Itchy's new bike !

[Spoody]

 

[wspollack]

Looking forward to the modification details in a few days.

 

[tom_d]

Love how it sounds so much like the Himalayan. Also glad to see her spirits high after time to recover.

 

[Bill Waters]

It's a sad commentary on the state of the art of motorcycle design today when an actual, true adventure rider needs to reach back and custom build a 1987 model to achieve the reliability and universal serviceability that she requires. Though I hardly consider myself to be a real adventure rider, much of Noraly's reasoning was similar to mine in choosing and buying my Scram. Simplicity, reliability and serviceability in a motorcycle can be appreciated by any rider.

 

[Roy Gavin]

The Cagiva Elephants from the early 90's with the 650 Ducati motor which had carbs, a kickstart and Ohlins suspension handle and go as well as anything made today, and I have tried a few.
I did have a Yam XTE 600 , and , stock, it was terrible, easy to understand why she is having every facet of the bike rebuilt.
I would have kept the sparking plug!
But why go back to 1987, the current bikes are pretty unchanged 37 years later!
And when I bought my 411 they were around $6000-new , drive away, and a Tenere was over $14,000- plus on roads!

 

[Ric]

She wanted lightweight, getting that today with a 6-700cc, is very rare. Hell even my 411 is way too heavy for a smaller bike, RE should have looked back in the day, to find out why they were so lightweight and copied it. The only advantage my bike has with it's ridiculous weight is it is very planted on the road when 2up, just as good as any big bike.

 

[Alan F.]

Specs for comparison Here

 

[Laserman]

1980's motorcycle was practically peak pure-motorcycle, IMHO. Her choice shows great motorcycle wisdom to me.

 

[StefArmstg]

My '86 Elefant was a great bike. A bit too big for single track. Especially if there was a chance of tipping it over on the side of a hill. Or burying it up to the axles in mud.

Getting parts could be a problem. And the reg/rect had a tendency to burn up. But just about perfect in every other way.

 

[Roy Gavin]

Specs for comparison Here

These are manufacturers claims, so take them with a pinch of salt.
Normal practice is to add 25% to claimed dry weight and deduct 25% from claimed
power, and the 100 mph top speed would confirm that.
The motor is relatively east to tune , and seems sturdy enough to take it, but as she has confirmed it will need a total strip and rebuild by a specialist to get anywhere near the claimed figures - stock mine was slower up my test hill than my Hima if I kept the revs below 5000, you had to red line it in every gear to get up any faster, and even then it was 30 km slower than my (1000cc) BMW R80 G/S PD

 

[RD52]

These are manufacturers claims, so take them with a pinch of salt.
Normal practice is to add 25% to claimed dry weight and deduct 25% from claimed
power, and the 100 mph top speed would confirm that.
The motor is relatively east to tune , and seems sturdy enough to take it, but as she has confirmed it will need a total strip and rebuild by a specialist to get anywhere near the claimed figures - stock mine was slower up my test hill than my Hima if I kept the revs below 5000, you had to red line it in every gear to get up any faster, and even then it was 30 km slower than my (1000cc) BMW R80 G/S PD

Those wet weight and RWHP look legit to me...

 

[Roy Gavin]

I actually had one, and they don't look legit to me.
But they are comparable to some others, most other manufacturers are out by the same amount!
RE's claims for the Hima check out, one of the few which do, and if you ride them back to back there is no way the Yam has almost twice the power, or is 25 kg lighter.

 

[BSA Biker]

It's good to see that She has not given up after her accident last year. The dangers of off main roads on your own.

 

[Knacker]

Itchy continues to be unstoppable. Awesome!

As for her new choice of bike, I suspect the people she's buying it from are important to her being able to use such an old machine, more important than the model itself.

I know a family, living in an economically depressed area, who have for many years dealt with their transportation needs in a clever way. Each member of the family owns a copy of the same, somewhat obscure, older SUV. The model and year were chosen in part because of low resale value. That model's quirks and issues are now a known quantity to them. When one car is too far gone to be worth keeping running it becomes a donor for the rest of the fleet. Net result? Cheap transportation for the whole family, with most repairs doable at home.

I suspect Itchy Boots is buying her way into a similar scheme. I.E. she isn't just buying a bike, but into a knowledge base and likely even a parts support system that in practice may be as good as OEM parts availability for current bikes. And THAT really doesn't speak well for present day parts supply!

Notice how the sellers had several other XT600's in their shop? They've made a study of that model bike. Also, the younger of the sellers is a trained electrician, per Itchy. And the bike's electricals aren't stock with the starter button where it is. My money is on every bit of its electrical system being well understood by the electrician, and with as many parts as possible replaced with off the shelf items.

When trouble strikes, instead of relying of a dealer network to air mail her what's needed, I suspect she will have the two gentlemen in Germany air mail her the parts. In the present, the time to get critical parts will be the same, except she can actually rely on these guys, unlike the 'just in time' factory parts system as executed by the various OEM's.

There it is, my take on her crazy seeming strategy. Time will maybe show how foolish these comments are...

 

[RD52]

Itchy continues to be unstoppable. Awesome!

As for her new choice of bike, I suspect the people she's buying it from are important to her being able to use such an old machine, more important than the model itself.

I know a family, living in an economically depressed area, who have for many years dealt with their transportation needs in a clever way. Each member of the family owns a copy of the same, somewhat obscure, older SUV. The model and year were chosen in part because of low resale value. That model's quirks and issues are now a known quantity to them. When one car is too far gone to be worth keeping running it becomes a donor for the rest of the fleet. Net result? Cheap transportation for the whole family, with most repairs doable at home.

I suspect Itchy Boots is buying her way into a similar scheme. I.E. she isn't just buying a bike, but into a knowledge base and likely even a parts support system that in practice may be as good as OEM parts availability for current bikes. And THAT really doesn't speak well for present day parts supply!

Notice how the sellers had several other XT600's in their shop? They've made a study of that model bike. Also, the younger of the sellers is a trained electrician, per Itchy. And the bike's electricals aren't stock with the starter button where it is. My money is on every bit of its electrical system being well understood by the electrician, and with as many parts as possible replaced with off the shelf items.

When trouble strikes, instead of relying of a dealer network to air mail her what's needed, I suspect she will have the two gentlemen in Germany air mail her the parts. In the present, the time to get critical parts will be the same, except she can actually rely on these guys, unlike the 'just in time' factory parts system as executed by the various OEM's.

There it is, my take on her crazy seeming strategy. Time will maybe show how foolish these comments are...

I was thinking exactly the same, the guys building the bike will be her parts lifeline if she needs anything that can't be sourced locally. And a source of expertise for any troubleshooting. IMO, a better support system than you'd get with most new bikes.

 

[Spoody]

Saw this on Reddit . Years ago the owners manual told you how to adjust the valves . Today they tell you to not drink the battery fluid (acid).

 

[Eatmore Mudd]

Imho that's the pinnacle of adventure bikes right there.

 

[2LZ]

It's a good thing she has the two gents to be her support system. Japanese bike companies like to discontinue parts rather quickly. They want people to buy new bikes, not fix 10 year old ones. Hopefully the aftermarket is ripe with parts for these bikes. I couldn't even get a throttle tube for my neighbors 6 year old Yamaha at the dealer.

 

[Eatmore Mudd]

It's a good thing she has the two gents to be her support system. Japanese bike companies like to discontinue parts rather quickly. They want people to buy new bikes, not fix 10 year old ones. Hopefully the aftermarket is ripe with parts for these bikes. I couldn't even get a throttle tube for my neighbors 6 year old Yamaha at the dealer.

I haven't checked in a few years but Boatparts.net and Yamahaparts pro used to be "go to" sources for most things XT350.

Yamaha used to use as many common parts as possible across their moto, marine, commercial, industrial and agricultural lines.
I hope they still do.

 

[RD52]

Ronayers.com is good too, for all the Japanese manufacturers.