Part 1 - Honda XR600 Adventure Build

G’day all,

Bit of history on my build-up:

I began my search for a new bike once I had sold the Suzuki GSXR750 I had. While that was a great machine, it was not fit for the purposes I had given it. I needed a bike that I could commute on, ride on weekends or do some trips on to get out of the city and suburbs. The zook had some of those covered, yet it was aggressive and certainly bought on an aggressive riding style (which got me in trouble on a few occasions). I’ve already got an excellent off road bike; a road registered two stroke enduro machine….however that was never going to fit the bill of a 60km return commute each day.

Myself and some mates had also done a large trip around Australia in 2012 in 4WDs, and as great as that was, we’d spent most of the time talking about how good it would have been to be on a bike. So a goal was set, and that was to do a similar trip on a dirt bike at some stage, and include the areas we never got to cover in the cars. That included the central deserts, and Cape York – both of those places required dedicated, well set up and well planned trips of their own.

These ideas added to the requirements of my new motorcycle. It needed to be tough. It needed to be reliable. It needed to be simple. It needed to be capable. It needed to be affordable!

My early days of riding off-road bikes were on an ’81 XL185. It was my first real full size bike and I learnt the use of a clutch and gears it really gave me a great introduction. My next few bikes were more competition oriented (as most teenagers want) which let me gain some valuable off road skills. From there I became interested in enduro and trail riding more, and I’ll be forever grateful to my father who purchased a brand new XR250 for us. That bike took me to more places over the next 3 years than I could have ever dreamed of. I got my bike licence on it, I rode it to work, travelled to mates places, did countless trips and weekends in the mountains with it, and it truly taught me how to ride. 

Owning the XR250 led me to chase down accessories; I found Ballard’s off-road. A catalogue of parts that I would spend hours dreaming of having! I followed the Ballard’s off-road team through the mid to late 90’s where they raced many versions of XRs in many competitions, often winning against more exotic machines. I loved the idea of the underdog winning. I set out to prove to my own mates on their 125 and 250 motocross machines that a trail bike XR250 could do whatever they did…..and often better! It was during those days where I saw Glenn Bells thumper nats winning XR600/630 with the alloy tank…absolute drool material right there, especially when I saw it in the flesh hanging above the entrance to the Ballard’s store in Penrith. 

Again, days spent on the 250 took me to some riding parks…where I have a lasting memory of two blokes on XR600’s with big, shiny Staintune’s racing around the grass track. I sat and watched…and more importantly listened. It was the sound that really captured my motorcycling soul that day. The sound of those bikes truly expressed the feeling of having (at the time) so much power underneath you, so much earth moving torque. The memories of trenches being carved into the corners and long, solid trails of roost being shot from the rear wheel still brings a smile to my face to this day. I knew one day I would have one.

That brings us to 2013, and after a fair while of ummming and ahhhing, I decided an XR600 was to be the bike I buy, fix, ride, and enjoy for the next few years. I have two mates with DR650’s who enjoy them, and briefly looked at KLR’s, however I felt that the time would come where I hit the dirt and I’d forget I was on a big lump of a bike and try and rail it like my 300 two stroke, and I felt that a DR or KLR wouldn’t cope too well with that.

Pro’s of the XR600:
• Many second hand bikes on the market
• Same design since 91 (disc brake models)
• Air Cooled simplicity
• Steel Frame – ease of repair
• Easy to source spares – locally and from the U.S
• Proven history of reliability and off road capability
• Higher ground clearance than KLR / DR
• Doesn’t do anything perfectly, but does everything decently

July this year saw a 91 XR600 advertised fairly locally for what I thought was a fair price. I looked and thought long and hard, but hesitated and never contacted the seller. A day later, the ad was removed and I kicked myself for not getting onto it. Nevertheless, another one should come along I thought to myself. It just wasn’t meant to be.

No more than a week later, there I was still searching, scouring the online ads during work breaks and what do I see? That same old 91, re-advertised! Hang on a second; I thought that was a decent buy before….he’s dropped $300 on the price. I knew I had to definitely get onto it this time so no time was spared and I was out looking at the machine the next day. A day later it was in my driveway for less money again. I was happy.

It didn’t take long before the ideas came. Do I fix-er-up and just ride it? Do I do a full resto? Do I customise it? Do I do a bit of all of those? Anyway, with some time and money it would slowly evolve, and it during that time it gave me a chance to persuade that mate who came on our 4WD trip to also get his hands on a 600R. It was happening!

Some space was cleared in the small back shed and my father and I began to decide what to do. The coming weeks and months saw lots of ebaying, online purchases and chasing up of some fabricating and local coating services.

I’ve put together a collection of photos below of the build to date with some descriptions:


As it stood when I purchased it


Partially Stripped for degreasing before pulling it totally apart.


Beginning the disassembly


This hadn’t been taken out for quite a while!


Engine out


Ready for inspection


It’d had a ‘recent’ rebuild according to the past owner. Evidence of the new gaskets is there, and the main drive shaft looks in good nick with no rounding of the teeth.


Swingarm was seized! Had not been out in a VERY long time!




With the swinger out it was time to clean up the linkages to fit the new bearings.


The shock seemed in fair condition, but will be getting a freshen up at Teknik along with the forks.



Like I said, I have a thing for the Staintune’s, so I've got to try and bring this one back to life!


Sandblasting all the small bits.


The dirty and clean boxes of bits.




Frames repairs, and typical kickstarter tab issues.




Giving the sub-frame some beef.


Thinking of some artistic heat shield options???



Cleaning up some well-worn lower fork legs.


The lower steering head bearing race didn’t want to come off. Some heat and a bit more persuasion from the FBH (F’n Big Hammer) helped.



The smaller sandblasted bits now painted, and clear coated.


I didn’t get this powder coated as it needed some work to straighten it back out and flatten the rear tabs out. But a sandblast at home and a few coats of white enamel and it came up quite nice.



Frame is back from powder coaters and is looking unreal.


XR’s only in the states haven’t had them in stock for 3 months now….I found this on eBay. Hopefully it’s as good. Should complement the trick oil cooler the inmate GSMark sorted out for me.