One Bike - 4 uses- its a ktm !

[Hooky]

Wasnt sure in which section to post this ?

I wanted a bike take could take me touring, commute to work , enter for a occasional hare & hounds ( just for fun ) and play around on Salisbury Plain on the weekends... (can you think of one ?)

I have had upto 4 bikes at anyone time , I worked out how much it cost to keep them all on the road over a year, over £2000, so all my bikes got sold, credit cards got paid off !


The other thing was "budget" yes its a nasty word but after years of blowing thousands on road racing the purse strings (wifes ) would be set firmly @ £2000.00

Oh yeah, it must be cheap-ish to run and reliable .

A impossible dream ? I think not.



https://img409.imageshack.us/img409/3563/200706120003ni2.jpg


She was bought for a good price from evil-bay , described as a runner with running problems !

The mileage was 2400 which is nothing for a ten year old bike .

Funny thing was she had been from owners to dealer 6 times , all trying to get it running correctly ( reciepts over a grand ). not ONE supposed dealer managed to sort it .

The problem was the engine gave full power on the odd occasion , only to fade away to producing no power at all , this then led to overheating and stalling completely

Im not exactly stupid but I trIed EVERTHING (new electics throughout) engine apart and built by the book.

After 5 months of mucking about I gave up, I was going to break it, enough was enough ..

I then discovered a bloke down in Saltash called Swampey Marsh, ( he is the no 1 ktm bloke in the country for Katooms - brilliant , top bloke ! so off the LC4 went for a final check up .

4 months later the problem had been found and more than sorted , Swampey had come across this problem twice before in this model.
From manufacture there was a fault in the crankcase, this caused starvation when the bike bike got warm, this caused the oil to "back-up".
The cases were welded, crank balanced, new bearings and a few other bits to make it more "interesting".

The good news is that he also managed to get some nice road wheels with discs etc ( 10 mins work to swap back to the enduro wheels..> I rode her for the first time on Sunday, you could say Im more than happy.

I really had no idea a single could produce such linear power (around 65 ish bhp ) Ideal for the road but it will be a joke in the Hare & Hounds !.

Touring will be around Europe next summer, first trip will be over to France for the GP then down to Spain.

Main problem is the fuel range, I dont think she will get more than 60 miles on such a puny tank.

The saddle is not the best but I have a large padded ass so I will have to deal with that issue .
Service intervals should not too bad, 1000 miles for oil and filter, parts etc are not cheap but available .

OK I lied to the wife again about how much it really cost to get it as I wanted it , never mind, it was worth it !

[jamie1984]

hmm I wouldnt have thought 60 mile tank range and 1000 mile service interval would be particularly good for touring anywhere....tho i keep getting told how fun these bikes are heh.. horses for courses.

[Finglonga]

Have you ever done a long journey on a bike like that? Not very comfortable riding position, and as said above tank range is a joke for touring. As for the service interval . . when I go touring it would need doing every other day!

You say its reliable, yet it went to the dealers 6 times to sort one problem. A French/Spanish garage would struggle if a dealer can't fix it.

I would think long and hard about a trip to Europe. You may struggle with a tour of the UK.
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Andy Sez....
F.Y.Y.F.F.

[Hooky]

Finalonga, please read my post again, the problem was sorted out (finally) after many dealers had charged good money (to the other owners) to sort out its problem .

Yes I have done many tours on a strange selection of bikes (old kh125 to Spain and back) as well as a tour of Iceland on a Ducati 748 sps !

Long distance touring (imho) should be more than just travelling at warp speed on a peage on a big Honda etc. I have done it, yes it was ok but in no way memorable for anything particular

Ktms (my is a lc4 ) parts etc a pretty common , Lots of people have used them on massive journeys (see advrider) although they fit big tanks, Im not going to do that.

You can leave the oil change for 2000 miles on standard bikes, mines is far from standard and I want it to keep it"nice & sweet" it will save the money in the long run

Most of my riding is along Byways etc so the road wheels will be taken off on a Friday evening ( after 200 miles during the week commuting) to get out and get dirty

I really cant think of ANY other bike that would suit all my wants and needs for around £2000-£2600 .
Can you lot think of one

[colin1]

im a fan of multi bike insurance and multiple bikes personally

i have a £500 250cc dirt bike for very occasional off road use (really should use it more)
a £500 250cc scooter for commuting
and a £1500 600cc sports bike for weekend nsl roads

total value £2500

it also means u have a spare if u break one

i doubt they cost much more to run than your bike

why have one when u can have more than one ?
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[veeeffarr]

In other words you have a dirt bike you don't use, a scooter, and a TT600 that's perfectly capable of doing anything you could throw at a scooter...

[colin1]

i admit that i dont use the dirt bike much

but the tt600 isnt really the right tool for the job on my commute

so its much better to commute on my big scooter

reasons being, if i crash the scooter it doesnt matter too much, its got enough power for my commute but not too much so im wasting petrol in a big engine

its light and the weight is really low so its easy to control in traffic

its got lockable storage which is low unlike a top box

its got upright seating position which is more comfy at commuting speeds, and better for observations

and obviously, the tt600 is much better on nsl roads for reasons i cant be bothered going into and many people would consider to be obvious

all about having the right tool for the job

the dirt bike would also make a good commuter if i fitted a road tyre on the front wheel but at the moment its lethal on roads in the wet as its got knobblies

hack + weekend bike is a good combination as each bike can be the right tool for the job, without having to get something that can try to do both (but not so well)
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[veeeffarr]

Heh most of the people I know commute on sportsbikes, I have mates that ride into work on an R1, SP-1, GSXR750, TL1000, CBR600F4i Sport, ZXR400 and ZX6-R and soon to be a VFR800 (Me) so it can be done! Most of us ride all weathers too so I don't see why ANYONE would want to ride a big scooter, but hey, each to their own

[hmmmnz]

i'd have a big scooter
mabee an old unreliable vespa or the like
the lc4 is nice by the way
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the humans are dead
I kick arse for the lord
Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches

[lilredmachine]

nothing more versatile than a big capacity supermoto. anywhere.
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Bikes: too many, too much for one man to maintain anyway.

[Hooky]

[Hooky]