Hi All
I joined this forum some time back to follow a fellow rider's account of our trip through the TK some years back - I thought I might pay it forward by paying it back some and starting a thread on a new project some of you might be interested in
As the annular growth rings under my bark-like skin increased every year I found it necessary to move away from some from of the MX and Enduro bikes I have owned (and broken stuff under the bark with to investigate the Adventure sector with a 650 BM Dakar in 2005. I wasn't thrilled with the (extra passenger's) 80kg weight so also bought a brand new KTM 450EXC just in case...
Since then I have also owned and ridden both the BM 1200 and 800 FS models and driven them on various sand/tar/rocks trips through places like the Transkei and Nam. They were great on the road and some were ok on the gravel, (and one you could almost ride sand with) but they all had a big problem IMHO:
They were jus-plein too heavy to really go off-road with, and rather expensive to fix when they broke. I'm not taking Stadium-Cross abilities but I wanted the ability to be able to sneak OFF the not-so-beaten track sometimes to go and fish a really remote piece of coast or follow some similar wayward yearning. But I also wanted a bike that I could do 400 km on the tarmac with my mates if this was called for between the ruffer adventchas. And I wanted to quickly zip through town at rush hour to pickup stuff in my backpack from the Spar. So basically, I wanted it all which I was frequently told, was not possible. Me no-likey when dey tell me det....
So I started doing some research on Dual-Sport bikes in the US, specifically in the avrider forum. For those who are unaware of this "sector", these bikes are street legal off roads which bikers use to be able to connect (over tar) the various trails they can ride without trailering.
This is the bike I bought end 2005.
If anyone is interested I'll post pics of how the R35K! project unfolded/s...
I joined this forum some time back to follow a fellow rider's account of our trip through the TK some years back - I thought I might pay it forward by paying it back some and starting a thread on a new project some of you might be interested in
As the annular growth rings under my bark-like skin increased every year I found it necessary to move away from some from of the MX and Enduro bikes I have owned (and broken stuff under the bark with
to investigate the Adventure sector with a 650 BM Dakar in 2005. I wasn't thrilled with the (extra passenger's) 80kg weight so also bought a brand new KTM 450EXC just in case...Since then I have also owned and ridden both the BM 1200 and 800 FS models and driven them on various sand/tar/rocks trips through places like the Transkei and Nam. They were great on the road and some were ok on the gravel, (and one you could almost ride sand with
) but they all had a big problem IMHO:They were jus-plein too heavy to really go off-road with, and rather expensive to fix when they broke. I'm not taking Stadium-Cross abilities but I wanted the ability to be able to sneak OFF the not-so-beaten track sometimes to go and fish a really remote piece of coast or follow some similar wayward yearning. But I also wanted a bike that I could do 400 km on the tarmac with my mates if this was called for between the ruffer adventchas
. And I wanted to quickly zip through town at rush hour to pickup stuff in my backpack from the Spar. So basically, I wanted it all which I was frequently told, was not possible. Me no-likey when dey tell me det....So I started doing some research on Dual-Sport bikes in the US, specifically in the avrider forum. For those who are unaware of this "sector", these bikes are street legal off roads which bikers use to be able to connect (over tar) the various trails they can ride without trailering.
This is the bike I bought end 2005.
If anyone is interested I'll post pics of how the R35K! project unfolded/s...
