- Joined
- Oct 12, 2012
- Messages
- 8
- Reaction score
- 16
- Bike
- BMW R1200GS Adventure
Unbeknown to me, my mate Mark calls Conrad from Kove, and asks him if he’ll let me use a demo bike during the EDBA (Eswatini Dual Bikers Adventure) event? Conrad, being his polite self, readily agreed. I have ordered this bike, and hadn’t had the opportunity to ride it properly, so this was an ideal occasion.
For context, here’s a bit of personal info: I started riding a bike for the first time at the age of 49 (I’m now 64, weigh 83kg and am 1,75m tall). Got myself a GS Adventure at that time and attended many courses to improve (I tell my mates Jan taught me how to ride a bike and Mark showed me how). I recently sold my 990 as it’s now too heavy to pick up, especially when I ride alone. I still enjoy hard adventure riding and needed something lighter, a large fuel tank and service intervals that would allow me to do 12 days in Zimbabwe without having to do an oil change during this time. The Kove (in theory) ticked all the boxes. I could reach the ground sitting, it felt very comfortable seated and all the reviews were most encouraging.
So, for the second year running this event was held at Piggs Peak hotel. Everything about that place is special. The clean hotel and rooms, great food, good service, the people and of course the routes! So, within 20 minutes on day one, fuel started leaking slowly out of one of the front petrol caps and this continued throughout the day. My basic solution was to swop the caps whenever I had the opportunity to rest. This helped. Turns out the breather attachment was faulty. Not only that, but the throttle was also very twitchy. We did approximately 160km on this day and it wasn’t pleasant.
Early in the morning of day two, I reached out to Pauli from Yamaha and he kindly loaned me a replacement fuel cap breather unit. This simple solution was a game changer for me. The bike responded beautifully and I had no more fuel spillage. The twitchy throttle issue also disappeared. Another technical day completing about 130km in the mountains! I averaged 30km/h over two days.
At the time of writing this report, my bike is stuck in Durban’s harbour and I’ll hopefully get it before my Richtersveld trip starting next Friday. I am so happy with my decision to get this bike. The added benefit which I haven’t mentioned, is how light and nimble it feels. I dropped it a few times and it was so easy to pick up. Also, riding over rocky surfaces was easier than my 990. The thick sand I encountered was also a pleasure to negotiate. The suspension felt perfect for my type of riding. Bear in mind, I only have a previous KTM 990 as a reference.
Regards
Henry
For context, here’s a bit of personal info: I started riding a bike for the first time at the age of 49 (I’m now 64, weigh 83kg and am 1,75m tall). Got myself a GS Adventure at that time and attended many courses to improve (I tell my mates Jan taught me how to ride a bike and Mark showed me how). I recently sold my 990 as it’s now too heavy to pick up, especially when I ride alone. I still enjoy hard adventure riding and needed something lighter, a large fuel tank and service intervals that would allow me to do 12 days in Zimbabwe without having to do an oil change during this time. The Kove (in theory) ticked all the boxes. I could reach the ground sitting, it felt very comfortable seated and all the reviews were most encouraging.
So, for the second year running this event was held at Piggs Peak hotel. Everything about that place is special. The clean hotel and rooms, great food, good service, the people and of course the routes! So, within 20 minutes on day one, fuel started leaking slowly out of one of the front petrol caps and this continued throughout the day. My basic solution was to swop the caps whenever I had the opportunity to rest. This helped. Turns out the breather attachment was faulty. Not only that, but the throttle was also very twitchy. We did approximately 160km on this day and it wasn’t pleasant.
Early in the morning of day two, I reached out to Pauli from Yamaha and he kindly loaned me a replacement fuel cap breather unit. This simple solution was a game changer for me. The bike responded beautifully and I had no more fuel spillage. The twitchy throttle issue also disappeared. Another technical day completing about 130km in the mountains! I averaged 30km/h over two days.
At the time of writing this report, my bike is stuck in Durban’s harbour and I’ll hopefully get it before my Richtersveld trip starting next Friday. I am so happy with my decision to get this bike. The added benefit which I haven’t mentioned, is how light and nimble it feels. I dropped it a few times and it was so easy to pick up. Also, riding over rocky surfaces was easier than my 990. The thick sand I encountered was also a pleasure to negotiate. The suspension felt perfect for my type of riding. Bear in mind, I only have a previous KTM 990 as a reference.
Regards
Henry
