Seeing as not much is going on the forum at the moment i thought i would write up my review of around 9-10months with an XTR.

I got my 06 XTR in sept 07 and road it through out the winter to uni everyday. The bike came with a larger screen, handguards, heated grips and a rear rack. I also added a bash plate straight away to keep the crude off the front pipes and to protect them when i did a bit of off roading in wales.

After around 8k miles i can say the XTR is a great bike for what i need it for. Great for commuting on as its so slim and pokey, can carry a good amount of luggage when needed, has enough poke/go to put larger more powerful bikes to shame, is easy on petrol/maintenance/tyres/costs, can tour easy enough, is comfy enough for my type of touring (slowish so i can see the country) can do any off roading,etc etc the list goes on its just such an all round good bike.

Ive also added a set of CCC exhaust (cheap and nice and loud), some extra lights, my massive topbox and a few other bits and bobs.

Because the bike is so good i have even planned a 3-4week touring hoilday with a friend to go around europe totalling around 3.5k miles or so. I know the bike will hack the pace and complete it ok.Plan to visit the Millau bridge in french, the stelvio pass in italy, then the nurburginring in germany, then come through england and visit a few of the members and great places there.

I did 2 days off roading in Wales and after fitting off roading tyres the bike worked fine and i even surprised my instructor who throught i couldnt have done most of things with out hassle. The bike was fine, maybe slightly heavy but took it all in its stride normally having too much power for off roading. I add some of kevs raising links on the bike to raise it a bit and they work fine only letting the bashplate touch down once or twice. (took them off for normal road riding as i find it speeds the steering up too much and makes it nervous at motorway speeds)

Problems found. The only problems ive had like many is the surging, but its not too bad now ive fitted my cans, K&N air filter and changed the CO reading. Also at motorway speeds + the bike can vibrate the bars a good bit, nothing massive but at sustained speed can cause sore hands. At the moment i have a leaky oil seal around the gear lever but nothing big hopefully.

So for a basic round up its a great bike for me and does most if not all the stuff i want it to do. Its a great all round bike and will hopefully last me for a long time to come yet.


Forgot to add the question that always should be asked is would i buy another one? Well if i had the money i would be looking alot at the new Tenere as its sort of what i want the XTR to be but if it were my money i would have another XTR maybe an 08 with the black rims + all the extras i put on.

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Plough on