- Joined
- Dec 16, 2010
- Messages
- 41,226
- Reaction score
- 7,903
- Location
- Stellenbosch
- Bike
- KTM 690 Adventure
This morning I took a bike for a test ride. A 45 year old bike.
Drum brakes front and drum brakes on the rear. Front forks give 195mm of travel, and the rear monoshock, 152mm of travel.
The engine puts out 17hp, or 12.6kw. It makes 20.7Nm of torque. Dry it weighs 122kg, with oil and fuel, 131kgs.
So far nothing special.
But....I took it into the mountains above Stellenbosch's university sportfields, on a mixture of mountain bike enduro.downhill tracks, and the very rocky gorges up this section of the mountain.
This was a revelation. The weight, the torque placement, the very low seat height and the sound, all this contributed to making me instantaneously relive my youth.....
This bike, in this area, is more capable than it should be, considering it's age.
It is certainly much easier to ride here, in this very technical place, than the 300 KTM. ********Please bear in mind that none of this work is above 50 kph.
Call it back to basics, and what an amazement that with a bike this cheap, you can unlock so much fun. I built it from a box of spares I had up on my loft.
New throttle cable, clutch cable, front brake cable and handlebar grips is what it got fitted, and putting it all together, of course, was so simple.
Here it is;
Drum brakes front and drum brakes on the rear. Front forks give 195mm of travel, and the rear monoshock, 152mm of travel.
The engine puts out 17hp, or 12.6kw. It makes 20.7Nm of torque. Dry it weighs 122kg, with oil and fuel, 131kgs.
So far nothing special.
But....I took it into the mountains above Stellenbosch's university sportfields, on a mixture of mountain bike enduro.downhill tracks, and the very rocky gorges up this section of the mountain.
This was a revelation. The weight, the torque placement, the very low seat height and the sound, all this contributed to making me instantaneously relive my youth.....
This bike, in this area, is more capable than it should be, considering it's age.
It is certainly much easier to ride here, in this very technical place, than the 300 KTM. ********Please bear in mind that none of this work is above 50 kph.
Call it back to basics, and what an amazement that with a bike this cheap, you can unlock so much fun. I built it from a box of spares I had up on my loft.
New throttle cable, clutch cable, front brake cable and handlebar grips is what it got fitted, and putting it all together, of course, was so simple.
Here it is;
