Rainbow just taken a rather nice yellow 2009 Xcountry in if anyone is looking
14,000 miles, none ABS. BMW rear rack and tail bag. Barkbuster hand guards and an Izotta (?) screen. Looks good
Ring Ian (Wilkie) at Rainbow if interested
Is it the later one, made in China? The ones JB told me to avoid.
He was meant to call me when it arrived!
Yeah .... I understand the yellow ones are lowered a little. They also have steel rear sub frames with welded on pillion peg loops. Stronger if you want to fit panniers and RTW
The 2007 black ones were assembled in the Aprilia Factory and have alloy rear sub frames with bolt on/off pillion pegs
They both have a rear shock with adjustment at the bottom to alter the ride height .... in addition to the preload.
Although the yellow ones were assembled in China I haven't seen any discernible difference in quality, the parts were only taken there to be assembled
A woman's bike? ... certainly could be
A beginners 'bike? ... certainly could be
No street cred? ... certainly could have
Good enough for Round The World? ... certainly is
An experienced motorcyclists machine? ... certainly is
Economical to run and look after? ... certainly is
Will it keep up in the twisties? ... certainly will
I think you'll find that the rider of a Xcountry has nothing to prove
So if you were buying one today, would you avoid the 2009, and go for the earlier model?
Good info, cheers Micky.
I'm a Johnny Cash kinda bad ass biker, so it would have to be the black'un
Don't think there's anything to choose between them Nutty, I just prefer the slightly taller earlier model. Fitted Wilber's rear suspension and front fork springs to mine, so I can always lower it as I start wilting in my dotage
As mentioned somewhere, girlfriend Sue has the 2009 yellow model, loves it, toured Norway, Germany, Ireland and the most of Europe on it .... no probs really. Headlight main beam dip switch went faulty & was replaced. My 2008 has an intermittent fault in the wiring, keeps blowing the main fuse. Will be OK for hundreds of miles, fuse goes, pop another one in then OK again
The wiring is suspect, made of cheap brittle copper wire methinks. Probably broken/worn somewhere round the headstock I think. No easy way .... I'm going to have to pull it all out and check
Cheers for that
But I don't think it's the starter solenoid playing up. No issues when starting. At first it was fairly frequent, so I checked, pulled and tugged and moved the wiring along the full length of the harness, as I looked for signs of chaffing, couldn't see any signs, but the problem went away for several weeks
Then suddenly the fuse blew again ... just setting off and turning left, for the first time without the tank bag on ... the tank bag pulls the wiring tight near the headstock and as such the wiring just there doesn't move, but without the tank bag it can. I reckon that's the area I want to be looking in
It blew the fuse when you were riding normally?
Or when you were starting it?
Wet or dry no difference here
