Hi all, new here but not to riding or posting (I spent most of the past year on ADVrider only to realize that my beloved XT is better represented here).

I'm curious about the availability of parts bikes and spares for the XT600 around North America. I may have the opportunity to move to Alaska for a while in the next couple of years, and it would be nice to just ride the bike up there.

Without getting to much into details, my employment there would keep me comfortable with their much higher cost of living, but not get me rich, so I'd be living much like I do now. Albeit it with a beater car for slushy days, studded bike tires for extreme cold, and a bunch more winter clothing

My only worry is how I would get parts beyond the normal spark plugs, oil, tires, light bulbs and filters. Granted, my XT has never needed anything beyond that, but it's not a good thing to be stuck without transportation while waiting for an obscure and overpriced part.

How many XT600s are floating around, say, Anchorage? Or for that matter, the US in general? When I lived with my family a few years ago, I would always just go to the junkyard and get parts when needed. Not really so with bikes apparently. My ninja 500 beater commuter bike is sort of like that but there are few to no XTs here to scavenge from.

My other option would be to sell my commuter bike and hopefully be able to fund a well-sorted DR650, but I'd rather not because I not only already have and love my XT, I'm also very familiar with its quirks, and already have a nice hard pannier/rear rack touring setup on it that I essentially got for free.

Or am I just being paranoid? My XT600 (1986) has almost 17k on it and burns oil when cold (valve seals, I think) but otherwise runs perfectly. How much longer do I have left if I keep up with maintenance?

I would say that you engine should be as new at 17k, offcourse rubber as for the valve seals can be dry. There is adds for oil that will help them and maybe seal better. Your engine may not need overhaul before 60-100k, all depends on how bike is run and maintence/oils. Parts is cheap in US i think, not anymore for me since the dollar went from 5,5 - 7,3 last years. In general you have cheap parts for the bike new, most importan its still possible to get parts OEM. Other than that its alot of aftermarked parts.

Thanks XTrock. I like getting responses from outside the US since most people here seem to think a motorcycle's engine is incapable of lasting more than 10k miles, unless it happens to be a Harley. I do oil changes every 1500 miles and spark plug and filters every 3000. I will admit to being lazy about the valve clearance checks, but back at 15,500 miles they were all spot on so I haven't opened it up since.

Ok, you are on miles and iam on km. But anyway they last with maintance and good oil, valve adjustment is very easy on these. Had one 88mod that had 60k km and still running good.

Around here many ds bikes do need rebuilding by 20-30k miles, often before 15K, it is because of almost zero highway miles and poor maintenance. I have 5 XT's and none are over 13K miles but most use a bit of oil already and could use new rings possibly. All had every bearings shot, bad battery, ect.. These bikes(same with other brands) get beat and ran by younger crowd who just run them as long as they'll still start. If you have one used as a commuter and driven good they'll be fine getting up to 50k, not going to happen around my area at least unfortunately. Watch ebay for parts, you'll see common 10-15k and everything is shot. Certain areas in the states are better, out west is easier on bikes than all the mud and moisture we get.

Maintenance and good quality oil changed often goes a long, long way. Taken care of they last longer than the "H" brand, not talking H-D, not sure on the DR, they do go a long time.

I'm hoping it can go to at least 50k. After that I wouldn't mind having a top end done right. I don't abuse it at all, it's actually never seen redline in my hands, and almost all of my riding is done at 2000-3500rpm, including highway (gotta love that torque). I do use it in bad weather and off-road, but I go nowhere near the potential of the bike for that stuff.

The beater Kawasaki is for flogging when I feel the need