And if nobody minds me promoting another site, then xtz750.com is a thriving little forum.

Incidentally my XTZ750 which took me down to Cape Town in 1995 then out to the Middle East for 5 years now has a TDM850 engine and WR450F forks after a nut and bolt rebuild. The TDM engine is the 4TX which has the 270 degree crank so the bike pulls, feels and sounds fabulous.

Heres a snap or 2 - I can confidently say, this is now the worlds greatest living motorcyle

S**k me slowly what a bike! Wow, that was REALLY nice! I like the mods. Best of both worlds, no?

__________________
HansP
All you wanted to know
about riding in Norway

Thanks Indu, I'm very very happy with it, new life has been breathed into an old friend that was dying on its arse.

The company who did the work for me are called raidxtreme based just north of London and they did a brilliant job, on time and on budget. If that website is still down try this one which is their xtz850 site

Everything has been right straight from the off, no oil leaks or carburation funnies, it's all been good. They are specialists in xtz750/xtz850s and will happily help people out at a good price

(I'm just a happy punter, nothing to do with the company or building brilliant bikes - I can't change a spark plug!)

Beautiful!!!!
Just what I`d like to have. But reading the old thread, with everyone choosing the africa twin over the super...... well Im not sure what to get...a
Ive got small kids and no plans of a rtw-trip the next decade... maby a super could be a nice one for me anyway...

Well after checking out the ads a bit, it narrows down to a 1989 super, or a 1994 xtz 660..... what would be the best choise??
I cant go above 30000 nkr, about $6000...

Well, they are two different beast, aren't they. The Super is a twin, the 660 a single. I know many seasoned XTZ riders opt for the 660 as it is a pretty solid bike. But I'm new to Yamaha myself having just bought a XT660Z. But I prefer the singles.

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HansP
All you wanted to know
about riding in Norway

the XTZ750 is in general a good bike, it has its faults but then so has the AT, the Transalp, all the beamers and yes even those orange things!...

Osmund I think the key thing to remember about any XTZ750(or 's10') is that that you wont find one that is not 10 or more years old, this is not so much an issue as the fact that over 10 years you can have either a lot of careful owners, a lot of not careful owners and big mix of both... well maintained bikes can be fantastic and a joy to own a bad one WILL be a nightmare!

Parts for the s10 are not as big an issue as many (mainly AT owners?) want you to believe, in fact there are still quite a few companies producing 'bling' as well as more 'hardcore bits' if you know where to look, whats more these parts are way cheaper than equilivent from companies like Africa Queens and TT as the s10 has never had the hype of the AT. The early s10 suffered from regulator-rectifer burn outs (as does the AT/transalp etc etc which uses the exact same units) as these units are poorly designed, and if your regulator goes it's likely to take out the generator and that takes out your battery too so invest in a new regulator-rectifer for just £55 and you will go a long way to curing this issue.

In the old XTZ750/Africa Twin thread people claimed the s10 suffered from a weak frame, this is true if you run the bike over-loaded and/or do heavy off road however it can be easily cured with the addition of some extra stress plates welded in behind the engine top rear mounts either for piece of mind or for more hardcore use!. The only other problem the s10 has is with engine oil consumption, some bikes use none and others use a lot... this is caused buy poor piston ring sealing and excess wear in the valve stems and seals, both sets of parts can be replaced without major problems if required and for a reasonable cost (ring sets £24+vat, valve stem seals £16+vat).

Another big plus for the s10 is the fact that Yamaha have over the years made a conserted effort to 'track' parts between models, this means that with a little know how you will find that a large part of the parts used on later models can be fitted to the s10, this includes... brakes, wheels, engines, suspension electrics etc...a claim that no AT owner can make!

Loads of information on the Super Tenere Owners Forum at Super Tenere Owners Club • Portal on all aspects of these bikes, plus some useful links for parts and specs.

As for s10 or a 660 i think Indu is very right in that these are two very different bikes, sadly never owned a 660 so cannot help on that comparison.

Dick glad too see your bike is going well, seeing your post reminds me i need to email you some paperwork don't I!.. awww why is there never enough hours in the day ( 2am and I'm still catching up on paperwork arrrgggghh.)

Jen

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RaidXtreme(UK)Ltd
Specialist Rally-Raid Prep.
http://www.xtz850.com

Super Tenere UK Owners Club
http://www.xtz750.com

That bike is friggen awesome!

__________________
Africa Twin | XT600E
Www.adventuremagazineonline.com

Just consider yourselves lucky to even have those choices.

Apparently here (in the US) the market is overwhelmingly focused on huge shiny cruisers and huge displacement sportbikes. People like us in the US have to just content ourselves with BMWs, Kawasaki KLRs, and the short importation big trailies (Transalps 89-90, XT600s if you can find them, and the 2 or 3 XTZs that actually made it to the states).

-Rant Over-

Your awesome motorcycles over there are 50% of the reason I'd move to another coutry.

The biggest mistake of my life was selling my SUPERTENERE. I found it to be a fabulous bike capable of cruising at silly speeds all day . I had none of the reputed problems with cracking frames . Parts no problem at all from the local yamaha dealer. Only problems I had were -carby imulsion tubes and the damping springs at the back of the clutch basket breaking. ( this gives the motor a sound like a big end knock when you rev it from idle ) I have tried in vain to buy another xtz750 here but they are now just too rare. GO the xtz

Just bought an s10 on friday, a bit of a dog to be honest, i think i should have walked away.. but was in way to much of a rush to get a big traillie...

Definataly keep eye's on for the rectifier/regulator, mine has gone and taken a brand spanking new battery with it, if you do go see one, take a set of allen keys with you to strip off the bodywork.

let it run for a while or better still take it for a run, when u get back take off the left hand panel under the seat and see if the battery is HOT, that'l be the rec stuffed. be suspicious if it has new brake pads and the disks look glazed, my rear brake caught fire today (Real fire with flames n evrythink!!) i ended up on a trailer for the trip home..

Just come on to see if anyone knew of a place to get bit's to overhaul the brakes & thought i would give you a Heads up on my interesting experience this weekend, im not saying this is a general case with all s10's (this is my first s10 3rd bike) just something to watch in my opinion..
And they do seem to go like 1/4 tonne of stink, according to neighbour quicker than an AT 2

Well thanks for all tips and answers. Here is how it ended; I didnt find any suitable bikes , so I ended up buying an 87 KLR 650 from a "neighbour" which btw was an ok bike.
But then, in february 09, I found a 1990 xt600z 3DS, so now the KLR is history.. it has to be Yamaha... Just did 300km today.. lovely..
Only thing is that Im not happy with the sound of it when idling or accelerating. like a slapping, rattling noise, a bit sharp.. valves are ok, runs fine, spark plug is light gray and liiks fine. And Im not sure what a healthy engine should sound like.. hehe.. maby Im just paranoid... It has 32k km on it..

Osmund

pistonslap maybe?

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Africa Twin | XT600E
Www.adventuremagazineonline.com