New here to the forum and looking for XT600 purchasing advice.
I've previously owned and fixed up a 1988 SR500 and also briefly had an XT500 custom that repeatedly tried to break my ankle when starting - I sold it in a sulk and now miss it.
So I know a bit a about the XT/SR 500 bikes in general.
I don't know very much about the 600 model.

I've found a very low mileage XT 600 2KB which has had some sort of refurb done - it's cosmetically decent, with what appears to be new panels and freshly painted tank - the inside of the tank also looks solid and clean.
The frame has been not professionally painted. It's greasy around the base of the engine and frame lower but there's no smoke or rattles from the engine, nor obvious leaks.


I test rode it and it goes pretty well - it stumbled a bit in 4th, felt like possible fueling issue.

The current owner has removed the battery claiming it runs better without one - huh? The turn signals don't agree. They were failing to reliably flash.

He has also removed the auto-decompression cable saying that "it doesn't need it" - huh? See my comments below about starting issues.

It has new oil, a cleaned carb, new fuel, filters - all the basic servicing stuff done, very recently.

What concerns me:

The bike has only 17000 km, or just over 10k miles on the clock.
This is very, very low for a 30+ year old machine.
The papers (it's Spanish) show an ITV (road worthiness test, like a UK MOT) with a big gap - the last test was done in 1998 and then nothing, until this year. This appears to support the low mileage.

But, there is damage to both side engine cases. A a poorly filled crack in the upper side of the clutch cover and the alternator cover has a fairly deep groove from contract with the gear changer - either through a lot of repeat contact or an incident. The current owner says he knows nothing about that damage.

There was also a slight undulation in the front wheel which lead me to check the spokes and one or two at least, were very loose. I didn't check them all.

When hot, it wouldn't start for 10 minutes - it wasn't just my technique because the current owner struggled, having claimed it was generally very easy to start and a bike he used every day for short trips.

He was literally dripping sweat on the seat with effort - no doubt in part, because without working decompression, he (and I) were pushing the cylinder, through it's full stroke with full compression (!) each time it failed to start.

The bike looks good, rides OK, but something is bothering me about the low miles, the engine casings/damage, the loose spokes and the poor starting.

I have a decent looking XT600e with 38km on it, as an alternative.

I'd appreciate some opinions...

One other thing, the engine paint was lifting in places, showing silver underneath - would that occur on a '88/89 engine or is the black finish deeper/more resilient - indicating that it may not be the original engine?

Sounds like a project bike

Nice paint is cheap , opening the cases less so

Anything can be fixed and sorted, but has to be really cheap

Do you have the time , motivation and money?

If not, walk away

Don't know where you are but Italian market is full of perfectly kept ones

Is the XT600e you refer to another bike you are thinking of buying? I have one, a 93 and love it and that push button start. That's what I would go for depending on price and condition of course. That is a lot of unknowns on the one you describe.

I know very little about XTs but based on what you say I’m not sure I’d even want that one as a gift, never mind buy it. You have to factor in what could be wrong with it - certainly a new battery and possibly a new reg/ rec or a complete alternator to sort the electrics. At least a new cable and who knows what else to fix the decompressor and a front wheel rebuild before it collapses under you. And then there’s the cracked cases, the peeling engine paint and the gym workout to get it started. All doable but the amount of time and money to get it reliable is much more than I’d want to put in. Clean oil and a lick of paint only goes so far to cover up what looks like a very hard 17k km.