bonova
Race Dog
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2008
- Messages
- 3,139
- Reaction score
- 0
- Bike
- KTM 950 Adventure S
OK - so i thought that i'd start a thread about what i do with this bike.
My plan is to have a Rally type bike for the Amageza and similar race/rally's.
Why did i go with the BMW? Well - it's mainly a cost reason. the second hand BM's are really cheap even when they are basically brand new. There is also a guy here in hillcrest that mods the bike into an awesome looking rally bike, and when i saw his work it tipped the BM in favour as well.
So i set about looking for a bike and soon found a great one in Bloem which i drove through and fetched. This thing is in prestine condition! 14 hours, original tyres, and hardly a mark on her. Extras include a leovince x 3 pipe, an aluminium bashplate, acerbis handguards and a lowered seat for my short ass.
Loading up in Bloem
And Home
Once i got her home I did a few little things like set up sag and gear lever etc.
A note here is that it's gonna take getting used to working on. The KTM's are straight forward (maybe i just know them) and the BM is finicky to work on. Tightening the gear lever requires the fingers of a japanese gynaecologist.... And i'm dreading the front sprocket change...ok, not really dreading, but it's a pain. There are some special tools needed where the katoom can be re-built with the tools it comes with...
The bearings on these bikes seem to give shit, so i checked them all - no play, but they are all quite tight... i'm going to replace them all with SKF bearings soon.
Rode her to work a few times and was pretty impressed. But the front end worried me. Fortunately - my mate at Ryder BMW had a set of re-worked front forks (been machined and re-shimmmed) so i jumped at the chance and took them.
Put on a rear strap
And removed the pin in the light switch so the lights can be turned off
Now i've been struggling with a back issue which has stopped me from riding my other 2 bikes(a KTM 950 s and a KTM 250 XC-W) and i'm finally starting to get on top of it. So i decided to go for a very mild ride today and get a good feel for the bike....
So i went off to an area of sugar cane (i must say - being able to just ride the bike there is a big plus) that is not far from here and gave her a good burn. I was taking it a little easy (very hard to do), but here are my 1st ride impressions:
They did a great job on reworking the front end! It's nice and plush. On the really sharp rock or root obscacles at speed there is a little jolt, but only slightly worse than my WP suspension on my 250. The power is really great. It wheelies and holds it beautifully, and the power delivery is very smooth and controlled..
The thing that amazed me was the tracking. It just holds it's line amazingly. You can get it sideways and it just stabilizes and holds it's line. the traction is pretty impressive too,
On hard breaking it hops a little on the rear, and the front dives slightly.
It needs new tyres to have a better feel for the breaking. I did some fast-ish - 100 odd km/h through the cane roads which had some ruts and bumps (nothing hectic) and it was really smooth. It tracks so well, and the standing position is perfect for me - very comfy (i seem to have to bend a little too much for fast open road riding on my 250
I had one moment where i got beyond myself and popped up onto a very steep incline and rode along it sideways at the top of a near vertical drop off. I couldn't hold the line cause it was super slipery and i had to drop off before i would have liked to.... went down the 1.5 m bank at an angle into a rutted waterway. i braced for the hit, but it handled it fine.
One thing to note.... it gets hot easily and the fan runs alot. The last 450 i rode was not that bad. even on the more open sections the fan can run. It was 32 degrees here today though.
To be honest, i think the bike didn't get ridden hard ever in it's life.....i think it's not even run in....
I'm considering cutting out the marked areas on the mudguard in front of the radiator to allow better ventilation.
OK- so that takes me to now.
I'm considering my options, and have not decided fully, but looks like for now i'm going to go with a safari tank, and a tower and fairing. I hope to get started on this soon, and will update as i go :thumleft:
My plan is to have a Rally type bike for the Amageza and similar race/rally's.
Why did i go with the BMW? Well - it's mainly a cost reason. the second hand BM's are really cheap even when they are basically brand new. There is also a guy here in hillcrest that mods the bike into an awesome looking rally bike, and when i saw his work it tipped the BM in favour as well.
So i set about looking for a bike and soon found a great one in Bloem which i drove through and fetched. This thing is in prestine condition! 14 hours, original tyres, and hardly a mark on her. Extras include a leovince x 3 pipe, an aluminium bashplate, acerbis handguards and a lowered seat for my short ass.
Loading up in Bloem
And Home
Once i got her home I did a few little things like set up sag and gear lever etc.
A note here is that it's gonna take getting used to working on. The KTM's are straight forward (maybe i just know them) and the BM is finicky to work on. Tightening the gear lever requires the fingers of a japanese gynaecologist.... And i'm dreading the front sprocket change...ok, not really dreading, but it's a pain. There are some special tools needed where the katoom can be re-built with the tools it comes with...
The bearings on these bikes seem to give shit, so i checked them all - no play, but they are all quite tight... i'm going to replace them all with SKF bearings soon.
Rode her to work a few times and was pretty impressed. But the front end worried me. Fortunately - my mate at Ryder BMW had a set of re-worked front forks (been machined and re-shimmmed) so i jumped at the chance and took them.
Put on a rear strap
And removed the pin in the light switch so the lights can be turned off
Now i've been struggling with a back issue which has stopped me from riding my other 2 bikes(a KTM 950 s and a KTM 250 XC-W) and i'm finally starting to get on top of it. So i decided to go for a very mild ride today and get a good feel for the bike....
So i went off to an area of sugar cane (i must say - being able to just ride the bike there is a big plus) that is not far from here and gave her a good burn. I was taking it a little easy (very hard to do), but here are my 1st ride impressions:
They did a great job on reworking the front end! It's nice and plush. On the really sharp rock or root obscacles at speed there is a little jolt, but only slightly worse than my WP suspension on my 250. The power is really great. It wheelies and holds it beautifully, and the power delivery is very smooth and controlled..
The thing that amazed me was the tracking. It just holds it's line amazingly. You can get it sideways and it just stabilizes and holds it's line. the traction is pretty impressive too,
On hard breaking it hops a little on the rear, and the front dives slightly.
It needs new tyres to have a better feel for the breaking. I did some fast-ish - 100 odd km/h through the cane roads which had some ruts and bumps (nothing hectic) and it was really smooth. It tracks so well, and the standing position is perfect for me - very comfy (i seem to have to bend a little too much for fast open road riding on my 250
I had one moment where i got beyond myself and popped up onto a very steep incline and rode along it sideways at the top of a near vertical drop off. I couldn't hold the line cause it was super slipery and i had to drop off before i would have liked to.... went down the 1.5 m bank at an angle into a rutted waterway. i braced for the hit, but it handled it fine.
One thing to note.... it gets hot easily and the fan runs alot. The last 450 i rode was not that bad. even on the more open sections the fan can run. It was 32 degrees here today though.
To be honest, i think the bike didn't get ridden hard ever in it's life.....i think it's not even run in....
I'm considering cutting out the marked areas on the mudguard in front of the radiator to allow better ventilation.
OK- so that takes me to now.
I'm considering my options, and have not decided fully, but looks like for now i'm going to go with a safari tank, and a tower and fairing. I hope to get started on this soon, and will update as i go :thumleft:
