This season has been pretty much a loss due to my terrible riding connected to the chronic headaches and vision issues I've been dealing with. So, might as well write a little about something optimistic. Nothing more optimistic than getting a NEW BIKE!
Thanks to Pete T. at
Razee for a really honest deal and great customer service, I'm now selling the '09 300 and I'm back on a thumper: 2013 350xc-f. I'm really looking forward to it. Think it's going to be a great bike and tons of fun. So, it's not as interesting as talking about racing, but I thought it might be cool to document building up the bike for New England enduros. Never really documented the process before with other bikes.
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| Tight panel gaps |
First, some quick
initial impressions of the bike. I've only done a couple backyard circles on it so far but it definitely does not feel heavier than my 2009 2-stroke. It feels just as flickable. This is my first F.I. bike and it's impressive. Quick power but not jarring. With the stock silencer, the noise is not too bad at all. The motor seems a little tight right now...it will not start in gear (bike is e-start-only). The fit and finish on this bike is really impressive. The gaps between body panels looks like something you'd see on a Lexus. It seems like with each successive KTM that I've had, they've upped their game in this department. The shrouds are two-piece, and the quality fit continues there. One other thing that I've noticed so far is that the foot pegs are canted back just slightly - angled back maybe 10 degrees or so. Maybe KTM thinks that we're all bowlegged and their trying to help.
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| Two-piece shrouds |
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| Canted foot pegs |
Looking at the foot peg picture, you can also get a feel for how the oil filler cap kind of sticks out a little. Wonder if this is what caught out Charlie Mullins in the first couple National Enduros of this year.
Now on to
set up: Of course, bike set up is an extremely personal thing. I'm tall (almost 6'5") with most of my height being in my legs. I'm riding New England enduros where timekeeping still survives -- if only slightly.
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| Fastway top bar clamp |
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| Bars in forward-most position |
Three bikes ago, I bought Fastway barkbusters - the ones that mount to the special top bar clamp and are extra long. I didn't have good luck with the bark busters themselves, but I really like the top clamp part of the system. So, I've added little bolt-on extensions to stock Moose barkbusters and hook'em to the Fastway clamp. (pics of this setup in a future post)
A main reason that the KTMs work well for me are the ergos. Being able to move the bars to the forward-most position and rolling them forward some really help give me some space in the cockpit. I took a class with
Rich Lafferty a while back and he told me something counterintuitive....a tall guy should use low, straight bars. Didn't seem to make sense at the time, but I've now really come to like the Carmichael bends that I've cut down to 30.5".
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| Reshaped front brake MC |
It seems like Brembo has reconfigured the front master cylinder a little bit - for the better. The banjo bolt now seems to mount a little lower. I run my levers somewhat low and my bars rolled forward and in the past I've run into interference problems in this spot. This new (to me) set up seems much better.
For the
Dugas Watchdog, I came up with a pretty clean mounting idea about a year ago. I drilled one hole in the Fastway top clamp and use, one bolt, a spacer, and just one of the mounting tabs that come with the computer. This rig has about 100 miles on it now and has not moved at all. Along with this, I've made it a habit to always run my kill switch backwards so as to avoid accidentally hitting it when going for the computer switch. Now, I think it's a much better thing to reach for the kill switch with my index finger rather than thumb. It feels just like reaching for the clutch...really natural and I still have my thumb around the grip.
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| Watchdog mounted to top clamp |
That's it for now. Hope to finish up grips, headlight, and map switch next time I can get into the garage.
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| Watchdog and kill switches |
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| Watchdog mounted to top clamp |
Thanks to Pete T. at Razee for a really honest deal and great customer service, I'm now selling the '09 300 and I'm back on a thumper: 2013 350xc-f. I'm really looking forward to it. Think it's going to be a great bike and tons of fun. So, it's not as interesting as talking about racing, but I thought it might be cool to document building up the bike for New England enduros. Never really documented the process before with other bikes.
