Terry who rode the XT660R had bad fuelling problems on that bike which he couldn't sort out. He had a go on mine when he was over here and couldn't believe the difference. So grab a test ride and make sure the engine doesn't shunt or surge.

Cheers,

Dicky

DickyB's Turkish Delights - ADVrider

Thanks, Dicky for that piece of advice and thanks to Ruicecar in Brazil. I am going to buy one soon. Maybe new!!

I used my XT660R for over a year as a commuter/greenlane bike. I have done UK-SA on an Africa Twin and UK-Magadan on a WR250R. Other than poor offroad handling I'd say the biggest problem is that it carries its weight poorly. I blame the incredibly heavy, high mounted twin cans for some of the problem. The suspension is much more road than offroad BUT it is cheap, kind on its consumables and has "dependable but average" fuel economy.

If you buy one: do not, I repeat, do not ride a KTM 690SMC. I did. The disappointment is like being told you were adopted at birth. Like you've been lied to all along about what 650cc singles can be. Damn you Yamaha

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Find out details of my 2011 trip to Siberia on a lightweight dirtbike:
www.brighton2expeditions.co.uk

But the XT would be so much more reliable.

Can't help with the high mileage thing, as I had mine for only a year and about 6k miles. It was faultless in that time, apart from the snatchy low-revs fuelling mentioned above. You can fiddle with the CO levels via the dash and tune some of it out. Mine was an 04 - I hear later ones had it cured.

One other thing - way over-geared as standard. I went up a tooth on the gearbox and it transformed the bike. You will need to find some way of correcting the speedo, though.

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2006 XT660R daily ride, 1994 XT600E about to be reborn, Blog: http://goingfastgettingnowhere.blogspot.com/

Overgeared as in high geared? Sorry for the dumb question. :confused1:

No such thing as a dumb question

Yes, I found the gearing far too high. I found first gear too high for trickling along, and the top end was geared for about 110 mph max. On an upright, unfaired, dual-purpose bike I thought that was silly. I think it's to do with noise regs - many bikes are over-geared from the factory because that makes them nice and quiet at whatever road speed they test at. Going up one tooth on the gearbox sprocket lowers the gearing by around 8% from memory (can't remember the sprocket sizes) and gave me a) first gear at walking pace without chain snatch, b) much more flexibility in top at normal road speeds, and c) about 5 mph off a top speed I never used. Well worth the 10GBP or so it cost for the new sprocket. (I did the same to my Ducati GT1000 with the same results, so it isn't just a Yamaha thing.)

I liked the bike a lot, and I am seriously considering getting another. Trouble is, the 600E is showing no signs of dying yet

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2006 XT660R daily ride, 1994 XT600E about to be reborn, Blog: http://goingfastgettingnowhere.blogspot.com/

Hi,

we are into our big trip on two XTR's, we have done the Trans west Virginia trail and the Trans America trail and off road in much of Baja so far. That's about 7000 miles off road. We crossed the high passes in Colarado, Cinnamon pass was rain and snow with ease. These are not MotoX bikes but we are not racing MotoX, We are loaded up and touring - these bikes are perfect for that. We get 200 to 230 miles per OE tank and carry spare fuel as needed.
As mentioned before = the OE gearing is high for dirt. We took and fitted lower geared sprockets of 14/46 for dirt but to be honest it only came into it's own in the mountains. We now leave the 15t front sprocket on but swap between 46t for dirt and 45t for road - it works good for us. The bikes have proved tough and reliable. We have fitted Yacugar rear shocks and fork springs that are light years ahead of the OE stuff. We rode some of Baja with a guy on a GS Adventure and had a much harder time than us - his bike shook it's self to pieces on the corrugations. Ours were fine. All in all the XT is easy to service and work on, take off the luggage and you can lift it - take off the front wheel and undo the bars and you can fit it in a 1.8m2 crate (2.0 long 1.080 high 820 wide) It shares brakes with KTM's and the engine is fitted to a few bikes so cross reff'ing part numbers helps your chances finding bits.
If I was doing this trip again I would stick with the XT. Have a look at our site, a few bits in the Maintenance and prep page that could be handy.

Welcome to Two Bikes Running


Paul