LanceSA
Race Dog
It’s taken me a long time to do this post. All my life I have been cautious and practical. I did not grow up on motorbikes and, while I have competed in a couple of enduros, it was always in C stream and even then I was only there to finish so I am ‘riding god’.
I have had my 990 for a couple of years now and felt like something different. I have had great service and times with the 990, with never a problem and many great memories.
So I started to look around. I thought to add a 690 to the garage but was not able to afford two bikes at the moment. Then I rode Edgy’s 950 se at the EC Bash (bastard).
Now I am only 1.7m tall (short) so all bikes are tall for me but the Ktm 950 se is very tall. But at the bash I chatted to Fidel and Jaco – Fidel on a 640 and Jaco on the tallest of them all - Hp2. I know how good these guys are but I realized watching them that this height thing is just a challenge to be overcome and mainly in one’s head.
So I started to quietly set things up. Turns out that it is very difficult to find a Se and they are in huge demand. Then I pm’d Ktemer from the forum and his was still available so I set plans in motion. Lo and behold, would you believe that on that fateful Saturday there was another Se advertised in Bikefind in Port Elizabeth. So I drove thru on the Monday to go check out the bikes, finance in place and my heart in my mouth.
The two bikes were pretty similar but the one in PE had less mileage so after clearing this with Ktemer I went for that one. It must be said that people were lining up to buy both bikes and I am grateful to both CJ (Ktemer) and Hennie for the honorable manner in which they conducted themselves.
It took the whole of Tuesday to sort out the finance even though everything was in place but finally it was all done. At this stage I had still not ridden the bike as it was dark and raining when I arrived on Monday evening and then there just wasn’t an opportunity on the Tuesday. I loaded the bike into my Vito (great car that) and drove home, the proud owner of a new/second hand Ktm 950 Super Enduro R.
Wednesday ‘The Beast’ went into my dealer for a check up and a bit of farkling. Quick spin up and down the road and that was all the testing I did. Thursday was the public holiday and myself and Mike left at 7 am to meet the Grahamstown Greyhounds in Queenstown en route to the Kzn Bash via Rhodes.
By the time I got home on Sunday we had ridden 1 600 km of gravel, mountain passes and almost all fast tar on the way home and I was in complete love with my new bike.
So what’s the moral of this long story? Nothing really, other than don’t always take the obvious path and remember to add in as much fun as you can.
I have had my 990 for a couple of years now and felt like something different. I have had great service and times with the 990, with never a problem and many great memories.
So I started to look around. I thought to add a 690 to the garage but was not able to afford two bikes at the moment. Then I rode Edgy’s 950 se at the EC Bash (bastard).
Now I am only 1.7m tall (short) so all bikes are tall for me but the Ktm 950 se is very tall. But at the bash I chatted to Fidel and Jaco – Fidel on a 640 and Jaco on the tallest of them all - Hp2. I know how good these guys are but I realized watching them that this height thing is just a challenge to be overcome and mainly in one’s head.
So I started to quietly set things up. Turns out that it is very difficult to find a Se and they are in huge demand. Then I pm’d Ktemer from the forum and his was still available so I set plans in motion. Lo and behold, would you believe that on that fateful Saturday there was another Se advertised in Bikefind in Port Elizabeth. So I drove thru on the Monday to go check out the bikes, finance in place and my heart in my mouth.
The two bikes were pretty similar but the one in PE had less mileage so after clearing this with Ktemer I went for that one. It must be said that people were lining up to buy both bikes and I am grateful to both CJ (Ktemer) and Hennie for the honorable manner in which they conducted themselves.
It took the whole of Tuesday to sort out the finance even though everything was in place but finally it was all done. At this stage I had still not ridden the bike as it was dark and raining when I arrived on Monday evening and then there just wasn’t an opportunity on the Tuesday. I loaded the bike into my Vito (great car that) and drove home, the proud owner of a new/second hand Ktm 950 Super Enduro R.
Wednesday ‘The Beast’ went into my dealer for a check up and a bit of farkling. Quick spin up and down the road and that was all the testing I did. Thursday was the public holiday and myself and Mike left at 7 am to meet the Grahamstown Greyhounds in Queenstown en route to the Kzn Bash via Rhodes.
By the time I got home on Sunday we had ridden 1 600 km of gravel, mountain passes and almost all fast tar on the way home and I was in complete love with my new bike.
So what’s the moral of this long story? Nothing really, other than don’t always take the obvious path and remember to add in as much fun as you can.
![100_0818_(Medium)[1].JPG](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/wilddog/data/attachments/57/57258-8fc6bbe8f69e9816e9b90ec54e035b07.jpg)
