Do I take the XT600E?

[kentfallen]

I seek your valued advice lads & ladettes...

A group of my mates have arranged a 4 day tour of Northern France in May this year (2011). Nothing too fancy just a few days touring using hotels/B&B's.

At the moment all I have in terms of transport is my car and my Yamaha XT600E (1999). My XBR is in bits at the moment (not that it is any more capable than my XT in this respect (it's middleweight Jap single). My finances (thanks to New Labour/Tory anti-British traitor governments) don't allow me to procure another bike. Like many others here in the UK I'm hurting bad.

Here lies the problem -

All my mates are riding sports tourers namely:

1. Triumph Tiger 955
2. Suzuki 1250 Bandit
3. Buell 1200 (adventure thingy)?
4. Kawasaki GPZ 1100

All of the above are multi-cylinder sports bikes capable of blistering speeds.

My mates have just invited me along with my XT6! They insist that road speeds will be no more than 70 mph and that 60MPH is about the right cruising speed. They tell me I will always be in the front dictating speeds.

I have thoughts of seeing ALL the above bikes leaving me behind. I also don't want to push my XT6 to levels where it will get damaged. I don't want to mess their tour by insisting on slow speeds.

Obviously the XT6 is one of the worlds alltime great RTW bikes but it's not exactly sporting performance.

I'd say my bike (and my backside) is happy doing no more than about 60 MPH for 3 hours tops. In one day 200 miles is comfortable at a push 300 is possible (with a knackered back like mine). That's another problem, my mates will be very comfortable in almost every respect while on tarmac.

The only place the XT will whip ALL the above is when the going gets rough. The proposed tour is ALL tarmac.

I don't want to spoil the tour for the others.

Do I risk it or not? Common sense tells me to sit this one out (at home).