LiveInTheOutdoors
Race Dog
Hey All,
So I took a literal 20 minute offroad ride to Spes Bona Road outside Durbanville which is a nice hard dirt road with a few corrugations and a few 90 degree turns which runs through several farms and wine farms.
I was just wanting to briefly take the Katoom through its paces a bit and get to know the bike. Its after all only 300cc bigger than my Dakar 650cc, but in this case, it has almost exactly double the power :shock: , and when fully loaded with gas, only around 20kgs heavier. :shock: :shock:
This is why I have come to undestand that the 1200GS - in all honesty - being around 250cc bigger than my bike, and at almost precisely the same weight - should truly leave me behind, which it doesnt at all. This is NOT a diss on the 1200 or a BMW bashing, but an honest observation. I know that the jump from single cylinder to twin and a 300cc hike is huge, but then again, try and race a 950cc road bike against a similar purpose 1200cc weighing the same and I would think that the 1200 would kick its ass. Question 1: thoughts?
My ankle is still not 100% - I have only around 60% of the motion available in my left foot and that doesnt help offroad. But, I decided to gooi the bike a bit. My Pirelli Scorpions are dual purpose tyres - if I stood on that rear brake, that back would lock up nicely, as did my Dakar. However, the extra footprint on the thicker tyre certainly does things that a thinner tyre cant. Its cool.
To swing the bike around in braking is easy, with lots of countersteer to keep it going straight. To hop from a left hand skid to an immediate right hand skid is pretty easy. But now this is where it gets interesting.
If I open that throttle - a bit - the back tyre just absolutely wheelspins. This make the bike fishtail at the rear and I have to counteract with countersteering and immediate weighting of the pegs so I dont see my bum on the ground in an instant. Its truly powerful compared to any 650cc bike offroad I have ever ridden on. But.. when it finally gets traction, it literally almost rips my arms off - despite hugging the tank and pegs with my legs and feet. Ques 2: Do you 1200 guys experience this?
The bike then picks up speed at an alarming rate, and its quite difficult at my beginning stages of regaining confidence (I have played that video, with sound, in my mind of my crash oh - 200 times easily) to thrash the bike at will with full confidnce. I found myself crawling around the 90degree turns at 20 kays/h instead of braking and sliding into - and fishtailing the bike completely easily out of it. I havent come to that level of skill yet.
The bike will do wheelspins and almost instantly hit revlimiter at 9500revs/min in any gear at anything from 1/2 to 3/4 throttle - even at 140km/h. This is insane stuff, and quite amazing to deal with. A problem I never had on the Dakar despite WOT (WideOpenThrottle) pinned. Ques 3: do you 1200 guys experience this too?
Although I mentioned this above - I want to chat about it a bit. I havent mastered the art of sliding through a 90deg turn at speed and having complete confidence to slide it through and wack the throttle open coming out of that 90deg yet. I am not talking about locking up rear, slowing down and then pointing and shooting. I am talking about the style that the Dakar boys have - know what I mean? Have you guys conquered this skill yet? I dont have the confidence yet, but then again it was a short time (25oddmins). I will do it, but its going to take a little time and practice.
If any one has, please share your secrets. I know its elbows up and all that stuff, but my goodness, its a different thing on this maniacal beast. And I know it can be done, cos I have seen it on the ParisDakar.
Thanks guys. No pics, but you should see the lines in the hard dirt road! It looks like some alien was painting his weird language in the dirt 8) 8) 8)
So I took a literal 20 minute offroad ride to Spes Bona Road outside Durbanville which is a nice hard dirt road with a few corrugations and a few 90 degree turns which runs through several farms and wine farms.
I was just wanting to briefly take the Katoom through its paces a bit and get to know the bike. Its after all only 300cc bigger than my Dakar 650cc, but in this case, it has almost exactly double the power :shock: , and when fully loaded with gas, only around 20kgs heavier. :shock: :shock:
This is why I have come to undestand that the 1200GS - in all honesty - being around 250cc bigger than my bike, and at almost precisely the same weight - should truly leave me behind, which it doesnt at all. This is NOT a diss on the 1200 or a BMW bashing, but an honest observation. I know that the jump from single cylinder to twin and a 300cc hike is huge, but then again, try and race a 950cc road bike against a similar purpose 1200cc weighing the same and I would think that the 1200 would kick its ass. Question 1: thoughts?
My ankle is still not 100% - I have only around 60% of the motion available in my left foot and that doesnt help offroad. But, I decided to gooi the bike a bit. My Pirelli Scorpions are dual purpose tyres - if I stood on that rear brake, that back would lock up nicely, as did my Dakar. However, the extra footprint on the thicker tyre certainly does things that a thinner tyre cant. Its cool.
To swing the bike around in braking is easy, with lots of countersteer to keep it going straight. To hop from a left hand skid to an immediate right hand skid is pretty easy. But now this is where it gets interesting.
If I open that throttle - a bit - the back tyre just absolutely wheelspins. This make the bike fishtail at the rear and I have to counteract with countersteering and immediate weighting of the pegs so I dont see my bum on the ground in an instant. Its truly powerful compared to any 650cc bike offroad I have ever ridden on. But.. when it finally gets traction, it literally almost rips my arms off - despite hugging the tank and pegs with my legs and feet. Ques 2: Do you 1200 guys experience this?
The bike then picks up speed at an alarming rate, and its quite difficult at my beginning stages of regaining confidence (I have played that video, with sound, in my mind of my crash oh - 200 times easily) to thrash the bike at will with full confidnce. I found myself crawling around the 90degree turns at 20 kays/h instead of braking and sliding into - and fishtailing the bike completely easily out of it. I havent come to that level of skill yet.
The bike will do wheelspins and almost instantly hit revlimiter at 9500revs/min in any gear at anything from 1/2 to 3/4 throttle - even at 140km/h. This is insane stuff, and quite amazing to deal with. A problem I never had on the Dakar despite WOT (WideOpenThrottle) pinned. Ques 3: do you 1200 guys experience this too?
Although I mentioned this above - I want to chat about it a bit. I havent mastered the art of sliding through a 90deg turn at speed and having complete confidence to slide it through and wack the throttle open coming out of that 90deg yet. I am not talking about locking up rear, slowing down and then pointing and shooting. I am talking about the style that the Dakar boys have - know what I mean? Have you guys conquered this skill yet? I dont have the confidence yet, but then again it was a short time (25oddmins). I will do it, but its going to take a little time and practice.
If any one has, please share your secrets. I know its elbows up and all that stuff, but my goodness, its a different thing on this maniacal beast. And I know it can be done, cos I have seen it on the ParisDakar.
Thanks guys. No pics, but you should see the lines in the hard dirt road! It looks like some alien was painting his weird language in the dirt 8) 8) 8)
