Greetings Hub,

I'm looking to find out your opinions on XT600E handlebar vibrations.

I've entered the Austin Vince Pyranees navigation event in September and only owning a road bike went out and purchaced a Honda Dominator from ebay. I was rewarded for my efforts by a dropped valve seat after the 230 mile motorway journey home to collect it. I have since found out these engines are prone to do this if overheated. The head is at a machine shop now and repairs are in hand but I have now lost confidence in any engine with RFVC written on the side and am looking for a different bike to replace it with.

I'd really like an XT600E but am concerned about handlebar vibrations as I am prone to getting vibration white finger when riding any bike with a lot of handlebar vibrations. I will be riding from Scotland to Spain and back doing about 3500 miles in 2 weeks so this is a bit of a concern. I really liked the dommie engine as it was so smooth at motorway speeds but had to sell an SR500 some years ago because the vibes were making my hands go numb.

I would really welcome any feedback on the smoothness (or not) of the XT600 bars at prolonged motorway speeds.

Big singles I've ridden before that you may want to compre with are BMW F650, CCM 604 (Rotax), Harley Davidson MT350, SR500, Dominator 650 & FMX650.

I'll hopfully be tracking an XT down in the next few weeks for a test ride but would welcome any input you have.

Many thanks in advance.

Stewart