{"id":241,"date":"2010-04-01T17:16:28","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T17:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/?page_id=241"},"modified":"2013-08-09T17:19:29","modified_gmt":"2013-08-09T17:19:29","slug":"the-bike","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/?page_id=241","title":{"rendered":"The Bike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Should I take a thumper or a big twin? As I pour over the round-the-world (RTW) reports I can\u2019t help but notice the abundance of F650s making the trek. It makes sense, a bulletproof engine, chain drive, not too big, and it\u2019s a BMW. I went so far as to go to the dealer and sit on a number of F650s including the new twin and X-Challenge. I\u2019ve been on the KTM 950 for 5 years now, 20K miles on the Adventure and 10K miles on the Superenduro, most of the miles offroad. In the end I chose to go with what I know. I feel confident tearing the 950 down in the field, the engine is bullet proof, and the ergos are perfect imo. While I realize there will be times where a smaller bike is ideal the SE handles very well in tight places so I\u2019m willing to accept its shortcoming in this instance.<\/p>\n

The SE only had 1200 miles on it when I bought it and aside from trying to get its over-sprung suspension right for my riding style I\u2019ve had no issues with the bike that weren\u2019t self inflicted. Since the bike is set up for high-speed desert riding it\u2019ll need some modifications for the trip and of course I\u2019ll need to renew all the wear items. KTMSER (Spencer) was key in helping me (ie he did most of it :lol3) take care of all the maintenance and upgrades.<\/p>\n

Anyone who owns a SE knows the pains of the bike’s limited fuel range. So first up on the list of mods is a Safari tank. The 7.9 gallon capacity will come in handy in remote areas especially since I have a knack for getting lost.<\/p>\n

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(Spencer’s mumbling something about the poor lighting in my garage.)<\/p>\n

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Mulie giving a hand as always. <\/p>\n

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Next up chain, sprockets, brake pads\/fluid, clutch fluid, and radiator flush.<\/p>\n

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I carry tools as a practice for trail riding so I\u2019ll expand my kit and remove redundancy to include items that will allow me to maintain the bike short of a major break down. I ended up with this (more or less) for the final pack up. No, I didn\u2019t take the big roll of duct tape. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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I decided to go with PIAA aux lighting at the last minute. They are brighter than any lighting I\u2019ve had and after getting caught riding at night in Kashmir on an old Enfield with poor lighting I\u2019ll be happy to have them. Hopefully they won\u2019t fail on me this trip. Also pictured is a new TT and Enduro Engineering GPS mount. I could never get the Ram mount to sit still with the Zumo when offroading so I\u2019m happy to have this set up.<\/p>\n

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I prefer soft luggage as it holds up better for me offroad. I\u2019m good for the occasional biff and soft bags just give more imo. The racks for the rear panniers stuck out too much for my tastes so we had our welder bring them in and he added a cross brace for reinforcement, much improved. There will be times where I\u2019ll miss not having lockable bags but I\u2019ll just have to deal. The waterproofing will be key and I\u2019m anxious to document how these bags hold up to the rigors of a long trip.<\/p>\n

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The bike is wired for the usual USB powered stuff and I\u2019ll have my Macbook so I’ll be able to stay connected for the most part. That\u2019s about it sans some incidentals and a final oil\/tire renewal so here\u2019s the bike packed down. I\u2019m starting with too much shit, camping gear makes it tough to stay light, but I\u2019d rather have too much with the option of lightening my load than not having something I need. <\/p>\n

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Should I take a thumper or a big twin? As I pour over the round-the-world (RTW) reports I can\u2019t help but notice the abundance of F650s making the trek. It makes sense, a bulletproof engine, chain drive, not too big, and it\u2019s a BMW. I went so far as to go to the dealer and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P3Lnhy-3T","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/241"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242,"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/241\/revisions\/242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ichasehorizons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}