I had the first KTM Big Vee in Cape Town, and rode it 36 000km. My personal fastest speed on dirt was 211kph. My bike was very , very light and very, very powerful , I can bore you with 1000 mods and dozens of rides , how I nearly bought KTM as a business , how I fought with them, educated them, how I had to give them the freaking TSB's and the manual , how much better I was equipped than they were, to work on the bike, and long long boring stories regarding just how much work was required to make it go and keep it going, the price of parts, and what it was like to own a ferocious machine that was so much faster than everyone else's , how much of a twatwaffle I must have been , and how long I had to wait for my mates to catch up. All very purile and fundamentally annoying to everyone else.
Then one day I grew up and grew older and a whole lot wiser, and found pure joy in NOT being bloody Rambo , but having a bike that you could really, really trust, and by then everyone had a KTM, and strutted around in orange, about masses riding in groups, and GPS's and this forum and how too many people descend on small towns in huge hordes thinking how marvelous they are in their Dakar-Style gear and sip from their camel packs like they are Fabrizio Mioni himself , and piss off the locals with 70km dust trails and blocking petrol pumps and cafe's and terrorize animals and destroy environments, and act like inconsiderate City People with too much money.
heh heh heh
Then along comes modesty and respect and a nice sweet little bike that you can buy a clutch lever for that doesn't cost R850, that you can pimp and tweak and that goes surprisingly well for its age, and places you farrrrr outside the hordes and brand-conditioned marketing-swallowing Boorman wannabies , into the real world with valves you can set , carbs you can adjust, and no RoadSide Assistance because that is for Girls.
HAHAHAHAHAHA rant rant rant. When you've come full circle from XT500 to DR650 , had everything in between and outgrown it, and returned to the Truth and Essence of what is motorcycling, and prefer a small bike because it makes the world seem bigger , because big modern bikes make the world too small , then you get the right to hold an opinion, and also rant !
