Zagser's KTM adventure story...

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

zagser

Race Dog
Joined
Oct 11, 2008
Messages
820
Reaction score
1
Location
Strand
Bike
Honda XR600
I started toying with the idea of giving my KTM a bit of TLC last year, but due to a lot of factors, never got round to it.

My wife recently gave birth to our second laaitie, so my time for riding is a bit limited at the moment with us getting to grips with the new one and with two boys in the house (technically speaking its three...  :biggrin:).

I also recently had the opportunity to buy my 658 back, after it was only ridden 600km in the span of about 12 months, with the idea of doing trips with the wife on her own scoot.
I had to choose between a new 990R, and buying a second scoot for the wife to join in, and choose the latter...
Our aim is to do an introduction to off-road course in September this year with our local Country Trax guys, which will be her first, and my second.

Then I read this thread from beginning to end:
https://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147440
If you have not seen this, try and have a look, but beware, this is about 100 pages of TLC, farkling etc!

So with all this in mind I decided to see what and how much I can do on/to the bike within the next few months until the training in September, which amounts roughly to two months. I only plan to do this a few hours every evening after everyone has gone to bed and on weekends when time permits, so the progress should be on the slowish side.

My bike is a 2004 model 950 adventure, now with about 45 000 kms on the clock, and this is what she looks like after our first night in the garage:

KTMchopper.jpg


My list of things I want to do is as follows:

Major service, including carbs balance and dyno'ing to check jetting etc.
Cleaning as much as possible, as I found truck loads of sand and mud accumulated during years of riding.
Replacing the waterpump shaft and seals as preventative maintenance.
I have removed and cleaned the fuel pump earlier this year, but might give it a once over again.
Replacing all bearings as preventative maintenance.
Replacing the front rim, as it has been relieved of its smileys more than once, and have a slight oscillation at slow speeds.
Painting the rear rim as it was badly scratched during my last technical ride.
Painting/powder coating a number of exposed aluminium parts, including pillion footpeg hangers, subframe, swingarm and some other parts black.
Sandblast and recoat the passenger grab rails, sidestand and centrestand.
Wire in power for my Nuvi 200 on the dashboard behind the screen as well as a mounting point.(I only like to use a GPS to tell me where I am, and the rest I like to use a map or some vague sense of direction...  :biggrin:)
Fitting rotating handlebar risers, something like this:
handlebarraisers.jpg


Fabricating and fitting an underseat storage area similar to this one:
ktmstorage001.jpg

ktmstorage004.jpg


Making brackets to better support the fork protectors (I have the high fender conversion as can be seen from the photo) to prevent them from sagging to the rear and touching the fork tubes while moving.
New progressive fork springs.
Further tidying up of the right hand side brake line.
Wiring in a remote for my front gate that is connected to the flasher for the brights.
I am also working on an idea to convert the stock clutch and brake levers to two finger ones, without just making them shorter. (Hope that this one will work...)
Fixing the hinges of my cubbyhole cover.
Fitting a second fan on the Right hand side of the radiator.
Taking the radiator to be refurbished, as the fins have been damaged by what I assume is the previous owner and his pressure washer.
Trimming the rear shock splash guard to prevent it from chowing further into the rear swingarm.
Either have the exhaust headers ceramic coated, or cote it with something else to help prevent baked-on mud from accumulating.
Installing a weatherproof connection to the battery to allow jumper leads to be connected without the need to drop the bashplate when a BMW has been stranded next to the road  :mwink: :biggrin: (similar to a battery tender terminal)
I also have on my wish list a new bashplate, clutch slave and one of them folding mirrors incorporated in the hand guards thingies (something like this: https://www.highwaydirtbikes.com/HDB_Shop/index.php?app=ccp0&ns=display&ref=mirrorfeature&sid=dpd71m88pfe2658726yf6f00n0o57t27), but this will mainly be dictated by the status of my budget at that point in time.


I might add one or two more items to my list a I go through the bike over the weekend, but will update this every now and then with pictures and findings.


Now, I have asked this before, but never got a definite answer on this. Would it be fine if I powder coat the swingarm?
LeCap has pinted out that anodizing might not be the best answer to this, and powder coating will need to be done by someone who knows his stuff and I will need to mask threaded holes and other areas beforehand, which might be a mission. It seems that the new BMW F series bikes have the swingarms powder coated?
Anyone want to add his opinion to this?

Quite a mouthfull, I know, but hey, you only live once!  :ricky:
 
Top