Hi, Thank you all so much for your replies and great advice.
I will work through all of the things you have suggested and hopefully eliminate them off the list as reasons not to start.
I bought a new spark plug today but will do a compression test first, before I fit it.
Will have to do the test ...

Hi, thanks you for your reply and advice.
I will keep persisting, as I want to hear the bike run before I pull the engine apart to fix a oil leak from the cases.
Think the next thing to try after the new spark plug is a compression test, which should eliminate low compression.
I also thought that ...

Hi All,
New member here, this is my first post.
I have recently been given a 1986 XT600, that came off a farm. Previous owner has stripped headlight, taillight, indicators, battery etc off the bike, and has cut up the wiring harness so that it is now just at the minimum. Has a kill button on LHS ...