Say no to slow KTM 1190R in the right hands

[Fred W]

Pshaa... This isn't a liddle dual sport, kids. It's a BIG bike.

Have ridden some of the hill climbs out west here? The horsepower won't go to waste...

Horsepower seldom goes to waste, especially on big trailies. Even our much lower altitude, geologically older Eastern hills can get steep enough to where traction is the limiting factor, not HP.

My point was that having soft bags on a bike this big may be a bit... let's just say, optimistic of it's off road usage. You'd be much better off with a rugged set of hard bags, as they are far more convenient to use than soft luggage. Some folks just think that the soft bags make you look like more of an adventurer than hard cases. And we all know that it's all about the look. Of course, YMMV.

 

[beemerdons]

Pshaa... This isn't a liddle dual sport, kids. It's a BIG bike.

Have ridden some of the hill climbs out west here? The horsepower won't go to waste...

+1, Gunny; Bryan is absolutely right on regarding the long hill climbs West of the Mississippi in North America where the horsepower definitely will not go to waste, here is CHRIS_D of Atlanta, Georgia on the eight mile uphill slog from Urique at the bottom of Mexico's Copper Canyon at 500 feet to El Divisadero at 8,500 feet. A Manly Man Macho Big Twin KTM, ese! JSNS!

Next time Papa Chuy Viejo is taking the train, es Verdad ese!

 

[Auburn]

Pshaa... This isn't a liddle dual sport, kids. It's a BIG bike.

Have ridden some of the hill climbs out west here? The horsepower won't go to waste...

Horsepower seldom goes to waste, especially on big trailies.

Even our much lower altitude, geologically older Eastern hills can get steep enough to where traction is the limiting factor, not HP.

My point was that having soft bags on a bike this big may be a bit... let's just say, optimistic of it's off road usage. You'd be much better off with a rugged set of hard bags, as they are far more convenient to use than soft luggage. Some folks just think that the soft bags make you look like more of an adventurer than hard cases. And we all know that it's all about the look.

Of course, YMMV.

Around here you cut an inch off the handle bars to get through the trees. I would opt out of the side bags altogether so you don't wedge them between the trees. Might have a sudden stop that you don't want. Some of the side hill trails are so steep that you will rub your handle bars staying on the trail.

 

[Fred W]

Or you could get a slender little dual sport bike to ride those narrow single track trails on. Using an 1190R on single track too narrow for the stock bars sounds a lot like overkill to me. Kind of like using a chain saw to open a can of beans. You can surely do it, but it might get a little messy.

By the way, I'm wicked jealous of the 1190R. If I could afford to buy one tomorrow I'd probably be willing (and able?) to get rid of my current 3 bikes. Currently toying with the idea of consolidating down to just a new 2014 Vstrom 1000 and maybe keeping the old 650 thumper around for dirtier duty.

I'm finding that the old FJR is becoming somewhat obsolete for my riding purposes.

 

[Hudson]

For clarity, I have a Husky TE310 for the more aggressive single track. I did a 350 mile 3 day run that was 90% off-road, the Washington Backwoods Discovery Route. Mostly forest roads, but some good single track sections. We faced logs, washouts, elevation climbs to 8000ft, nasty ruts, and a few tight single tracks. Bikes ranged from WR250 to a 990's and a few GSA's. Lots of action, a few crashes.

The Husky was great with several exceptions: the gas tank was too small, it wasn't geared to ride the 400 highway miles to the start of the trail, it couldn't hold 3 days worth of gear (thankfully we had a Jeep chase rig on the route), and the on-highway connecting portions of the ride were painful to keep up with the big bikes.

If I need a dedicated woods bike, I have it already. What I wanted was something that could take me anywhere I could go, limited only by my riding skills, and give me the fun of the FJR with the rugged capability of the Husky. I think I found it.

Time will tell if this was the "one bike". My thinking now is this just rounds out the "garage": one dedicated dirt bike (Husky), one awesome long distance tourer (FJR), a cool city bike to ride around locally (Triumph), a cool vintage bike (Matchless), and one "all-in-one" bike with few compromises (KTM).

Probably a few more bikes to consider, absent a bigger garage and budget (like a naked hooligan or a slick racer or even a cool flat tracker).

 

[Niehart]

Dave, Just so you know, I'm not jealous .... I'm not .. I'm not ...

...

...

My thinking now is this just rounds out the "garage": one dedicated dirt bike (Husky), one awesome long distance tourer (FJR), a cool city bike to ride around locally (Triumph), a cool vintage bike (Matchless), and one "all-in-one" bike with few compromises (KTM).

 

[dcarver]

I'm glad Dave is taking care of all the known KTM 1190R issues.. jeesh, the peeps over at AdvRider are all pissed off at leaky air boxes.. and engines destroyed by dirt. And KTM USA not willing to accept there is a problem. Kind of like BMW and rear final drives.

so yes, I'm really happy Dave is taking good care of my bike!

 

[Hudson]

don, make you a deal. How bout we ride up to visit Huddle Bear, get Hyderized, and I'll let you take her for a few spins on the way if you promise to slow down while I try to catch up on Wabs.

 

[Fred W]

Time will tell if this was the "one bike". My thinking now is this just rounds out the "garage": one dedicated dirt bike (Husky), one awesome long distance tourer (FJR), a cool city bike to ride around locally (Triumph), a cool vintage bike (Matchless), and one "all-in-one" bike with few compromises (KTM).

Yeah, that is a good definition of the big Adventure Touring bikes. They are the swiss army knives of bikes. That's what would make it my "desert island" type of bike. You know... the bike that you would chose if you were marooned on an island and could only have one bike? I can see a lot of folks who don't have the garage space or deep pockets for a big lineup of bikes going that route.

 

[beemerdons]

Dave, Just so you know, I'm not jealous .... I'm not .. I'm not ...

...

...

My thinking now is this just rounds out the "garage": one dedicated dirt bike (Husky), one awesome long distance tourer (FJR), a cool city bike to ride around locally (Triumph), a cool vintage bike (Matchless), and one "all-in-one" bike with few compromises (KTM).

Bastard!

 

[dcarver]

don, make you a deal. How bout we ride up to visit Huddle Bear, get Hyderized, and I'll let you take her for a few spins on the way if you promise to slow down while I try to catch up on Wabs.

Don't tempt me. I DO have all next year off from outages.. and when I bought Wabs the entire idea was take her to Alaska to fulfill Tim's dream....

of course, when it's my turn to ride the R, what's to keep me from ridin' and dashin' ?

 

[leedavis]

Rounding out the garage is more the way I'd see it too.

Some of it comes down to tires. I have the good fortune to live in western Carolina where challenging roads of all types are at my doorstep and can be pieced together for 100's of miles (actually more like 1000's). Many here have large DS bikes as their primary ride and they can indeed handle a variety of roads. The catch is, my little ol' KLR650 with 50/50 knobbies can torch their usual 80/20 tires in the dirt and my FJR with street tires torches them in the extreme twisties.

My big DS owning buddies tell me I'm missing out and maybe they'll win me over one day but for now it seems like one compromise too many. It doesn't happen often but if I drop my KLR on a gnarly road I pick it up and I'm on my way without giving it a thought, though the KLR tests the weight limits for that sort of thing. With the right tires a big DS could do those roads but I can't get past the issues of dropping a 500lb-600lb, $15K-$20K DS and they're more compromised on the street with those tires. If I'm doing a day ride with my DS pals and I'm on the FJR we'll occasionally hit a stretch of gravel but it's always a maintained road and no big deal to handle on the FJR. I'm not there yet with the big DS bikes.

 

[gixxerjasen]

My buddy posted up pics of his new KTM 1290 he picked up today. I need to find a way to sneak out of the house when the wife isn't looking.

 

[dcarver]

My buddy posted up pics of his new KTM 1290 he picked up today. I need to find a way to sneak out of the house when the wife isn't looking.

Say, Babe, did you notice the local jewelry store has stuff on sale?

 

[Hudson]

Jason, that 1290 is nine kinds of wicked!

Still waiting on some parts delivery at the dealer. Bike is likely ready later this week, though I will be at dirt bike camp with Sportsguy larnin' me some proper techniques for log hopping and general obstacle and cornering skills. On the Husky of course.

 

[gixxerjasen]

Just to make you feel a little better. KTM...sweet bikes, great dirt bikes...street bikes, not so great build quality out of the box. His bike has 20 miles on it and he's waiting on a side cover gasket because it has an oil leak. KTM is taking care of him and he had some little issues with his old bikes in the beginning but eventually got them sorted and were solid afterwards. This one seems no different.

 

[Hudson]

So the bike was ready today, and I picked it up after work with much anticipation. The replaced clutch master cylinder was expertly installed and bled, as were the nifty new levers.

The Cyra pro-bend hand guards looked great in KTM orange and was clearly more crash worthy than the stock plastic hand guards. The stripped bolt had been extracted and replaced, and all was great once again.

Note the tiny LED lights I installed (thanks again, Niehart for selling them to me before I knew what I'd use them for). Used a nice waterproof West Marine toggle switch mounted on the dash.

I got the GPS RAM Mount removed from the Triumph, and reinstalled on the KTM, and it fit perfect just over the speedo at eye level.

The service guy loaded the bike onto my truck while I paid, and all was great. Until I got home. I had asked them to loosen the newly installed replaced bolt, but when I went to pull the sidestand to mount the engine skid plate....you guessed it. Tight as tight can be. Used up a weeks worth of curse words. It sometimes seems I can't feckin win with farkling this bike on my own. Unlike the FJR, the bolts on this bike really don't want to come off easily at all, and everything seems to involve twice as many steps, bolts, and parts as the FJR.

I was so frustrated, I remounted the footpegs, and just went for ride. Just 30 minutes with that sweet Vtwin and all was right with the world. That engine is just plain amazing. I'll head into the shop tomorrow and have them loosen this last obstacle to my skid plate, lest I repeat my stripped bolt experience.

Ordered up a radiator guard, engine oil radiator guard, and a bitchen set of luggage and tail racks from a Polish company, Holan, that makes some super cool black panniers that are form fit around the exhaust and super narrow, extending only an inch or so beyond the bars. Got them in matte black instead of the customary aluminum. No top case, mostly because I'd rather bring a dry bag when I'm touring, and also because all that luggage on a dirt bike just looks wrong. Here's their aluminum ones:

Hopefully I can still manage reasonably tight single track or lane splitting without catching a log and spilling out my bag's contents like a yard sale all over the woods. Like this guy did on our last WABDR trip:

 

[Bugnatr]

That KTM is way too clean. Have fun!

 

[Fred W]

That KTM is way too clean. Have fun getting it dirty!

I was thinking exactly the same thing!! :thumbsup:

 

[escapefjrtist]

Nice work Hudson! Have fun (getting it dirty) this weekend.

--G