I had been very happy with the XT but the mounting mileage – it now had over 33,000 on it - and a limited ability on the open road due to the gearing and riding position made me think to replace the bike. I fancied a bike that might be more dual purpose, and decided to look around for an XT600E. The episode with the wheel rim had put my guard up and so when I found an advert from a dealer that was importing big trail bikes from the continent, I was interested. The dealer turned out to be in Herefordshire, but as I had a mate living near Bath, I combined a weekend visit to him with a trip to the dealer. Despite a promise of several XT600’s, on my visit there was only one rather tatty XT600E and a few XT600 Tenere; I test rode the 600E but there was clearly something very wrong with the steering geometry. I did not want the big lumpy Tenere, but there were a pair of Honda XL600’s which were on offer at a reasonable price. Although older than I’d really wanted being Y-registered, the better of the pair was low mileage and in good condition. The bike had originally been registered in Milan and the prospect of a bike that hadn’t suffered the ravages of British winter roads was appealing. A test ride proved reasonable and I negotiated a price that included a service before I picked the bike up. The following Saturday following a tortuous rail journey, I rode the bike back to London on a wonderfully clear December day.

The XL was nothing like the little charmer that the XT had been. It would rattle up to 90 with little bother on the open road but the engine was rough and coarse compared with the XT, which had been really very refined for a single. Around town the XL was heavy and really quite unwieldy. The XT could be given almost full lock at a moderate speed as you weaved through heavy traffic and would maintain its balance; doing this on the XL would see the bars thump over to bang off the lock stops which meant that progress though traffic had to be much more deliberate. The bike also lacked the poise of the XT on faster roads; it would drop into corners and any attempt to brake mid-corner would see the bike flipping upright and heading for the hedge. In contrast, working on the bike turned out to be almost a pleasure, as bolts and screws would turn easily without the swearing and scraping of knuckles that is familiar to us all, blighted by salt encrusted bikes.

After a couple of months, the bike began to be an unreliable starter, sometimes needing to be absolutely stone cold before the engine would catch. The bike went into a local dealer who imparted the knowledge that the Honda RVFC engine, with which the XL is fitted, is prone to top end problems – valve and tappet wear particularly. For a few weeks, all was well again until the problem began to reassert itself and I found myself sitting by the bike at a petrol station for half an hour on the way to work one morning waiting for the engine to cool. This was obviously going to be a reoccurring problem and as I was not all that taken by the bike anyway, I solved the problem by selling the bike to someone else.

Looking around for a replacement, I felt I wanted another trials bike and test rode a Honda Dominator, but found it uncomfortable and ended up buying a ZXR400 instead. A super-moto’d XT600 that whizzed past me the other day set me thinking again though….


Back to Mr Wegg's index...