Hi all
Dont know wether you do intro's on this forum
ive been on bikes full time since 1978 and i am in the uk
i have always preferred trailies though i have had other types aswell
and have been through the hotstroke two stroke era, moving onto
kawasaki zeds in the late 80's to end of 90's as they were a need to own
in this area at that time, xjr 1200 came in 1998 new and still have it to this day.
i still have a trail bike and its used as a daily rider as well as other things
though i am not a big long distance traveller these days as arthritus in one knee
gets in the way and the xt600e is far better than the xjr in that case.
I do have a question for you all, as its time with the xt for new headers, and i realise the old ones are possibly going to be a sod to get off, what is recomended these days as motad has gone bust it narrows it down a bit, the xt has a motad venom end can and mid section on it that i wont be replacing and i have noticed that the headers off tt600re are well priced has anybody tried those and they are stainless, bit strange of yamaha to do that when the xt ones are made of cheese, the old ones arent dead yet i am prepping myself for the enevitable, ive had the xt for around two years, and if they have been off if ever i dont know.
regards to all

Hi ! ...and welcome to the forum!
Until you posted it i didnt realise Motad had gone!
Ive got the motad headers and venom silencer in mine. Not much help if you cant get those headers though. I had a job and a half getting the old ones off . The nuts snapped off all but one off the collars to the head. Despite oiling them for weeks in readiness. The one i didnt snap off was already missing so i suspect a previous owner tried, failed and gave up.

I think Kedo do a stainless downpipe as well so its well worth a look through their catalogue
Bill

Bought mine here and have Yoshimura RS3 http://www.egu-motoren.de/onlineshop...8900cf8207.php

Thanks for the replies, may check those out
ive had header problems before on a dr350se, those horrid allen bolts, in that case i went for it as the header was knackered, i cut it off near the clamps
used a heat gun, tapped a nick into the allens and tapped them around one way then the other with a drift applying more heat and plus gas, they surrendered, the threads were great inside, the thing is they are 8mm and the xt is only 6mm which is a silly idea, heat, plus gas and gentle persuasion, if i get stuck i will take it to a local bike mechanic, who knows all the tricks, ive heard of guys break them in , drill them out and eventually re tap 8mm, where there is a will etc, dont want to cut the headers though one of the nuts wiil be very hard to do, as its hard to get at. all in all it will take awhile

I had to drill and tap each hole. I ended up putting in 6mm stainless studs but i wished i had gone up to 8mm ones. It would have been no more trouble. I also struggled to get the headers out . They were well stuck. Heat didnt work and i had to cut them out. It took forever. So i hope yours arent as bad as mine were !

Bill

there's a device called "nut splitter" you might want to give it a try.

as a postscript to this thread, managed to find some motad headers and braved into the task, ended up luckier than most, first one came out stud an all, replaced it with a stainless one, the middle two put up a fight but got the nuts off in the end, the studs were in good nick, so if it aint broke,
the last one was the kicker, it did break off just below the nut, so i put headers on and as it wasent leaking btook down to local mechanic parted wit 20 notes and he did the rest, so all is good.
bike has a bit more power now, you are not struggling with 5 gear anymore, for those who dont know 5th is a known issue with an xt600, mostly because its so damned high in the first place

Glad to hear it went okay !