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?