher. This is the cheap option, you can find a shock of this type from 40 Euro, the only problem being that many of them have a lot of Km done.

Second option is replacement with a used Ohlins shock from a TT600S, it's a 250 euro cost, superior damping, same height\excursion change 2,5 cm to be exact. Installation will require small works, nothing too difficult anyway.

Note that in any case height could be influenced by your spring preload setup.

After this there are all the other options to buy a new shock, but budget will be surely higher.

Ah forgot to answer, yes wheel excursion is lowered from 230 to 200 mm in this model against previous, and shock is 1 cm shorter 38 against 39 talking about eye to eye.

If you are thinking of putting center stand in the future, don't put a longer rear shock. Done that and the bike tends to go forward with the rear wheel pushing against the ground and lifting the bike up just slightly when on center stand (bought from Kedo). I think the shock was just 1 inch longer. Cheers, tom.