Having sorted out all my woes with my Yamaha XT600 (for now) I am left thinking that somehow I would be better off with a WR 450, in every way other than initial cost and the service interval.

The 450 is more powerful than thr 600 and has a lower weight, right? surely this makes it a better bike for overlanding than my '87 XT600

On boats with outboard motors when you have two 50hp motors you displace (well the equivalent of) 100hp but only get 50 hp of power, but with nearly double the torque.

in essence with my XT600, its a 600cc single, yet my BMW is an 1150 twin, so each cylinder displaces 600(ish)cc. does this mean that the Twin performs witha similar power to the single?

and does it mean that bikes like the Africa twin, are basically 2x 375cc singles that would have a similar performance to a single 375cc bike?

Do you see where I am going with this?

Anyway anyone got a tip on replacing the spokes on my rear tyre:
Just seen that I am missing a spoke and that it appears to have sheared off at the edge of the rim, so need to replace the bit inside the rim too: Are they loose from the inside, or is this a major issue?

Thanks for now, I guess the answer is to take off the wheel, remove the tyre, and look for yourself.

Cheers G