I think you would be better placed pitching the XT660R against the Pegaso - more of a like-for-like comparison.

When did they start to use the Yam 660? always thought they used the BMW f650.

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I had the old peg very briefly and had nothing but problems with it, so swapped it for a tiger.

The peg trail, I rode one on Borneo with: http://www.borneobikingadventures.com whilst oin honeymoon last year.

I felt it lacked a bit of grunt but was enjoyable to ride and felt fine on most of th e surfaces we rode. didn't do anything techincal as we were 2 up for the day tho.

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I totally agree with you....

BUT..... I was looking to buy the 660 Tenere as a first choice but used prices are still around the £4000 mark and even the 660R goes for 3000-3500.. The pegasos are about for the £2000 mark which is my current budget for a second bike.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Thats a fair point Ted.

I've just had a look around and the prices are just daft, I've got 24k miles on mine, it's 3 years old (nearly) and I reckon it's cost me about £1k in lost value if the current prices are reached..... That's the closest I've come to making money on a bike in,,, erm lots of years!


JMo's fine machine is still for sale, though I think it's beyond your budget

..and I did see this on EvilBay -> Yamaha XT660R 2006 06reg BLUE CLEAN BIKE 12M.O.T on eBay (end time 02-Apr-11 11:33:23 BST)

Hi Ted

if it help's I have had a XT660R and now a XT660Z.

the R was used for two up touring doing over 5500 miles in 3 weeks 2 up. and still getting over 70mpg . I also entered a off road event on it.
It's a good bike.

The Z does all of that just a bit better.


If you look around you can still get a 08 Tenere for £3500.

Your right you can get a R for more than a £1000 less. If your doing most of your riding solo then the R will do it all.

Please under no circumstances consider a Pegaso. I bought one myself and it was the worst bike I have ever owned. I have had 5 Pegs of varying years from 95 onwards and they have always been good fire-road bikes, capable of a decent turn of speed and quite reliable other than a faulty water-pump, a common snag. They had a 5 valve rotax head instead of the 4 valve unit BMW fitted to the funduro. It made it a little quicker but cost more to run, either way it was still fine. The Cube was a great all rounder, faster than most bikes in the same class.
Eventually I bought the Trail. Different bike altogether. Build quality is absolutely appalling. My problems began with brake light switches going. The front crumbled into bits, the back snapped in half. I replaced them with upgraded switches. Next it fell off the stand at work (was pushed I think) and fell onto an old abandoned sofa. It tore off a mirror and did damage to the pegs. That worried me a lot, a tiny fall did a lot of damage and it fell on soft foam.
Then I used it through the winter and the engine finish peeled visibly off the bike. After that I tried to fit a power commander. Now on early bikes you have no choice, they simply will not run without it, later ones with 02 sensor you can't. Suddenly the bike stalled, died and never ran again. It intermittently showed fault codes for a failed temperature sensor and three other sensors as well as suddenly was not able to read the chip in the key. Then I found out on the various forums that this is a common fuel pump fault. The pump is 2 electric toy-car motors in a polythene bag. Nothing got it working but along the way I was horrified at the corners cut in the building of this bike. In the end a workaround fix was to kick the side of the tank where the pump was and yes, it ran again for an hour or so but when it rained the key sensor died. After doing some homework on the Aprillia forum this is a common fault, there are many more. The owners are oddly in love with their bikes but at one point the top 5 posts on the Pegaso forum was fuel pump failures.
I got burned on mine so please consider this when thinking of these bikes. They're also expensive to run, not as quick as an XT for some reason and the accessories are hard to find and Aprillia ones broke (mine did).
Your money is better spent elsewhere. I'm sorry for anyone who has one but when i did my homework trying to fix mine I found a lot out about these machines. 2 guys on the Aprillia forum used them to go over South America. 1 did break down several times.
Sorry guys... just don't do it...

Thanks so much for the info.. After reading some forums and other owner reviews, I feared this...

This is obviously why they're £1000 cheaper than an XT660 for the same miles/year..

Cheers again, Ted

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

I was so disappointed. I have had 4 of these before, my favourite being the 95 just because it looked so good, had real usability and was very easy to work on.
Myself, my brother and uncle went out together for a ride, my brother on a Tenere, my uncle on an XT and the Peg did not have as much go in it which was silly, it has the same state of tune and is lighter.
The shame is that it's a lovely comfortable machine that handles well. It ticked all my boxes until things started going wrong. Sadly there is a reason they're cheaper. Ironically I now have a BMW G650 X which is built in the same factory at the same time and it's actually the best bike I've had. Worth noting that I go to the motorcycle auctions and they can be had for roughly the same price as a Peg now. They just never caught on.
When it comes to the Tenere my brother did't have it long. He said it felt heavy and breathless, the build quality and finish was poor and he actually had 2 minor spills on it which is odd, he never crashes. Twice someone pulled out on him and he ditched the bike, he said it was just too heavy to pull round the obstacle and he dropped it. In respect to the bike there was virtually no damage, the hard panels did their magic. I think they're a great adv tourer which could maybe do with more power. Shame they never fitted it with the TDM 900 engine. None of us would be buying anything else.

I'm finding many posts from this individual on any forum mentioning Aprilia Pegaso's.

I've had mine for 3 years, and have not had a single issue with failures that were not brought on by my own abuse of the machine. And I ride the crap out of it on forestry trails. Suspension's too short for that, poor thing..... Also Paddy rode the old Rotax engined bike. Never owned one, so can't comment.

They're cheap because no-one knows about them as they're not marketed well. Other than that, for no great reason. The rear frame bolts need to be locktighted or they come loose. The fuel pump will fail around 30,000kms and is easily replaced with whatever, someone with some reasonable motor skills can adapt in a new pump from another machine as the factory one is small as it's designed to fit in with a fuel gauge on other models. Trail doesn't have a fuel gauge. The instrument cluster will take in steam from the exhaust if you go through water or wash it hot. It's a doddle to remove and seal it. If you don't, the cluster will fail.
The front forks are 45mm, larger than many others, and the bike doesn't look like a science experiment. The engine is the same 660cc Minarelli found in the current Tenere and pulls like a 15 year old boy. As with all bikes, free up the intake and exhaust and fit a PC3 and even better. The injection system works fine, some complain of a miss around 4,000RPM but mine doesn't have this issue. Brakes are good Brembo's.

I think you'll find there are more posts about G650 and F800 BMW failures than are any about Pegaso's, when considering them the trick is to make sure the 'drama' posts aren't from the same person........

NOT AGAIN. is this where I should be.......... ?? thanks. john

Yeah, but the next time you abuse it ´till it breaks down, why not try coming here on the net, and telling _your_ version of the story, how it happened (crappy machine/manufacturer/tyres/gear, etc - pick any one, or create your very own culprit here!)... a lot of people do that, so it surely must be relieving

Would be interesting to know, what percentage of all techical troubles with today´s bikes are actually caused by a user error, but claimed to be from something else.

The funniest case I´ve heard of, was probably a "rusty swingarm" on a 1250 Bandit, the owner was oh so furious at a dealership, it was a 6 months old bike, and he naturally wanted it covered under warranty. Had already spread his frustration around the web, too.

Turned out there was absolutely nothing wrong with the swingarm... but the chain was totally wasted after some 4-5000 kms. He didn´t know, that you´d have to lubricate it every once in a while! So the chain had rusted, and flakes had fallen on to the swingarm. I dont believe he got a new chain on warranty either.

If you take the time to read this guys posts on the Pegaso forum you'll find that he was actually quite happy with the bike. His problems really started after his attempts to work on the bike.

Its not a perfect bike. Mine has 72,000km. I've just replaced the fuel pump with one from a BMW F650 - $50 second hand. It does need a Power Commander, but that solved 98% of the surging issues. My bike has left me stranded three times. One flat tyre, once the solder failed in the ignition switch, and once the clutch cable broke. One of those issues can be attributed to the bike, the others are consumables.

Its not perfect. There are some lousy electrical connections, e.g. in the belly pan, just like in the Tenere. Fuel pumps do fail. And I think the dash is vulnerable to water.

Would I ride it round the world, may be not - I would prefer the original Funduro for fixability. But I once rode from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia and back on a hired Transalp - the Peg would have been a better bike. Two Pegs have just been ridden through the States to the bottom of Patagonia - the only serious problem was that one shock failed.

All bikes have issues. All models have Friday afternoon bikes that cause problems. Perhaps JTW had one of those, perhaps some of the problems were self-inflicted. I've ridden 72,000km largely trouble free in less than four years, doing all my own maintenance. I'm happy and will keep it for a few years yet.

I must admit to being a little frustrated by JTW's one-man crusade against this bike.

To fair it out a little, if you read online reviews from its owners and all the info on the forums, the little Peg seems to have more enemies than friends..

Nice to hear your's has been a trooper though.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

1st, I'll apologise for bringing an old thread to life.

I'm not sure how I missed this thread, and this post, unless it was because my wife and I were riding the 2 Pegs mentioned and were in Patagonia on them at the time.

Lets look at the "1 did break down several times", hmmm, not really. Mine had an electrical failure in the US, a short on pin 17 as it turned out (in the clocks I think) so we bypassed it.

After a 28Km ride over cobbles in Mexico I had a running issue, which was a spark plug issue. This was followed by the connector coming lose on the coil.

I also had an intermittent brake light issue which I finally found the loose connector for while in Peru.

So, that is 1 breakdown and a couple of minor tweaks.

I also crashed it into the back of a GS1200, twice, in 1 day. And came off in Argentina and France.

My wife had the most serious break down when her shock broke in Patagonia and we had to get it fixed. (As she had to do 200 kms on the back of the truck I can claim only I did the entire trip :-) )

There were other minor issues, caused by us and not the bikes.

On the fuel pump issue, this is a minor one. It is not as wide spread as some claim. And no other than JT seems to have had the plastic bag wrapped issue.

How many people know that the Tenere 660 had a known fault with the electrics that needed a recall ?

On the flat spot needing a Power Commander issue, I do not know why people waste money on such things. I just added a K&N to both bikes, it moved the flat spot down a bit and we never ride at those revs..

While we were away 2 BMWs were stuck in Lima with broken motors, so no bikes are perfect.

The bikes made it home. They are still running (yes I have had a couple of issues with mine since the return, but I used most of the winter as well). We are now planning more trips with them.

Did I trust mine when I started ? No. Do I have faith in it now ? No more than any other bike.

So, if a Peg is all you can afford, get one. Prep it, use it and care for it.

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