Anyone know a good mechanic
 

I am planning to buy a Tenere' ( probably from the next Italian shipment) to use for an Africa trip.
I am sure that whatever condition the bike is in, being fairly old I will need to do some work on it.
Unfortunately living in Ldn I don't have the space to do this work myself. Can anyone recommend a good mechanic who may be able to help me out.

Hé Geoff, what do you mean "the next Italian shipment"?
Are there shipments of bikes coming from Italy? If so what's in there?

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Fred, XTZ660, Holland.

Hi Fred,
A couple of dealers were telling me to call them in a couple of weeks when they were expecting bikes from Italy. I dont' know who is bringing them into the country or what other bikes may be amongst them though.
Know any mechanics?

You're lucky. There are loads of great XT mechanics around London and the south east. Since there's a mechanic for every pocket, how much d'you want to spend?

What sort of work were you planning? Engine and 'box rebuild? Luggage construction?

I can give you a hand if you give me more info! Feel free to use the e-mail icon ^ there. Or we can discuss it on the board if you prefer.

PS - which dealers are expectibng bikes? Or do you want first pick when they arrive? http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/wink.gif

Hi Geoff,
loads of dealers bring bikes in from Italy as they are much cheaper to buy there. They reckon on getting good examples with low milage for about £600 - £700.

But there is a bloke called Toni (don't ahev his contact detaisl I'm afarid) who advertises in Bike Trader and he imports bikes from Italy to order. So you could call him up and say for example that your after a 1vj Tenere and he'll probley find you one and send it over.

Anotehr place to try is Trott Motorcycles in Harrow. They have loads of XTs and Teneres from Italy. HAve a look at their site www.fctrott.co.uk.

good luck...

oh yeah, there is also a very good looking 1vJ Tenere with jsut 1400 miles on the clock for sale on www.biketrader.co.uk for about £1900. Expensive but basically brand new ! I'd buy it for sure if I didn't already ahve one !

cheers,

Simon

Thanks for your replies guys.
I had a look at the Tenere' for £1900 last weekend Simon.
It is in very good nick, you can see it's been looked after and rode nicely.
Unfortunately the price was non negotiable and to be honest, its the first Tenere' I've looked at so I didn't want to rush into anything.
Freddy Trott has got a couple of XT's and Teneres in stock which I'm going to have a look at tomorrow.

POB, I'm hoping to get a bike that won't need too much work (maybe the above tenere will be the one), hopefully get away with just taking off the head, possibly a bit of work on the suspension.
Apart from that, I will be putting on racks, maybe an oil cooler and a few other bits which I should be alright with.

Hello,

Just a word of caution about mechanics, I recently called Dave Lambeth reg fixing up a XT, I found him to be very expensive and quite arrogant.

Cheers
sandbound

Hi Geoff.
I wonder how many xts dear mr sandbound has worked on??
Anyway, be very carefull when buying any pre 96 (4pt model) xt600. Pitting of 5th gear can start as early as 15000 miles. This problem can wreck almost all other engine components if left unchecked. The only remedy is to strip and replace with an uprated gear kit. (by the way the 4pt gearbox does not fit)
An engine rebuild with all the necessary upgrades can cost more than a reasonable secondhand 4pt 600e.
Please be carefull.

Thanks for all your advice,
Thanks to Simon's reccomendation I brought an '88 3AJ model from Freddy Trott last week.
Plus as luck would have it a mechanic mate of mine from back in SOuth Africa has just moved into a place with a nice big garage, so plenty of working space, plus he's got the tools.
What I'm trying to find now though is the kickstart lever to fit onto my bike.
Does anyone know if the 1VJ lever and gearing
will fit on to the 3AJ?

Geoff

Geoff.
The kick assembly from any kick xt6 will fit straight in. You dont need the decomp parts.

David L.

But you DO need strong legs and a good technique... I was also considering this, but I am going to just fit a Hawker battery instead. If the started clutch fails, the debris in the engine would mean that I wouldn't want to start it at all! Other than that, since I am not riding at night I don't forsee a problem with it. (Although I did consider wiring up a small emerg. battery on an isolated switch, just in case....)

HTH

I know this is a really old thread but anyway I just wanted to say that you don´t actually need a strong leg.. If you practice a little, about 5 minutes, you will find out how easy it can actually be to kickstart the bike without the decomp parts... Just find TDC and make it pass it just a little bit and give it a good steady kick and it'll fireup right away ;P

Safe riding! :cool4: