Hi all,

First of all greetings,

First post on the forum.
I bought an XT600 with 12000 KMs on the clock for 800 euros, pretty good price. Its a kickstart only but it's quite easy to start, There's a few things going on with it.

- The last owner(also the first owner) put 5 liters of oil into the motorcycle, And now i think its been running like that for a while. First off all that is way to much oil for this bike.. Anyhow i did an oil change and checked the valves and now the level is good. I can only measure when warm but that's fine

- Second thing, the bike makes some kind of knocking noise, I bought it thinking it would be impossible the low end would be shot so soon, it runs good and has plenty power. I was thinking it might be of the absurd amount of oil in the bike, but i think you guys know better. But still i want a nice running engine, i'll post a video tomorrow of the sound. I hope its the clutch cover bolt i heard about, But i wasnt able to find a tutorial to fix this problem.

- Here in the netherlands we recently got E5 replaced with E10, which sucks. E10 is a gas with more bio ethenal, On german forums some say the xt runs fine, and others are having problems. My problem is the bike stumbles when warm on idle, and if the idle rpm is to low it just dies. Pretty akward with a kickstart only bike at the traffic lights. Now im wondering what you guys think is the curlprit of the bogging.

If i finish this tank of gas i'll try more expensive e98 see if that makes a difference

Oh and the front end is like really slow and not quick from turn to turn, is this normal for the xt? I had a honda dominator which handled better to the feel.

At last someone who introduces himself nicely, tells a bit of background and more...


Welcome.



seems kind of odd that a "one owner bike" for the last 25 years would overfill the motor, I hope he was not trying to cover an issue with extra oil...



too much oil shouldnt cause damage, just heavy smoking and maybe some spots on the ground.



a better description of the noise is needed: while idling? while running hard? clutch pulled? all gears? noise diagnosis is a serious thing.


stumbles when warm? raise you idle speed....


post picture so we can see if you made a good deal or not
I am always suspicious of bikes that are too cheap!

as for the sound, im going to look into this, quite confident this the issue at hand, since the sound is coming from that location https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec_CSqVm6MA

And yeah i'll try raising the idle. now just the handling, Could be because of no oil in the forks and shot fork seals? they didn't look to good either.

The bike didn't smoke at all in any way, just oil in the plastic oil filter assembly.

Use V-power, BP ultimate or Esso Synergy+. They don't have ethanol.
Some other 98 do.

Not sure if this means anything. You are simply trying to turn the engine and ticking the gears into eachother.

Agree with Double... worse video ever to explain the problem!



Hard to see from your video where the play is. if the gear wheel is rocking free on the shaft then remember to take the gear wheel off and check the key on the shaft....might need a new one. just tightening the nut doesnt solve the issue.


try to explain better your fork issue. "slow turn to turn" could be shot steering bearings, but you need to raise the front in the air to really check that. bearing can be changed but not exactly a job for a newbie.


If bike was run without oil in the forks, then not so good as it will wear out the aluminum bottoms from inside. Try to drain the fork oil, measuring how much was there. hope for you there was any....


After draining you should check for play between slider and tube by trying to rock it.



Sound like bike needs a good check overall, download the manual....

Haha this isn't my video, but im expecting it might be the issue because its a rather common one i heard, maybe you guys can confirm, When i was looking at an assembly video of the engine it didn't rock like that.

Ofcourse i didn't tell it but im glad to say im not really a noob, hehe.
I've done head bearings before, not a fun job but i can do it. But i'll test before i take it appart, knowing what to feel for. And draining the forks is a good idea to see if theres oil in there, gladly i have the manual

I wanted to go outside to record a video, but the weather is just utter shite so maybe tommorow

Assume its also likely that i need to replace the gasket if open it up..