Lovely..... makes me rethink my plan to buy a Blue Tenere, the white is also a fantastic machine....

My favorite color is blue. But usually I do not buy by color

Today I got my steering head bearings. Top bearing is Fag 32005 and bottom Koyo 32006JRRS(with seal).

Also got myself a new helmet. After 4 years of using Lazer MX6 helmet, it was time to upgrade. It is Arai Tour X4.

Did about 40km gravel road test. Its very quiet compared to open face MX helmet. Can't really compare it to other helmets cause I never owned or used any other. I do not have to use noise plugs in my ears when riding in city or when doing short high speed(90km/h) riding. Will use for longer rides cause my ears are pretty sensitive. It has plenty of options for cooling. 3 near chin, 2 at visor. 2 more above the helmet. 2 Back of the helmet and 2 at rear bottom..
And my Oakley OFrame MX goggles fit perfect and I could close the visor when using the goggles. Got it for for a nice deal of 390�, all the shops sell them for 599-699�.
Now I can hear my akrapovic exhaust that I didn't hear that well before with plugs .. . Maaad

Also noticed that my rear brake pads are metal to metal with rear disc... will get new brake pads for rear tomorrow.

So far Ive ridden over 1200km in two months.. which is more than I had total of last year with XT600. Love it

Tenere looks good in white like this.. great pics mate!

Changed the rear brake pads and steering head bearings...
The top bearing was okay but the bottom had no lube at all.. It was very hard to spin. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyE5RG8BfLY

Also it was hard to get the bottom bearing race out.... had to weld it out cause it had no edges to hammer it out. Went to local motoshop to get the bearing out. Then I greased it up pretty nice.

Then I changed rear brake pads. I was amazed how easy it was to change them... just take the pin out and replace pads... no need to take wheel off

And then I went for a ride. Ten was clean, maybe covered in very little dust cause gravel roads.



Now theres a problem that I didnt have before. Throttle is very nervous when you twist it from 0(only if I let go and then accelerate again but not if doing it very slow), impossible with first gear at technical terrain cause it jumps all the time. I put more tension on the chain and it went better. I also checked the cables to throttle cause I had to remove them for steering head bearing.

Chain looks kind of worn cause the pivots wont return to default position after I twist them. Also front sprocket is pretty sharp. Will get new front 14t sprocket someday.

All coming along nicely..

So today it started to do knocking noise...went to watch motocross with rainy weather and when I rode home, halfway I noticed it started to do the nervous throttle thing again(when I let go and then throttle again) that it didn't do so agressively when cold. Then under traffic lights I heard knocking sound from engine.
Its knocking randomly, starts to knock more when I use throttle as you can see in the video.
https://youtu.be/Hm8R2FoclcI
When I used front brake and then loaded the engine it started to make more noise.
I hope its the nut from crankshaft...otherwise this season is kind of over...

Its not the nut ..


I am cursed... any car or motorcycle I buy brakes down.... I put over 1200� to old XT600 to make it run. Twice as much it cost me to buy. Also top and bottom end rebuild...
Now this again :S

That's not good news at all!!...sounds awful!.

Hi, sorry to hear about your problems. Try to find source of that bad noise as precisely as you can (left/right side). Last time I saw this engine with bad rattle it was broken timing chain guard:
http://www.xt660.com/showthread.php?t=25309&page=2
https://www.flickr.com/photos/andyellis161/
So I'd try opening also left side and check chain and everything what I can before removing from frame.
Good luck

__________________
Yamaha XT 660 Z Tenere

So far Ive calculated the prices of parts.
Prox piston set ~150€
Athena gasket set with valve stems 140-180€
Crankshaft bearing RH ~30-40€

Crank pin+bearing+rod+chain guides+chain with shipping is 301€. Those are from https://www.motorcyclespareparts.eu but I will ask my local Yam dealer and should get answer tomorrow. Also got one shop that might get even cheaper than Yam dealer. Then I will see where I buy which part, so I get them as cheap as possible from different dealers. Right now the price for parts is around 670€.

Work price:
120€ with engine on the desk. I will take off the engine(No problem for me to do that or other jobs on my bike or car, but I will not touch the engines, cause if I do something wrong there, its way too expensive for me to fix again compared to anything else and the error margins for engine are lot higher cause too many parts).
40-50€ for crankshaft pressing. Should be done in a day.

I removed my old XT600 engine total of 3-4 times. I can't run the engine anymore cause the case is off already. But most shops agreed that its the rod. But to find it out if its true, I need to remove cylinder anyway. Its much easier for me to transport the engine than whole bike.

While the engine is off, then I can grease rear link if needed. Do cush drive mod. Clean up everything properly. Do the tail mud guard with rubber under the seat(aftermarket exhaust problem) so it wont push dirt there(used silicone for the moment).