I was not looking for another bike, but a bargain appeared on Facebook Marketplace. It was a XT600 almost completely dismantled for $420. The vendor had pulled it apart, but due to personal circumstances needed to offload it. He had purchased a lot of parts for the rebuild including wheel bearings, gasket kit, piston rings, new handlebar and levers plus many more bits.

 

Included was a bore honing tool, which I considered using, but sent the barrel off to my friends at Crankshaft Rebuilders as they only charged $50 to do it properly! He even included a valve spring compression tool.

As with any bike nearly 25yrs old there will be a few stripped threads. Recoil kits are a life saver.

 

The wiring harness is a complete mess. This bike has had a TT600 motor installed at some point, so the harness can be tidied up a  bit. Still no fun though.

 

I’m trying to do this bike without spending too much so I thought I’d forego to powder coating for the wire brush and sandpaper.

 

The barrel was finally done. Motor assembled and ready for install.

 

Had to buy a front tyre, then front end completed.

Got the engine in today. Always a fun job!

 

 

Mounted the Trailtech speedo. Avoiding starting on the wiring harness!

 

New grips and levers. courtesy the previous owner. I bought a $6 ebay kill switch and mounted the switch block.

 

I have bitten the bullet and started the wiring. Have decided to do it from scratch.

Test fitted the tank and seat. Then back to wiring.

 

Wiring all done!

 

Was a bit slack blogging the rest of the build. Had some ignition issues I eventually outsourced to get the bloody thing running. Kicking a 600 single over and over wore a bit thin.

It is now registered and I’ve put a few k’s on it. It runs beautifully and I can’t wait to do some big dirt rides.

 

The main reason I bought this bike was to practice wheelies on a bike that would be cheap to repair if things went wrong……………

Must not forget to cover the rear brake!

Damage to the bike was fairly light. Rear guard, light indicator. Was able to fix cheaply once I was mobile enough. Ended up doing the fork seals also, which was a first for me. Had to fabricate a special tool to separate the forks.

Once I was able to get a boot on and ride, I found the niggling problem of clutch slipping return. I had changed the springs, and reverted to mineral oil hoping that would fix it. Next was to get a new set of plates.

The bike was now in perfect order and ready for a ride.

Having ridden it for a while, I decided it was ok for fire trail type riding, but too bloody heavy for any tight technical stuff. I came up with the idea that if I sold it along with the gen 1 KTM 1290, I could get a gen 2 1290. So I did.