All,

I am looking to buy a new dual sport machine and have narrowed it down to two bikes the XT660R and the DRZ400. The bike would be used for commuting and some green laning but not motocross type stuff, more trails etc.

I have read lots of reviews about how good the DRZ is offroad but there seems to be little opinion out there about the XT. I recently did the BMW offroad course on an F650 - expensive but great course- and was amazed what it could do offroad and was thinking about the XT as its almost 20 kg lighter. I read one good review in Bike comparing it to a Huskie and F650.

Has anyone been using their XT offroad and how has it been?

Thanks

Matt

Hi Matt and welcome to the forum,one of our other members called matt not andrew uses his offroad,give him a shout via pm and i'm sure he will let you know what he thinks.

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Thanks for the quick response. Having thought long and hard on this one, am off to the shop this afternoon to order the XT. Can't wait.

Realised that my idea of offroad is in no way hardcore (softraod really!)and that 90% the bike will be onroad, and more importantly I like the XT so much more than the DRZ even given how capable that bike is.

Matt

I've not tried the DRZ off road but the XT is a heavy bike to use. I went off road last Sunday and found whilst it coped with most lanes it really had a problem with the pebbly type lanes specially if they were submerged in mud.

You will 100% have to change the tyres as the standard are far from ok in wet conditions off road, if you need a set check out the for sale section got the conti's off mine with less that 200 miles up for sale, open to offers if your willing to collect or arrange collection.

Tiny

Hi Matt

Welcome to the forum. You'll find the answer to almost any XT question here so most of your hard work has been done.

I use my XTR offroad every couple of weekends with my local TRF club. My choices when looking for the bike were similar to yours. Most of my time on the bike is on the road and occasionally two up. I have a small review of the bike on the Motorcyclenews page under the review section but to sum up:

For offroad riding I recommend the following:
* Bash plate - the Yamaha one will do but other companies do a better product (Metal Mule or Touratech)
* Hand gaurds - again, Yamaha product (made by Acerbis) will do but I have a set of UFO ones that cost �40 and the fitting kit will fit any set of bars.
* Renthal bars - They are thicker and come in a wide range of heights to suit your offroad riding style. Go for a high swept type of you are going to do a lot of offroading cause the strain on your wrists is reduced if you stand up and the bars are higher. As they are thicker, the Yamaha fittings for the bar weights and handguards may not fit. The bar fittings fro Yam are a ****** to get out too!
* Remove the rear footpegs and any aftermarker rack you fit for any off road use. This saves about 15kg of weight. Once you are riding in muddy ruts you'll be glad!
* Run the fuel tank half full when trailing. Anyone on a KTM, DR, WR etc will only have a 8l tank so theres no point taking an extra 7kg of fuel for you to muscle around.
* Tyres - get something with nobbles. I run a Michelin MT21 rear and a Conti TKC80 front. The rear is fine for most things but I'm going to try something more hard core for the front next summer. The conti's work well but are a pain down muddy lanes when you can't get any speed to clean them up. I'm only planning on running the bike offroad till about October then putting the road tyres back on. One thing I've learnt using the XT offroad is that you soon get used to sliding the back wheel on the road when it's still covered in mud! I don't mind doing it when I choose to but the knobbly tyres on wet roads are crap.
* Decent metal footpegs from touratech or similar.
* Folding clutch pedal as above.
* Angle grind the rear brake pedal so it sticks out half as far.

Optional offroad extras are getting a single pipe (saves weight and sounds cool), remove the front mudguard or raise it somehow for mud on the front clearance, engine bars to protect the pumps and rear brake reservoirs, softer grips and a metal radiator mesh. You can also alter the gearing for more bottom end but so far I've stuck with the stock gearing. I only really use 1st and 2nd offroad (1st in mud!) and only get into 3rd and 4th when on loose gravel (and then not even the guys on the KTM EXC400's can loose me!)

For the road I recommend:
* Medium or large screen (I chose the medium as the large one makes the bike look funny but it's your preference).
* Rack and box for touring.

I looked at the DRZ too but really wanted the Yam. I've ridden friends CR400's and a KDX200 two stroke and both were much better offroad machines. Ignoring those types of bikes whoch don't even have a key ignition, you're left with looking at the Yam XT660, Suzuki DR400, CRM (various), KTM (various), Aprilia Pegaso trail (same as XT basically) and some others that are imported.
The Yam may be a compromise offroad but it doesn't have to be on road as long as you don't want inline 4 performance.

Hope the bike goes well, let me know if you want any other info for road or offroad use.

Matt

matt_not_andrew,

Thanks for the really detailed reply. This is really useful. I am getting the bike as a pre reg and have ordered it already with the hand guards and the bash plate. Was thinking about getting a set of conti's, so will give Tiny a shout tomorrow.

Am in a bit of a hiatus now. Have ordered the bike but don't get it until Friday. Will let you know how it goes.

Thanks again.

Matt

For dry green forest lanes the xtr is a reasonably good machine and it can cope with some rough stuff occasionally.
It is still a big bike at nearly 170kgs so bear that in mind.
But on general green lanes it will still kickarse bigger bikes like the BMW R1150gs's easily.

Ridden well you can keep up with absolutely anything on tarmac twisties. It is great in town too, good on fuel and cheap to run. It runs OK two up too.
Even when I buy another big bike im gonna keep my xtr, I love it more than my XJR1300, GSXR600, CR125 and about the same as my old ZX9R.

It can do anything, except motocross........well, maybe even that with the right setup.

Tyre. I run Metzler Touraces on mine which are better than the original Michelin Siracs it came with. I run 75% on road and 25% off. but I live in the south of France where its pretty dry.

The contis give a decent road life span - got 2k out of the rear then moved on to a MT21 which is better offroad but noisy on road. I currently have 3k on the front with plenty left. The contis are poor in mud and wet grass but fine on everything else.

I don't know why Yamaha didn't put an 18 inch rear wheel on the bike - the offroad tyre choice would be better.

I also can't understand why they don't do a simple conversion kit for the X and R to swap the wheels? I'd love to run some extreme enduro tyres for offroad and supermoto rims for road riding but as the fitments are different it makes the swap very expensive. Personally I think they missed the boat on this. They could charge �500/�600 for the supermoto setup if the wheels fit and make some (more) money.

anybody ridden a vstrom?......how does the XT compare to this bike both on and offroad.

thanks

After another year does anyone have any updates to this thread?

I have had an XT660R for a few months now and have done the following (mainly used for green laning and a bit of slightly rougher stuff):

• Yamaha hand protectors (good)
• Yamaha bash plate (ok but could be tougher)
• Scott Oiler Touring kit (excellent for lazy gits like me)
• Pirelli MT21s front and back (excellent but rear isn't going to last long)
• Rim clamps so I can run 15 psi front and rear (might try 12)
• Metal footpegs (Touratech, excellent)
• Bike trailer for those long distance trail weekends (I think I got an excellent trailer for a good price from Phoenix trailers near BridgeNorth)

I'm thinking about the following so any advice would be gratefully received:

• Lower the gearing (but how much?)
• Replace the wheel hugging bit of the front mudguard (but with what?)
• Stands ... I have a rear paddock stand that's ok but how the hell do I lift the front? At the moment I use a trolley jack on the bash plate whilst it's on the paddock stand but bloody hell it's wobbly!