Yesterday morning I took the new KTM out for the inaugural ride. I called my brothers Saturday evening to see if they were up for the ride on Sunday and they both agreed to come out.
Woke up Sunday morning to ugly looking clouds. The kind that had rain written all over them. I suited up and loaded up at the house (only 7 minutes to the riding area) When I arrived and unloaded I performed a pre-ride check of things to make sure nothing would fall off.
After a few minutes one of the brothers arrived. Then it started to rain. It hasn't rained for the 2 months since I sold my last bike. And now that I have a new one it had to rain. Jumped in his truck to stay dry/bench race until the other brother arrived. He got there about 20 minutes later. So we all jumped in the truck to wait out the shower. It finally stopped after 20 minutes or so, then the sun came out.
So they suited up and we were off.
The bike didn't seem jetted way off. It actually seemed fairly close. Except for the surging when I let off the throttle. It would perform the familiar "chung-chung" syndrome when chopping the throttle.
I didn't have any jets with me so we decided to fix it later. We did try the air screw and it helped slightly.
The power was incredibly smooth right off idle and all the way to about half-throttle. Didn't want to push too much. So I never got a chance to open it up. But it is really strong.
The suspension seemed to be a little soft in the front-end. I used up most of the travel a couple of times, just loafing along through the whoops. Maybe have to play with the clickers or add some oil later. I'll wait for a couple more rides before I mess with it too much.
The handling seemed good. It was hard to tell too much since I wasn't really riding hard, but it seemed to work decent enough
As the day progressed it rained more and more so the trails got slicker and slicker. The tires didn't work welll in the slick clay. So those will have to change.
The bike seems to be everything I had hoped for. I'm anxious to get it broke in so I can push a little harder. I definitely need to cut down the bars, add handguards, fix the jetting, get a skid plate, etc.
Oh and one last thing. I had read all the magazine articles about the seat being so hard. I can certainly vouch for that. That thing is a brick. Gotta fix that, or quit sitting down. Ouch!
I'm on vacation for the next 2 weeks so I plan to do alot of riding.
Woke up Sunday morning to ugly looking clouds. The kind that had rain written all over them. I suited up and loaded up at the house (only 7 minutes to the riding area) When I arrived and unloaded I performed a pre-ride check of things to make sure nothing would fall off.
After a few minutes one of the brothers arrived. Then it started to rain. It hasn't rained for the 2 months since I sold my last bike. And now that I have a new one it had to rain. Jumped in his truck to stay dry/bench race until the other brother arrived. He got there about 20 minutes later. So we all jumped in the truck to wait out the shower. It finally stopped after 20 minutes or so, then the sun came out.
So they suited up and we were off.
The bike didn't seem jetted way off. It actually seemed fairly close. Except for the surging when I let off the throttle. It would perform the familiar "chung-chung" syndrome when chopping the throttle.
I didn't have any jets with me so we decided to fix it later. We did try the air screw and it helped slightly.
The power was incredibly smooth right off idle and all the way to about half-throttle. Didn't want to push too much. So I never got a chance to open it up. But it is really strong.
The suspension seemed to be a little soft in the front-end. I used up most of the travel a couple of times, just loafing along through the whoops. Maybe have to play with the clickers or add some oil later. I'll wait for a couple more rides before I mess with it too much.
The handling seemed good. It was hard to tell too much since I wasn't really riding hard, but it seemed to work decent enough
As the day progressed it rained more and more so the trails got slicker and slicker. The tires didn't work welll in the slick clay. So those will have to change.
The bike seems to be everything I had hoped for. I'm anxious to get it broke in so I can push a little harder. I definitely need to cut down the bars, add handguards, fix the jetting, get a skid plate, etc.
Oh and one last thing. I had read all the magazine articles about the seat being so hard. I can certainly vouch for that. That thing is a brick. Gotta fix that, or quit sitting down. Ouch!
I'm on vacation for the next 2 weeks so I plan to do alot of riding.