First impressions.

It's tall, hard work to throw my leg over the seat and it makes a great sound or it's big and sounds like a tractor depending on your point of view.

Handling is odd, you're sitting up high and the front suspension bobs about particularly when braking, pretty much as to be expected I suppose but I'm used to a tele lever front end on the R1100 that doesn't dive at all so the effect is more pronounced.  I'm not sure how much I trust the knobblies on tarmac either.

And it's slow.  Dan Walsh complained that his XT was dangerously slow for European roads and I can see exactly where he's coming from.  Cruising speed is around 100 to 110 Km/h, it will go a bit faster but that means holding the throttle full open and I'm pretty sure that's badly affecting the fuel consumption.  Having checked the internet, some people seem to be getting the same sort of performance and others are having no problems holding 130 to 140 Km/h.

My todo list is getting a lot longer:

• Fix the rear puncture, actually, fit a new inner tube and a bead lock to stop the bike shredding another tube.  How do I remove the rear wheel at the side of the road with no centre stand?
• Check and seal the HT circuit and fit a new coil and HT lead if necessary.
• Double check the wiring harness and make sure there are no stretched or bare wires. Make sure the connection blocks are OK and seal them with petroleum jelly.
• Check the air filter.  A possible reason for last night's breakdown is water in the air filter.  Make sure it's OK, clean or replace if necessary.  I need to work out how to do this anyway.
• The regulator/rectifier might be on it's way out.  The indicator lights flash much more quickly when at high RPM and this is often indicative of the voltage in the system being too high.  Fortunately this can be tested with a meter so I don't need to buy the part just yet.
• Check the mixture.  Bit of a pain in the arse this as the tank must be removed to get at the plug but a standard chop test should do the job.  The fact that it needs a bit of choke even when the engine is warm would suggest that the mixture is wrong.  Check the plug gap while it's out of the bike.
• While I'm at it, make a note of the number of teeth in the sprockets.
• Acquire all tools necessary to do these jobs.
• Find a supplier of spare parts that is willing to ship to South America.