Xt660r
 

XT660R. Long-term reliability. Who has done real miles on one of these AND WHAT ARE YOUR EXPERIENCES?

A guy from Denmark is approaching 100.000km. I've only herd about a reg/rec fail (seems like an easy fix) that I can recall.

I wouldnt be worried with reliability at all.

Loads of people have done mega miles on these. The 660 engine is pretty low tuned and is still based on the MEGA reliable XT600 engine.

Like Jens says... Reg/rect can be a problem.

I'd happily take one around the world and back.

Had mine here in Turkey for the last four years and been all over the place with it. It's done 50,000km with no problems apart from a blown headlamp bulb. They're tough bikes and can withstand lots of abuse.

Cheers,

Dicky


DickyB's Turkish Delights - ADVrider

XT660.com is the place to check it out. There was a list runnning of highest mileage.

We have 2 XT660R in our house - mine and the missus's but as both are very low mileage and we have not had them long enough to report anything of help, other than I love riding mine. I have not read about any major reliability issues, the only problems seems to be surging at low speeds/revs on models up to about 2009 due to poor fuelling - there are some simple and cheap fixes; and cush drives that seem to breakdown after about 12K or so. The field fix is to pad out with inner tube off-cuts; a more permenant fix seems to be after market parts from Wemoto.

The bikes can be made even lighter by about 10kg replacing the original silencers with a Metal Mule 2:1 exhaust and also gives about 6cm more ground clearance too, along with a nice robust sump guard. These are on our shopping list when i sell enough stuff on ebay to fund them- evverything is x 2 and makes it seem dead expensive.

Compared to an XT660Z Tenere the R is about £1,000 to £1500 cheaper for the same age & condition bike, plus the R is lighter, a tad lower, simpler, and I thought more comfortable. It was a no brainer when we were buying.

Good luck with your search.

Are you guys getting about 200 miles to a full tank of juice on your standard tanks ???

I had my heart set on a 660Z but like you said, the R is up to £1500 cheaper and a fair bit lighter. It's got me thinking again.

660R dry weight is 177kg where the Tenere weighs 185kg. Compared to the XT600E's 156kg, they're both LARDY though although give way better on road comfort and economy.

Eight KG is the average equivalent of a large fully packed 30L rucksack. (Hand luggage on a plane is limited to 7kg so you can get an idea of the weight saving)

The R is still heavy but it will be fine for anything bar proper off-roading, IMO.

Cheers, Ted

Thanks, Austin. Much prefer the naked R to the, in my opinion, overdressed Tenere. An economical bike as well. Those prices won't be rlelvant down here in Portugal.

Hi,
I have been riding my xt660R for 2 years, 60kkm, through Brasil and parts of Chile, Argentina and Peru. Mostly on tar, but a lot of really bad dirty roads too ( check out about the sandy roads on "Jalapão", Tocantins - Brasil for example ). It has taken a lot of abuse, given me little trouble, but those were all because of broken chains. These big singles tend to "punch" the transmission a lot, and the 660s are worse than the old 600s ( I have an old 90 xt600z ténéré too ). That results on broken cush drives, chains, fast wearing sprokets...
But it's just a matter of carrying spares, daily lubing and keeping an eye on it. Other then that, I've had no trouble, and I know a lot of happy owners too ( from Brasilian's Clube XT600 ).
It is a good choice for those who want to travel around south america. It`s quite common in Brasil, with spares found all over now.
It's almost the same price as the, now localy made, G650GS with ABS, but the spares are cheaper and you can count the bmw dealers in brasil with one hand. And it is lighter too.
I hope it helps.

About the new 660 Ténéré, it have most of the acessories I put on my R ( big screen, handlebar protectors, sump guard ), and a 23l tank, so, IMHO, It's worth the extra Kg and $. The 15L of the R give me 300km of range, full loaded, most of the time, and mine is the 2005 model, without the O2 sensor. The Z 23L tank and O2 sensor should give you more than 460km.
It was announced here in Brasil this year, but i'm yet to see one on the streets.
I'll exchange mine for a Ténéré if I have the $$$.
Cheers.

The BAM Road - ultimate test of man and machine - ADVrider
There's one in that link Nick and we can all ignore that it is out-numbered by 3 BMW singles :innocent:

If it's good enough for that, it's good enough.

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!!:mchappy:

Commuter
 

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 ;)

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.

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 :)

16000miles and going strong
 

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

xt660 r
 

tengo un xt 660 r 20000 km de caminos malos y mal clima y es muy confiable y comodo aunque unos kilos de menos no estaria mal. es una motocicleta con la que tranquilamente me iria a un rtw
suerte

Hi, you gear the bike "higher"/"longer" (less revs) going UP on the front sprocket.

Perhaps you ment you went down one tooth on the sprocket, going from 15 to 14? :)

:oops2:

Yes of course that's what I meant :) Tak!

I was tired.

:blushing:

Mike the courier
 

Hi all, i've been riding xt's for over 35 years. My present xt660r is an 06 model with over 152,000 miles on the clock. There's much to say but i don't have the time right now. The engine is the best yamaha have ever produced, the clutch lasted 98,000 & i changed the cam chain at 148,000. Unheard of for an xt. The cush drive rubbers are made too small from new but if you add 4.5 mm of rubber, total , to the inside of each of the 4 dampers you will get at least 35,000 miles out of them. I've already spoken to yamaha but i'm sure they are not interested. Gotta go but will come back another time.

Cant wait for you to get back, thats awesome :)

Hi and welcome Mike.

Are you the very same Mike that had the 55w Tenere with equally silly mileage on the clocks, back in the late 80's?
If so, I think you and I where the only two couriers with the Tenere at the time.


Socks