Air scoops
 

I have 600 4pt with those plastic air scoops either side of the fuel tank.

Are they really necessary or are they used more for aesthetic reasons?
Would leaving them off cause damage or problems to the engine with overheating?

Their function is to imitate the radiator air scoops found on the water-cooled bikes that came out around the time the 600 was introduced - in other words, pure marketing. I don't think they contribute anything to cooling. I run my current 600E without them (and two XT350s before that) and I have not had any problems. That said, I do live in the UK, where sustained hot weather is very rare.

Both mine broke, and replacements are hard to come by or very expensive, so I didn't bother replacing. I think the bike looks fine without.

actually they are a bit of both cosmetic and function, they do scoop some air down to the engine at road speeds but not really enough at low speed :innocent:

the early xt's never had them and they cope quite well without so your not going to cause any problems leaving them off :mchappy:

here in the uk like bdz said we probably dont get that many desert days where the extra diverted air makes much difference to keeping temperatures down :rolleyes2:

I took mine for a long rally ride in high temperature with no problems...don,t use mine any more as one is broke,non come up second hand and I cant make one out of fiberglass so just leave them off....

And anyway, when you fit your 23Lt Acerbis tank for that big trip, they'll be redundant. :thumbup1:

Geoff