My best mate was off to Saudi to work and needed someone to look after his newish XT600E. With promises made - never to go off-road or over 6000 revs - the bike was mine for the next three months. As that coincided with the summer of 1998, it was smiles all the way. Luckily, I'm long of leg and fitted on the high and top heavy Yamaha with little trauma, unlike my mate who had to sport boots with three inch high heels!
Despite my apparent control of the machine, disaster struck on the second day of ownership. I hadn't quite got to grips with the power output of the air-cooled thumper - not excessive in its torque output at low revs and with a feeling of turning through sludge, whilst it didn't rev very eagerly. Grinding through moderately moving town traffic, I backed off to avoid a right-turning cage only to have the motor cough and then go dead. Whilst it was still stuttering I gave it a handful of throttle, trying to make her catch but that just seemed to gas the motor up.
The sudden lack of velocity had the following cage shoving its bumper into my back wheel, the bike humping its way into the edge of the pavement. The bars twitched as the front wheel hit home and I had to get a boot down to stop the whole lot falling over. Twisted my ankle in the process. The cager gaily blasted his horn as he roared past. The motor didn't want to start, my ankle was screaming away in pain and the back tyre was snagging on the crunched numberplate which I couldn't have kicked straight to save my life.
The bike finally fired up and I booted into first gear, only then realising that my dead ankle wasn't going to let me change up through the box! Not a pretty sight - the XT growling away at 6000 revs in first gear whilst the tyre spat off bits of numberplate - the ped's suffering from the pellet-like flight of the plastic and/or having their eardrums reduced to rubble. Got her home I did, though!
A week later I could walk again, bought the broken bits from the breaker and fixed the XT up as good as new. Before the engine would run it had to be fed a new spark plug and then wouldn't change gear until new lube was added! The big thumper motor runs to a balancer system but it didn't totally eradicate the vibes - always felt alive and full of character, no real need to keep looking at the instruments to find out what the motor was doing. After a week's riding, mostly the commuter troll, I gained a bit of confidence in its ways - thanks to the fresh plug, the stalling didn't recur.
The XT600E has a bit of a reputation for toughness, the kind of machine that's capable of crossing a Continent or three. With less than 45 horses and over 350lbs to shift it didn't inspire during normal riding. It clattered away at really low revs in top and refused to react cleanly if the throttle was rolled open, preferring to change down a gear before thrusting forwards in a moderate manner. This was at odds with its gearing, the first two ratios so high that it soon ran out of revs and I could take off in third without any serious hassle.
The motor never seemed directly connected to the throttle, always a hesitation or stutter, which took away from the pleasure of general riding. The sane side of 70mph, the riding position was very comfortable and relaxed, whilst its trail layout made it ideal for punching through traffic gaps. Ridden moderately, more than 60mpg was possible - on one laid back country lane trek I did 68mpg! I never really thrashed the bike, so the average was closer to 60mpg than 50mpg. Nothing seemed to wear out in 2750 miles, and all I did to the motor was a couple of oil changes (it could go off quickly if only town riding was indulged).
It was certainly a very fast way of commuting through town, taking huge pot-holes in its stride and even meandering along the odd section of pavement when the cars were crushed into too small a space. There was enough exhaust noise to make the ped's leap out of the way and also make sure they didn't saunter out from between cars.
I didn't much like the front disc brake. Enough power to get me out of trouble but felt like it was disconnected from the action by about a mile of spongy hydraulic cable. The motor made a strange rattling noise when the throttle was slammed shut and the chain also felt like it wanted to leap off the sprockets but the engine braking snapped in fiercely enough to occasionally have the back tyre hopping and skipping.
The tyres were more road biased than trail, their best feature resistance to wear, their worst feature too slippery on wet roads - not too bad if the bike was kept upright but I didn't fancy any spirited cornering. A pity as the bike was easy to haul over and there was an excess of ground clearance. In the dry, I became pretty enthusiastic about the rate at which I could hustle down my favourite country lanes.
After three months, I was generally in favour of the chassis but wished the motor had been a bit more developed with the way it laid down its power and generally ran. My mate reckoned I was talking a load of piss and couldn't understand why I hadn't fallen for the thumper's charms. After working his butt off in Saudi he was full of the joys of England and riding the XT through its pleasant pastures. It was a free ride, so who am I to quibble?
Henry A.