As those astute readers who’ve been following project XT-600 have noticed, we’ve been a little off our game when it comes to maintenance, especially because the bike often sees regular duty commuting into San Francisco.

But we’ve finally gotten around to changing the oil and the filter, and while it’s a job that’s made marginally more complicated because of the XT’s dry sump oiling system, it’s still a job that the home mechanic can easily complete in his or her driveway.

The first step was to drain the oil from the sump, just like a usual oil change. But you’ll quickly notice that nowhere near the bike’s four-quart oil capacity drains out from the sump. That’s because most of the engine’s oil is actually stored in the oil tank, located on the left side of the seat under the bodywork. Remove the drain plug from the oil tank, and let the remainder of the oil flow out.

You should always change the oil filter at the same time you change the bike’s oil, but we took exception to our own rule here because the filter wasn’t available locally. But since the old bike’s oil was so gross and dirty, the plan is to run the bike around for a week or so with the new clean oil, and then change the oil again along with the filter to flush the engine out.

The most important part of an oil change is, of course, refilling the oil. On a dry sump system like the XT’s, the step is especially important. Fill the oil tank up to the “full” mark on the dipstick, and then start the bike and let in run for ten seconds or so. Turn the bike off, and then recheck the oil tank and add oil as necessary. Repeat this procedure until the oil level in the tank no longer drops, and then let the bike warm up and adjust to oil level, if necessary, to the “full” mark on the dipstick.

Take it for a ride, double check for leaks, and call it a job well done.

Stay tuned for more updates, and be sure to order your copy of the 2011 print edition of Inline Performance Magazine HERE at the pre-order price for a limited time.

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Of all the bikes in the Inline Performance Magazine garage, it’s our trusty old project XT-600 Yamaha that actually spends the most time on the road doing the daily commute. While the Yamaha—which I often describe as “a big street-legal dirt bike’—would be more at home tearing up the trails than doing the daily California commute, the Yamaha isn’t as out of it’s element as you might think.

The motorcycle’s upright position is much more comfortable than being hunched over a sport bike, and also gives the rider better visibility in city traffic. Even better, at well under 400 pounds, the XT-600 feels quite light and nimble, able to pick it’s way through the gridlock. Of course, sixty miles per gallon doesn’t hurt either.

But one thing kept the old Yamaha from being an ideal commute bike—a lack of storage space. The only option for carrying anything was to bring a backpack or cargo pants.

What should you do when you need to add cargo capacity to a motorcycle? After considering much more expensive options, like soft saddle bags or hard panniers, I opted to go for a low-buck solution more appropriate for a 25-year-old motorcycle: A cargo net.

Mojo Town in San Rafael, CA, hooked us up with a motorcycle-specific cargo net, complete with rubber-coated hooks to protect the bike’s paintwork. Installing the net was easy too, we just stretched it over the gas tank, hooking it under the edges of the tank. Cargo nets are available on the web and pretty much any motorcycle shop, you can usually chose from a selection of colors as well.

Moving to the back of the bike, we could have simple gone for another cargo net, but we were looking for something with a little more flexibility. Again keeping with the “cheap is good” philosophy, we opted for two sets of nylon straps with backpack-style plastic clips. We got ours at our local athletic store for less than ten dollars. Installing the straps was just as easy as the cargo net—we just tied the straps to the frame.

Out on the road, both our additions work great. The cargo net works great to hold pretty much anything small or odd-shaped you can imagine. Even Subway sandwiches and cold, slippery soda bottles were held tightly in place with no chance of falling off. Similarly effective were the straps on the back of the seat. While they won’t hold small or odd-shaped items like the cargo net will, larger items, like backpacks, duffle bags, or even a tent or sleeping bag can all be strapped onboard.

If you’re looking for something a little more secure, there are lots of motorcycle-specific storage options out there, from hard aluminum panniers, leather saddlebags, or even painted, plastic sport bike “luggage.” But even if you chose a cheap and simple solution, having real cargo capacity will make you rethink when and how you use your motorcycle.

Stay tuned for more updates, and be sure to order your copy of the 2011 print edition of Inline Performance Magazine HERE at the pre-order price until supplies last.

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Hey guys, Graham here with an update for our XT 600 project.

I’ll start this one with a confession—I’m not from the Bay Area. As a result, it’s not unheard of for me to get completely lost, especially once I’m off the beaten path. Of course, most of the Bay’s best motorcycling roads are off the beaten path, so this my lack of navigational ability was limiting my ability to go out and find great rides.

Enduros like our trusty old Yamaha are ideal for covering distance in the back-country, so the XT was the logical choice to equip with GPS navigation.

Mounting the GPS unit was easy, thanks to the RAM mounting system that we used. Basically a series of mounted rubber balls and clamping arms, the RAM system allows for quick adjustment of the angle and location of the GPS unit, making it easy to adapt for riders of different heights. It’s also easy to simply unclamp the unit and take it off the bike—both for security, and to keep the unit out of the weather.

We chose to mount the GPS on handlebars to the right of center, which allows for easy viewing while riding without obscuring too much of the instruments, but the unit could just as easily have been mounted high in the center of the bars for a Dakar-style setup. The RAM mounts easily connect to the handlebars using a stainless steel u-bolt.

We used an older Garmin GPS unit, which still works great but is seriously lacking in the battery life department. So in order for our new setup to be functional, we had to wire in a 12 volt, cigarette lighter-style plug to power everything. We connected the plug directly to the battery, so it works even when the bike isn’t running. The plug, available for under ten bucks at any auto parts store, was easily mounted on the left side of the frame, out of the way of the rider’s legs.

With the whole system mounted up and operational, I took the bike on a 4-hour ride along roads I’d never ridden before. Everything worked excellently, not only did the Garmin keep me pointed in the right direction (and show me the way home), it can also be used to show upcoming bends in the road so that tight hairpin turn won’t come as a nasty surprise. A word of caution though—it’s easy to spend too much time looking down that the GPS, instead of looking down the road like you should be.

In the case of our XT, adding GPS is probably the best upgrade we’ve made yet, simply because it adds so much practicality to the motorcycle—and with gas prices as high as they are, more everday usability out of a motorcycle is always welcome.

Stay tuned for more updates, and be sure to order your copy of the 2011 print edition of Inline Performance Magazine HERE at the pre-order price for a limited time.

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Hey guys, Graham here with another update for the trusty old Yamaha XT 600.

For all the upgrades and adjustments we’ve made on this bike, there was still one thing everyone noticed first: the previous owner’s duct tape seat cover. So finally, after a couple days of heavy rain left the seat feeling spongier than ever, we decided to do something about it.

While most automotive upholstery shops will be happy to take your money and recover your seat for you, it’s a pretty straightforward job to do yourself. Quotes to have the seat recovered were at least 100 dollars, and when all was said and done, we spent no more than 30 bucks and a couple of hours.

The video covers the step by step of replacing the cover, but that’s only half the story. The work really started by stripping off first the duct tape, and then the tattered remnants of the original, red seat cover. This required pulling all the old staples out from the seat pan—not hard, but make sure your tetanus shot is up to date!

The foam seat cushion had soaked up water like the sponge that it is, it took three days of drying in the sun before we could work with it.

Unfortunately, because the duct tape had stuck directly to the foam seat cushion in places, the cushion itself needed a little TLC. To repair the damaged areas of the cushion—and to build a little height into the front of the seat—we used a spray adhesive to attach extra foam. The foam was then shaped down using razor blades and a grinder.

The vinyl in we used was from a fabric store, but Corbin and others also offer motorcycle-specific fabrics if there’s a particular style you’re going for.

Result? A great looking new seat for much less than what the pros charge, and the matte black of the new cover looks way better than all that old duct tape did.

Stay tuned for more updates, and be sure to order your copy of the 2011 print edition of Inline Performance Magazine HERE at the pre-order price for a limited time.

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Graham here, with one more upgrade for our trusty old Yamaha XT600.

The XT’s headlight was working great and provided a surprising amount of light for night riding. But the original fairing that surrounded the headlight was another casualty of our little crashing incident.

We could have simply sourced another OEM piece, but here at IPM, we never miss a chance to upgrade from a stock part. We got a great deal on a lightly used aftermarket headlight assembly, thanks to Dante of Scuderia in San Francisco.

Italian company UFO Plast makes the new-to-us assembly. Our model, the Oregon, also features integrated turn signals as well, but because the stock turn signals are required to make the lights actually flash, we opted to run both the stock signals and the new integrated UFO ones. As an added bonus, keeping the wide-set, stock blinkers keeps the bike compliant with California law.

Mounting the assembly on the front of the XT600 was a snap, thanks to the flexibility of the UFO piece and the variety of mounting holes and brackets on the front of the motorcycle. We chose to bolt the headlight in place, but the assembly also comes with heavy-duty rubber straps to mount the headlight directly to the forks if needed.

The wiring was the only tricky part. For now, we just used regular automotive style spade terminals to adapt the Yamaha’s wiring to the new headlight’s a simple install, but make sure to check and double check your wiring, since the bike’s wire colors won’t necessarily correspond to those of the new headlight.

Our homebrew wiring system works perfectly, but in the near future we’ll upgrade to an automotive-style, five-wire connector, so that we’ll only have one thing to unplug if we need to remove the headlight.

On the road, the Oregon headlight works just about as well as the stock one’s, impressive considering how much smaller it is. The light is definitely brighter than stock, but the trade off is a little less dispersion than the larger original unit offered.

But looks wise, it’s a huge improvement. The stock, square headlight screamed “look, I’m from the 80s” but the much sleeker UFO unit helps to bring a more modern look to the whole bike, especially when coupled with our sleeker, Renthal handlebars.

That wraps it up for this update, but stay tuned for more updates, and be sure to order your copy of the 2011 print edition of Inline Performance Magazine HERE at the pre-order price for a limited time.

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