Well based on your reply I am going to absolutely take the stainless filter idea seriously. If I can clean it with a little cup of petrol, that does seem realistic.

I've never been precious about seats, quite like the thought of being more comfortable but is it that much worse than a stock DRZ400E seat? Never found that to be a problem on long trips.

Using a a 200w stator, do you think I could get away with my requirements with just a capacitor to smooth out the current rather than a battery? Looked at the LI batteries and even they are about 9-10KG which is an enormous chunk of weight.

Spot on! They even mention this issue on the thousands of thread over on Thumper Talk ... in particular when using the Scott's Stainless filter. So beware,
those filter cover bolts will SNAP right off with little provocation. Solution?
I Loc Tite fasteners ... or you can insert stronger studs and use nuts to secure cover.

If you will be carrying luggage you should consider strengthening the subframe. Especially if you will be doing offroad a lot. The subframe is not designed for heavy luggage and is prone to braking. I did "triangulate" my '99 XR4's subframe with some lightweight aluminum profiles. Prior to that I had to repair my subframe two times. But I do not overland my bike, it is a dual sport bike and gets ridden quite hard off road with some luggage.

If you go for the XR4, keep a close eye on the oil level. High-ish rpm runs on the blacktop are fine, but the bike can burn quite a lot of oil.

The air-hawk seat pillow is just great. But I would not want to spend 10 hours on my XR4, it is not that comfortable, air-hawk or not. The XR4 is a dirtbike, tall, lightweight, thin. Not really comfortable for long days in the saddle.

Reliability and ease of maintenance is great. I have 30-40K km on my bike and it has not had a easy life. It has proven extremely reliable. The bike is very simple, repairs are easy.

The breaks are fine, the stock headlight is not. I have the EURO model so I have both AC and DC. I run a extra 30W LED light from the DC circuit on my XR4. I did have to change the rear bulb to led for that to work, and do something more, don't remember now. But I can find out if that helps.

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Yamaha XT600E '01, Honda XR400 '03, Yamaha XT550 '83

I just bought a bike!!

A nice '98 XR600R with 2,600 miles on it came up about 30 minutes drive from my house. It has the original Honda handlebars & grips, even has the original front tyre on it from new. It has a headlight taken from an XR250 Baja fitted by the guy I bought it from, who gave me the original headlight along with the immaculate original tubular sump guard which he replaced with a proper one. The bike runs beautifully, engine is quiet, nice crackle from the standard exhaust without the baffle, fueling is crisp and the gearbox precise.

Just rode it home in the pitch darkness and driving rain. The lights are actually very good, left for dipped, right for main beam. Even managed to start it first time when I stopped for fuel! The seat is crazily comfy, I might throw a sheepy on there but it's like a sofa compared to the DRZ. I haven't given her a name yet, but behold my new (to me) machine!





Only mods I can think of doing are maybe some of those Gold Emulator cartridges for the forks, risers & Renthal bars, Acerbis 22L tank and 12v aux power supply.

Might also throw on a fresh set of tyres for good measure because 18 year old stock rubber didn't fill me with confidence through slick roundabouts and standing water if I'm being completely open.

Wowzers, what a beaut! I think you got yersef a Virgin there mate, good Score! (original front tire??)

If carrying luggage I do agree with suggestion to strengthen the sub frame ... but don't go crazy, find a really good fabricator who knows the meaning of conservative improvement.

Also agree about oil use ... every XR/XL Honda I've owned (going back a LONG TIME) has used oil when run at high-ish RPM. XL600, XR600, XR400, XR650L, and my fav ... XR250. ALL used some oil run fast on highway. But just cruising and medium to light off road it won't use much at all.

The XR600 is a great bike. Use the best synthetic oil you can afford, change out when you can .... and RIDE RIDE RIDE!

Its a beauty you got there Cwac!

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In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end....

Thanks! Yeah it seems like a good one, having taken the tank off it's definitely been off road but not hard and not far. Fingers crossed!

There is a local engineer that we use through work for fabrication & welding jobs. I might ask him what he could do to strengthen the subframe without lumping on too much weight next time I spot him.

I'm so happy I went for the 600, for me it's still going to be more than good enough off road, but it seems quite relaxed at 60 - 70mph which is exactly what I wanted. Might need to start going to the gym 5 times a week if I wanna hit any serious trails though!!

I've had one issue so far when I stopped on the way to work to pick up some food for the day. I failed to kick it back into life so I primed it on decomp, tried again, and again, then I noticed fuel pouring out of the carb overflow!!! Pushed it the rest of the way to work with the fuel tap off and it turned out to be a sticky float needle! Sorted now.

I did initially notice a slight oily smell and very faint smoke from the silencer until it warmed up a bit, but I didn't notice it happening the last cold start or two; running in the garage from cold today I could hardly smell a thing. I'm guessing the valves needed a run to re-seat after sitting around for years? Might need stem seals before I take her further afield but that will be no trouble, might be good to take the head off for an inspection and a refresh regardless. Just gonna keep a hawk eye on the oil level for now.

I'm properly over the moon with this bike!

Nice looking bike - a lot better nick than mine!

Re the subframe, what I did with mine was -

1. Reweld the "eyes" at the end of the subframe where the mudguard is attached. Honda only spot weld them and they didn't look like they'd take much weight to me.

2. I ran a separate rail under the top rail of the subframe, fixed at the front end to the rear seat mounting bolts and at the rear to a 2" drop link bolted the "eyes". The rack mounting brackets were fixed to this rail rather than to the original tubes.

I then ran an extra tube from the new rail to near where the existing frame tubes join down by the footrests. Awkward to do on the exhaust side but easy on the other side.

3. I welded in "gussets" top and bottom on the existing subframe tubes.

4. I made up a bolt on cross piece to go behind the wheel to cut down on side to side movement.


As my bike was somewhat battered when I started, the mess that welding makes of the paintwork didn't bother me that much. With your pristine looking one you may think differently though. However better that than the whole thing collapsing in the middle nowhere. I've had that happen twice in my biking career and although it didn't cause any major problems either time it could have had it happened in more remote areas. Whether by accident or design the mods I outlined above worked well enough for me not to have any luggage issues. Of course I may not have any if I'd just piled the luggage on the unmodified bike but at least the construction work made me feel like I was doing something

Sadly I don't have any pics of my set-up (and I've taken it to bits since). I think if I was doing it again I'd seriously consider cutting the existing subframe off and making up a more substantial one from scratch using larger diameter tubing with triangulation and mounting points built into the design. Short of doing that you could do a lot worse than have a close look at how the subframe on this BMW was modified -


http://www.adventurebikerider.com/fo...-fettish-.html