KTM BIGGER
Race Dog
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2006
- Messages
- 2,063
- Reaction score
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- Location
- Tip of South Africa
- Bike
- KTM 990 Adventure
So my wife and myself eventually saw the light at the end of the tunnel after waiting for this trip for 3-6 months. Finding a babysitter to look after the kids while you are gone and my wife trying to get leave made things really tuff . The excitement of the trip drew nearer once I got home on the 3rd Sept from work. This was going to be our first trip together on the bike, alone away from the kids and the 990R with all the luggage fully kitted out.
We spent various amounts of time on the internet, in the bike shops trying to get her clothing and buying all the touring thingy’s which cost a large portion of money just to get going and burnt a moerseeee hole in my pocket. I started thinking why can’t they just sell the bike with all the luggage, like give you an option1 for soft bags and 2 for hard panniers. At least then you have everything. Well something’s to get you going and not only the bike. The accessories cost loads of cash bra for you newbies.
Well one of my last purchases was the communication device to allow me and the Mrs. Ktm Bigger (really should be Mrs. Ktm Smaller, you will soon see why when you see the pics) to be able to talk while on the road and of course when to shout at her “HO…………. I meant HOLD ON ……..here trouble”. I looked at hardwire system and then the Bluetooth. I didn’t like the hardwired as I wanted to be able to use the system when riding in town too. The hardwire plugging into your helmet just looked like lots of PT all the time when stopping at shops ect…. So I went to visit bike2bike Jenny which I found on StevO magazine :thumleft: as their prices seemed good. When I got there they had just received the new Interphone which was the upgrade of the supertooth and had various more feature as longer battery life 10hrs and and and. It was a done deal, I walked away there with 2 units and I am still a happy man after owning them for 6 months already.
The last purchase was the GPS, since this is my first real tourer I have owned. S I needed one and of course I couldn’t follow my reliable friend Andy660 as he wasn’t around. I decided after reading various threads that I would go for the new zumo 660 :thumleft: which i bought from the UK. Got great service from them, placed the order the Monday and the Friday morning the unit was at my front door, WOW. I have only owned a Tom Tom before so the Garmin and mapsource was all new to me but never fear when WD are near as they will help you out. Made a post and Gunda and Knopknop helped me out straight away.
So I made the track over the Citrusdal mountain which lead me to Beavalec nature reserve. I planned the entire 3 day route which took a few nights of trial and error but the end result was fantastic. The zumo 660 was great. I test rode it in the cage and the bike for about 5 days and was impressed on how good it was. I had my ipod, headset, phone all connected via Bluetooth and there was no problems.
All the goodies were bought and I collected the bike from KTM CT the day before departing and ended there later than expected due to some small issues which got solved quickly but time was running late now. It was the afternoon and I had never installed the pannier brackets yet to see if they would fit or at least if there would be any issues. So I flew home in the rain and got home wet wet wet and started installing the brackets. Dammmmm they touch the akro’s, that no good, this would cause trouble with vibration and eventually wear through the akro’s causing a hole. Well Andy660 has been known to be good with his hands when it comes to making up brackets and modifying stuff, oh and a great alternative route planner and need be say a good friend to have. Got Andy on the phone “My friend I need your help pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee? Sure come around”. So I hoped back on the bike :ricky: and got even wetter in the rain and headed to Paardeneiland. Andy had me turned around in less than 5 minutes. I was a happy chappy again and could breathe again, things are moving forward again but who knows what the next hurdle will be. So we were all packed by the evening with just a few small things to do in the morning.
We prayed for no rain as it has been raining in CT for the last week and I didn’t want my wife to experience her first trip in the rain as it could make it the last. I even got the question “Babes if it keeps raining like this are we going in the car?” I said “No way”.
So the trip was planned to something like this.
Day 1 would be easy tar from Cpt to “The Baths” in Citrusdal, just over 200km. This section would allow my wife to ease into the whole bike trip/riding thing and for anything to fail/fall off/ whatever now was the time. Day 2 was from the “The Baths” to Caledon hot springs with lots of gravel and a serious technical section over the mountain. There was track which I plotted from google earth that nobody has ridden or could have told me if it was a breeze or if I could expect trouble. Day3 was Caledon Home again via gravel along palmiet. Short and sweet trip but a nice break for us.
DAY 1
Just before we left on Wednesday, we were blessed with good weather.
See what I mean by Mrs. Ktm Smaller
We stopped over at Topbox and bought some of those new powerlet goodies to be able to charge the ipods while on the bike. Oh and we bought the Kappa rain suits/windbreakers JUST in case it rained. This was the real real real last accessories that we bought. The windbreaker helped great for my wife. :thumleft:
We cruised from Cpt straight to Engen garage just outside of Cpt, refueled and check the tire pressure for full payload. Then straight onto Piketberg for my wife’s smoke break. The bike ran like a bomb on the road with all the luggage and weight. She was solid on the road, I don’t know what else to say but I loved it and couldn’t have asked for more. We cruised at 140-160km/h with no trouble, the 990R never took any strain with the full payload. We reached up to 179km/h on the GPS but was quickly told that is fast….
Wife’s smoke break at Piketberg.
So I got fooling around while the wife was smoking and we were stretching the legs. This picture is for the Non dark side fans…..
So I went to the men’s and I have been really chuffed with the Buff I bought as I have never owned one. Since then I have been kicking myself left, right and center for not spending money on one a long time ago. It works great or like a charm let me tell you. I bought one from Due South as it has the fluffy part at the bottom and just material on the top section. Well so there I was messing around with this Buff in the toilet and people looking at me like I am ill or crazy. So I thought I would have to show you what I was up too. I won’t tell you what I thought it looked like.
So we left Piketberg and headed over the pass, we were lucky for the weather again that we had, it was a magical day as you can see however there was a fresh I mean very fresh breeze in the air.
We made it to our first destination. I had to get my wife to do this…….
We unpacked the bags fast and headed to the bar. I got my normal RED HEART RUM AND COKE and she got some Coffee to warm up.
The coffee didn’t seem to work so she drank the famous Sedwicks. Which gets pronounced SHedwickkksssss after a few too many.
So after about….. mmmmmmmmmm not sure but I was sure my red heart was warm. We left for the room and made a fire. I was really impressed with the rooms at the “The Baths.” We had our own private warm bath.
Our food, romantic braaipack hey…..
Me trying hard not to burn the romantic braai pack which cost a small fortune…..
So it was time for a Jacuzzi now…… just checking the depth. I was told always to walk a water crossing before riding….
Ok…. I have had enough after sweating all the Red heart out and feeling ……
I marched back to room feeling all sick but after 2 minutes I was okay again and light a fire in our room.
We watched the fire and chatted. My wife’s said that someone wanted to talk to us today on the road. I said “I didn’t hear a word, who was it?” She shows me her shoe….. I thought out loud …….. jerra we rode fast then but don’t worry I have glue.
So I pull out the patching kits glue. Ahhhh Cement glue “look babes , I am your hero for the night” I checked the glue out and was full, I can fix the shoe and we will still have plenty left for just in case on our hectic technical rocky section tomorrow if the scorps get punctured.
So I whistled away drinking and fixing the shoe and looked at the tube and forgot about the large air bubble in the glue tube. Damm now we are stuffed for glue tomorrow.
So the shoe is glued and I have no more glue for emergency I decided to take it out on the shoe and stuck this on its nose.
This picture is for you dad…….
The day and evening was great but we had tomorrow ahead which could get very interesting trying to climb a mountain. I lay there hoping we could get on this road/trail I plotted. Tomorrow was big like big corn bites. I was also very impressed with my wife being on the bike and enjoying it.
Day2 to continue.
:thumleft:
We spent various amounts of time on the internet, in the bike shops trying to get her clothing and buying all the touring thingy’s which cost a large portion of money just to get going and burnt a moerseeee hole in my pocket. I started thinking why can’t they just sell the bike with all the luggage, like give you an option1 for soft bags and 2 for hard panniers. At least then you have everything. Well something’s to get you going and not only the bike. The accessories cost loads of cash bra for you newbies.
Well one of my last purchases was the communication device to allow me and the Mrs. Ktm Bigger (really should be Mrs. Ktm Smaller, you will soon see why when you see the pics) to be able to talk while on the road and of course when to shout at her “HO…………. I meant HOLD ON ……..here trouble”. I looked at hardwire system and then the Bluetooth. I didn’t like the hardwired as I wanted to be able to use the system when riding in town too. The hardwire plugging into your helmet just looked like lots of PT all the time when stopping at shops ect…. So I went to visit bike2bike Jenny which I found on StevO magazine :thumleft: as their prices seemed good. When I got there they had just received the new Interphone which was the upgrade of the supertooth and had various more feature as longer battery life 10hrs and and and. It was a done deal, I walked away there with 2 units and I am still a happy man after owning them for 6 months already.
The last purchase was the GPS, since this is my first real tourer I have owned. S I needed one and of course I couldn’t follow my reliable friend Andy660 as he wasn’t around. I decided after reading various threads that I would go for the new zumo 660 :thumleft: which i bought from the UK. Got great service from them, placed the order the Monday and the Friday morning the unit was at my front door, WOW. I have only owned a Tom Tom before so the Garmin and mapsource was all new to me but never fear when WD are near as they will help you out. Made a post and Gunda and Knopknop helped me out straight away.
So I made the track over the Citrusdal mountain which lead me to Beavalec nature reserve. I planned the entire 3 day route which took a few nights of trial and error but the end result was fantastic. The zumo 660 was great. I test rode it in the cage and the bike for about 5 days and was impressed on how good it was. I had my ipod, headset, phone all connected via Bluetooth and there was no problems.
All the goodies were bought and I collected the bike from KTM CT the day before departing and ended there later than expected due to some small issues which got solved quickly but time was running late now. It was the afternoon and I had never installed the pannier brackets yet to see if they would fit or at least if there would be any issues. So I flew home in the rain and got home wet wet wet and started installing the brackets. Dammmmm they touch the akro’s, that no good, this would cause trouble with vibration and eventually wear through the akro’s causing a hole. Well Andy660 has been known to be good with his hands when it comes to making up brackets and modifying stuff, oh and a great alternative route planner and need be say a good friend to have. Got Andy on the phone “My friend I need your help pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee? Sure come around”. So I hoped back on the bike :ricky: and got even wetter in the rain and headed to Paardeneiland. Andy had me turned around in less than 5 minutes. I was a happy chappy again and could breathe again, things are moving forward again but who knows what the next hurdle will be. So we were all packed by the evening with just a few small things to do in the morning.
We prayed for no rain as it has been raining in CT for the last week and I didn’t want my wife to experience her first trip in the rain as it could make it the last. I even got the question “Babes if it keeps raining like this are we going in the car?” I said “No way”.
So the trip was planned to something like this.
Day 1 would be easy tar from Cpt to “The Baths” in Citrusdal, just over 200km. This section would allow my wife to ease into the whole bike trip/riding thing and for anything to fail/fall off/ whatever now was the time. Day 2 was from the “The Baths” to Caledon hot springs with lots of gravel and a serious technical section over the mountain. There was track which I plotted from google earth that nobody has ridden or could have told me if it was a breeze or if I could expect trouble. Day3 was Caledon Home again via gravel along palmiet. Short and sweet trip but a nice break for us.
DAY 1
Just before we left on Wednesday, we were blessed with good weather.
See what I mean by Mrs. Ktm Smaller
We stopped over at Topbox and bought some of those new powerlet goodies to be able to charge the ipods while on the bike. Oh and we bought the Kappa rain suits/windbreakers JUST in case it rained. This was the real real real last accessories that we bought. The windbreaker helped great for my wife. :thumleft:
We cruised from Cpt straight to Engen garage just outside of Cpt, refueled and check the tire pressure for full payload. Then straight onto Piketberg for my wife’s smoke break. The bike ran like a bomb on the road with all the luggage and weight. She was solid on the road, I don’t know what else to say but I loved it and couldn’t have asked for more. We cruised at 140-160km/h with no trouble, the 990R never took any strain with the full payload. We reached up to 179km/h on the GPS but was quickly told that is fast….
Wife’s smoke break at Piketberg.
So I got fooling around while the wife was smoking and we were stretching the legs. This picture is for the Non dark side fans…..
So I went to the men’s and I have been really chuffed with the Buff I bought as I have never owned one. Since then I have been kicking myself left, right and center for not spending money on one a long time ago. It works great or like a charm let me tell you. I bought one from Due South as it has the fluffy part at the bottom and just material on the top section. Well so there I was messing around with this Buff in the toilet and people looking at me like I am ill or crazy. So I thought I would have to show you what I was up too. I won’t tell you what I thought it looked like.
So we left Piketberg and headed over the pass, we were lucky for the weather again that we had, it was a magical day as you can see however there was a fresh I mean very fresh breeze in the air.
We made it to our first destination. I had to get my wife to do this…….
We unpacked the bags fast and headed to the bar. I got my normal RED HEART RUM AND COKE and she got some Coffee to warm up.
The coffee didn’t seem to work so she drank the famous Sedwicks. Which gets pronounced SHedwickkksssss after a few too many.
So after about….. mmmmmmmmmm not sure but I was sure my red heart was warm. We left for the room and made a fire. I was really impressed with the rooms at the “The Baths.” We had our own private warm bath.
Our food, romantic braaipack hey…..
Me trying hard not to burn the romantic braai pack which cost a small fortune…..
So it was time for a Jacuzzi now…… just checking the depth. I was told always to walk a water crossing before riding….
Ok…. I have had enough after sweating all the Red heart out and feeling ……
I marched back to room feeling all sick but after 2 minutes I was okay again and light a fire in our room.
We watched the fire and chatted. My wife’s said that someone wanted to talk to us today on the road. I said “I didn’t hear a word, who was it?” She shows me her shoe….. I thought out loud …….. jerra we rode fast then but don’t worry I have glue.
So I pull out the patching kits glue. Ahhhh Cement glue “look babes , I am your hero for the night” I checked the glue out and was full, I can fix the shoe and we will still have plenty left for just in case on our hectic technical rocky section tomorrow if the scorps get punctured.
So I whistled away drinking and fixing the shoe and looked at the tube and forgot about the large air bubble in the glue tube. Damm now we are stuffed for glue tomorrow.
So the shoe is glued and I have no more glue for emergency I decided to take it out on the shoe and stuck this on its nose.
This picture is for you dad…….
The day and evening was great but we had tomorrow ahead which could get very interesting trying to climb a mountain. I lay there hoping we could get on this road/trail I plotted. Tomorrow was big like big corn bites. I was also very impressed with my wife being on the bike and enjoying it.
Day2 to continue.
:thumleft:
