Motorbike Buying

There are currently only 3 bikes I would consider for your requirements:

- Kawasaki KLR650: old school thumper, suspension a bit soft and old school
- Suzuki DR650: similar, better suspension
- Honda XR650L : just be re-released with electric start, but a VERY tall seat height

Yamaha makes the 660 Tenere, but I don't think it is as versatile as these 3.

Of the 3 above, the Kawa has a huge following when it comes to touring mods.

Join one or all of the model-specific forums and see which fits your profile.

Out of the bikes the XR is not available in oz the KLR has a tiny following and the DR650 has a bit but most have dumped them for the DR400. If you are after cheap cheap the defence force is about to auction off a bunch of bikes including all of it's XT600's (Yammie) same style as the bikes listed above and should come with useful things like bigger fuel tanks etc.

XT600 is a grand bike. I had an 1982 XT550 (same engine, different frame and suspension) as well as a 1984 TT600 (same engine, except for valve size and nicasil barrel, and the enduro suspension and plastic tank).

The ONLY and I really mean ONLY problem with old XT600s is the dual carby set-up: that secondary carb is a vacuum CV and the thing gives trouble after it gets worn and old.

I hear that some guys use a pair of flat-slide carbies off one of the road-bikes, but the conversion is a bit of a sodding job.

Plastic tanks are available in 12 to 20 liter sizes from Clarke Manufacturing in the US: quality plastic items, probably even better than OEM. I used one on my XT350/TT350 conversion and was not sorry.

In South Africa, we only got the XT600 Tenere model with a 20+ liter metal tank: didn't take long to put a dent into one of those.

Just remember that the XT600 suspension was basically non-adjustable compared to newer stuff, so a pair of 43mm conventional adjustable front forks would be the donkey's guts (off a late 80s model two-stroke RM500, KX500 or YZ465), and then maybe some fancy remote reservoir jobby for the rear.
The XT also had drum brakes at the back, but I reckon a talented aluminium welder could put on a bracket for a later model rear disk-brake wheel caliper. I never had a problem with the rear drums: just cut a diagonal slot across and through the fiber braking material until you hit the metal of the shoe. This helps clear water and sludge off the drum.

Yes ebay forced me into a snap decision, so thoughts on this one. Have I made a mistake, was it worth it? It seemed like a good buy to me.

Kawasaki KLR650 | eBay

Look, I'm not too keen on milk crates on my bikes, but it looks OK to me.

At that price, I'd be happy if it runs.......

Yes so will I and the milk crate will probably come off :p

And thanks for pointing out the KLR Jakeslouw and of course thanks again to everyone else for your very valued tips and advice. Hopefully the sale goes well and the bike gets on the road soon.

Another question that should be asked now, I'm on the Central Coast and the bike is near Bundaberg. Any suggestions for getting it back down here. I could possibly borrow a friend's trailer, or perhaps ride it down but I'm unsure if this is allowed (i.e. if you can get permits to ride unregistered interstate.

Any ideas?

I'd just ride it back if I were you, then claim stupidity/ignorance and accept the fine if stopped. Probably cheaper than renting a trailer or getting it shipped.

Well I'm always annoyed when I'm reading old threads and there is no solution to the problem or end to the story so I should finish this story.

The bike was purchased and the chap I bought it off was coming from Bundy down to Balina to sell a property which cut the ride in half. Caught the train up, picked the bike up and after a bit of stuffing about I left with a UVP for the seven hour or so ride back (or more doing 80km/h) at about 5pm.

All went well until about 9pm the lights went out. A few scary moments later (fortunately the road was straight) I was on the edge of the road with no lighting except a headtorch and my blinkers. I couldn't get any further than off the shoulder so I slowly rode about 100m up the road by the flash of blinkers and found a side road and pitched camp. The next day the journey was resumed and the bike made it safely back with me aboard.

Fast forward a couple of months (Uni holidays etc.) and I finally found motivation to attempt to get the bike on the road just in time to ride back how to Vic rather than fly. After a 2700km round trip to Vic and back I can say I love the bike almost as much as the Landy :o

For those interested here's a trip summary of the route taken, it was a phenomonal ride down, amazing scenery and I'm certainly ready to get out and do some more riding.
I tried to avoid main roads the entire way home which added approximately an extra 50km and 12 hrs to the trip. In summary the route was over the Watagans, down along the Great North Road (that was spectacular!) over the Blue Mountains, From Lithgow onto backroads (dirt) to Boorowa, then Cootamundra and then Narrandera. From here I hit some real flat open country and camped the night in the middle of nowhere after a 17hr day. In the morning it was onto Conargo, Deniliquin (past the ute muster and a couple of Landies), Kerang, Donald and finally into the Grampians at 1300 having planned to get there the previous night.

The trip home was not so good five days later, through Gippsland and up the coast still scenic but there was no time for stopping and it rained a fair bit of the trip.

And did I mention Landies?

There were quite a few spotted but only two captured, a nice Defender at the Ute muster and a late SIIA?? just on the other side of Deni that didn't quite make it :(

Ah mate you know what they say: a bad day on a off-road bike is still better than a good day in an office................