How Common Are XT600s, And What About Parts?

[Kiba]

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?

[xtrock]

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.

[Kiba]

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.

[xtrock]

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.

[jjrider]

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.

[Kiba]

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

[jjrider]

Ya, thats where it'll last a long time. Seems most dual sports around here get redlined every gear change because the kids think they are mx bikes and then only change oil once a year maybe or 5000 miles, even then they use the cheapest oil that can be found. Grease is unheard of. That's why I've always tried to buy everything new. I too try to gear them down so I run mostly 3000-3400max rpms at hwy speed, as long as it can pull fairly easy and maybe pass if needed.

[Jens Eskildsen]

I dont think I've bought a single item for my xt600 at a local dealer. Everything is from the internet, ebay end Kedo in Germany mostly. So I wouldn't worry about parts.

Be carefull not to ride at too low rpm's aswell. I had a buddy gear his bike 16/42, trying to get better mpg. He hammered half the nuts inside the engine loose. With stock gearing I would keep a minimum of 3000rpms in 5th, and preferable a couple hundred higher. If you gear it to get longer legs than stock, add a couple hundred rpms more.

If not abused, the bike will go on forever. I know people say this with every bike, but the Xt really makes it true. If you know the history of your bike, there should be no real surprises, other than the age-thing. The rubber-intakes, perhaps coils starting to act up ect.

As for maintenance, my bike has 6000km between oilchanges, i think yours is the same. And that is with whatever oil was a standard back in the 80's, a lot has happened in 30 years. I know oil is cheap and all, but no need to change the oil all the time. Sparkplugs last about forever, too. I usually go 15.000km on an oilfilter, because theres never any stuff in it. If I was anything about a 100% sure, I would change it more often. I even cut a filter open after the topend rebuild, nothing was in it. My bike has oil in the frame aswell, at around 80.000km I checked that too, it came out nothing but clean.

Valves are super easy once you know how to. Its under an hours work, if you take your time and enjoy a cup of coffee. Mine dont move much, I usually just have to adjust a few 1/100mm to set the right in the middle of spec. At 17.000 miles on a '86 model, adjust them now and forget about them for a looong time. If they're a bit tight on the intakevalves, it makes starting the bike harder.

Yours might be different, just wanted to give you my oppinion. Im just over 150.000km, with the topend rebuild at 125.000km for the first time.

We need to keep thesse bikes up and running, soon there will no bikes like it.