BAM!  Mmmm that orange Kool-Aid is goo-ooo-ooooood.  My new-to-me 2007 KTM 450EXC!

Yeah okay so my last post said that this bike was my runner-up and I was gonna hold out for a 525.  That was before I talked with several riding mates (big shout out to all the guys at District-37!).  So yeah the consensus was that this looked like a clean bike for a decent price, and had some nice mods that I'd want to do right away anyway.  I found a few 525's but they weren't as nicely equiped and most seemed to be in some state of repair. 

The folks I talked to said that the 450 was plenty of power, especially coming off an XR.  Also, and this was what sold me, its not terribly expensive to change the 450 into a 525 if I ever feel the need.  The bike is pretty clean, although the plastics have some decent wear from your usual dirt spills.  They're fine for now, but I might eventually pick up a set of street plastics and keep these for off road use.

So on delivery it has: 

FMF Powercore silencer, Scotts steering stabilizer, Clarke 3.2 gallon tank, extra high cushion Enduro Engineering seat, Enduro Engineering aluminum skid plate, Baja Designs blinker/headlight control switch, Promoto kick stand, Fastway adjustable extra wide foot pegs, Z Racing tuned and jetted, Clean Racing valved tuned forks/shock. 1 ride on new Dunlop tires, heavy duty tubes.

Not too shabby!  The tires aren't DOT so those will go.  I'll swap em to Tubeliss again of course.  The previous owner ran it without mirrors usually but included the stock ones.  I put my Doubletake mirrors on as soon as I got it home.  I'll need to pick up a different ram ball mount to get them where I want but that's easy enough.  Anyway all in all a nice find and I'm excited for the new project.  Stay tuned...

SOLD!

     The XR is no more.  That was a damn good bike and I'm really hoping I didn't make a huge mistake in selling it.  I keep telling myself that I can always build another one - those XR400's aren't exactly rare, even with Ca plates.

     So now begins the dash to find a suitable KTM to replace it with.  My preference is for a 2007 525EXC, although a 450 would easily suffice, as would the same bikes in the 2004 year.  Why only those 4 bikes?  KTM made some nice upgrades to EXC line with the 2004 bikes, so I don't want anything older than that.  After January 31st 2004, California made it illegal to plate dirt bikes, so I can't go with the 05 or 06 models.  In 2007 however, these models came street legal from the factory, which is a nice selling point, plus it saves me some time of having to run registration history reports.  In 2008, KTM switched from the RFS to the R engine, a poor move from what I've read.
  
     So having a narrow search parameter can be both good and bad.  There's a nice 07 450 that has most of the mods I'd like to do already installed, but its at the top end of what I would consider a fair price and is lacking one of the major mods I'd like (a $500 oil cooler).  While I'm tempted to jump on this bike, my gut is telling me to wait a few days to see if a nice 525 pops up.  I know I don't need the extra power, but I've read that the 525 has a bit more low end grunt, which is great for those slower, more technical climbs.  Plus one of the things that I hated on my 400 was any freeway.  While it would do em, it just felt like I was buzzing my engine to death at those speeds.  Both of the KTM's have a 6 speed tranny so that should alleviate most of that issue, but while I know that the 525 will handle a freeway with relative ease, I'm not as confident about the 450.  While I don't think you should buy a dual sport based on its freeway handling characteristics, it certainly is something to consider.  Given that both bikes are almost identical except for displacement, why not get the one that has that extra go-anywhere factor?

     So that's it then.  A 2007 525EXC, unless a 450 pops up for the right money or I can't find anything else in which case I'll grab that 450 I already found and drop the extra $500 for the oil cooler.

DNF

DNF, or Did Not Finish.  That was my 1st LAB2V.  I am, of course, disappointed, but really it was as gentle of a DNF as I could possibly have.

Day 1 went well enough.  I had a flat on my front tire after only about 40 miles in.  With the Tubeliss, this just meant I lost 15 minutes while I plugged the hole and stripped off several layers of clothing as the temperature was already starting to climb.  I took it pretty easy all day, knowing that I had 280 miles to do the next morning.  Had one dismount late in the day.  No biggie, I was getting kinda lazy and didn't really notice how deep the sand berm was on the side of the trail.  I dropped off some rocks and let the bike drift into the sand and out went the front tire from under me.  Got to Barstow with plenty of daylight to spare.  All said, 215 miles, 62.7 max speed, 7h 8m moving time, 9h 39m overall time, and 30.1mph average speed.  Not too shabby considering half the route had a 30mph speed limit due to it being a desert tortoise habitat area.

Speaking of that speed limit.  I seriously felt like I was the only one actually adhering to it.  Both days I'd be cruising along at 30 and I'd have bike after bike go flying past me.  I honestly felt like I should be wearing a traffic cone on my head given what a hazard I was at that speed.  Pissed me off too.  I'd really like to do this ride with my kid in 14 years, and with all these yahoo's ignoring BLM requirements for this ride, I just don't know how they'll keep granting us access.  I kept thinking; its a flat, wide open dirt road, and 499 other riders participating in this event are just as "skilled" to ride it at 45.  The only reason I'm not is because the event organizers specifically told us that breaking this speed limit is the #1 way we're going to lose our permits next year.  Best of all, without fail I'd catch up and pass every single person that blew by me when they stopped for a break and I didn't.  5 minutes later I'd be choking on their dust again as they flew passed me - still in the tortoise area.  Dumb.

Anyway day 2 started off decent enough.  Very dusty and sandy as we rode from 1 sand wash to another.  Everything was fine and we finally got out of tortoise territory (and out of the sand washes yay!) when I had a massive blowout on my front tire.  Pulled over to find a 3/4" gash in my tire.  Well. Shit. On. Me.  I considered my options.  The tubeliss was useless.  I could try to plug the hole with multiple plugs but knew I wouldn't be able to maintain any sort of pressure for very long.  I could try a tube, but honestly with a hole that big I knew that the tube wouldn't last long.  I had just dropped out of the mountains and was only a mile or so from the 40 freeway so running a tube was likely to just get me further from rescue before it failed.  I was bummed but I called my support crew back home and told them to come get me.  I'd try to do what repairs I could and see if I could get the 38 miles back to Barstow via the road. 

Several plugs later I had a tire that actually held air better than expected.  It leaked like a sieve until about 7psi but then it slowed to a rate that actually allowed several miles between inflation stops.  I limped along like that down to Route 66 and took that back into Barstow.  Once there, I pulled into the nearest dealership and bought a new tire and got it all installed while waiting for the wife to show up with the truck.  My hope at this point was to try to drive to Sandy Valley and rejoin the ride before sweep pulled out of there at 3pm.  She arrived, we loaded up and hit the road as fast as we dared.  Unfortunately, at 3pm we were still some 30 miles from Sandy Valley.  Damn.  Not wanting to risk being stuck out in the desert at night and with no support, I decided that my day was done and I'd do the safe thing and just finish the trip to Vegas in the truck.  It wasn't an easy drive.

So yeah, I am disappoint.  But to be fair, there were several lucky aspects to my breakdown.  For starters, I didn't crash when it blew out.  Also the bike was repaired and ready to finish the ride the same day, and would have if we were 40 minutes faster.  Also, if you're going to break down on a ride like that, you have to consider yourself pretty lucky when it happens so close to a major paved road.  My support team came through for me.  Not just my wife who drove out to get me but my parents who took my kid so that we didn't have to attempt all of this with a 2 year old in tow. 

So yeah I'm thankful that it happened like it did, but still wish it hadn't happened at all.  Next year I'm hoping that the offspring will be old enough that my wife can drive the truck out to Barstow on day 1, thereby being in the area if I have an issue.  Plan A is to have things like spare tires on hand in the truck.  Plan B is to just have another bike ready to go, and I'll just swap my rider number onto that and keep going if there's an issue with bike #1.  Either way, I hope the 30th annual LAB2V is my first one to finish.

Last Minute LAB2V Work

     It's finally here!  I read about the LAB2V back in July of last year but I just couldn't gather up the funds needed to make it happen in 2011.  So for the last year or so I've been prepping my bike for longer excursions away from potential rescue.  While the LAB2V isn't exactly isolated from rescue, it is 500 off road miles over desert terrain and I really don't want to break down.  I've spent too much effort on this ride to bail out 20 miles in on day 1.
     Well since I'm planning on selling the XR after this ride, I really tried to not spend money on parts that I can't put on my next bike.  In some cases, like grip heaters and a new 18" wheel, I failed miserably.  In others, like new off road lighting and Cycra handguards I did quite well.
     Also as a side note.  I sold the DR200SE.  The wife never put the time in to learn how to ride it and so she was never comfortable with it.  I broke even so at least it was a free test to see if the dual sport bug would bite her.  Going to hang onto the money and put it towards the purchase of the KTM when somebody buys the XR.  Yep, I put it back on the market for $4500 - a pretty fair deal when you figure that's about the cost of just the aftermarket parts it has on there.  Buy the accessories, get an XR for free?  Plus this is California where a plate adds $1000 to the value of the bike.  I've seen plenty of clean but stock XR's being sold for $3000+ with a plate out here.

 

Just some overall pics of where the bike is today since I tend to swap things around a lot.

 

Couple pics of the engine bay.  Finally cleaned up the oil filter plate, plan to do the stator and clutch covers as well after the ride.

 

Finally!  Everyone raves about these Pirelli MT-43's for dual sport use.  My 19" wheel always limited me but a new wheel fixed that.

 

Only reason I snagged these Cycra Pro Bend handguards is because I plan to put them on my next bike.  Way too spendy for handguards in my opinion and they don't fit nearly as well on this bike as my Uniko's.  I just wanted the lever protection for the ride and when I swap to the KTM hydraulic clutch I'll really need to run them.  The Uniko's do a fine job for bug and gravel deflection, they just don't do anything for crashes.

 

Had to move the blinkers for the new lights.  I'm not crazy about their placement.  I found some nice LED blinkers that mount to the handguards so I'll be replacing those soon.

 

 

Rigid LED lights in spot and flood.  They're a seriously nice upgrade over the Cyclops but not DOT approved for on road use.  Another mod I'll be removing right after the ride so the wiring is all just sort of wedged behind the headlight.

 

My dash as it stands now.  Swapped the CR-High bend bars for the slightly higher Windham bend to make riding while standing more comfortable.  I mounted the switches for the 2 LED lights and the grip heater hi/low switch up here as a temporary solution.  Actually I really like them there and think that's where I'll keep em.  Very convenient location and looks good too.  You can also see my twisted strand grip heater wires which are just sort of laying across the triple.  I'm planning to completely gut the electrical in the very near future because I'm getting more and more of these semi-temporary electrical solutions.

Ogio Flight Vest Review

    I got my flight vest a month ago and feel like I've gotten enough use out of it to properly give it a review.

     This is my vest in its ready state (minus water).  It may not look like much but I've got every tool I need for any trail repairs, a decent 1st aid kit, a 70 ounce water bladder, and my SPOT beacon all balanced out in those pockets.  To protect the vest from vibrating tools poking holes, I picked up some Husky tool organizer pouches from Home Depot ($10 for a 3-pack).  That first picture shows the two smallest pouches.  All of my tire repair items have a permanent home in my fender pack so those aren't included, however there is room if I wanted to move them to the vest.

     I'll admit the vest is not light and I can definitely feel it while I'm riding, but its 1000x better than even the best backpack.  I wear it over my chest protector which further helps to distribute the weight and has the added benefit of increasing airflow under the vest.  Having the piece of mind that I can remove any bolt on my bike is definitely nice and this is definitely the way to go if you want to ride far from camp and be prepared to get back on your own.

The negatives:

-Only one pouch has any sort of tool organization and its not particularly reinforced.  Using the cheap Husky bags is pretty much a requirement if you don't want your tools poking holes in this thing.

-The water bladder isn't the best.  70 ounces goes pretty fast, although there's probably room for at least a 100 ounce.  Also the bite valve is kind of a pain.  You have to bite way too hard and you really don't get the kind of flow that you see with many of the other bite valves.  Both of these issues I consider minor since you can easily replace the bladder and/or bite valve.


     All in all, I'd rate this a 9.8/10 and would highly recommend it to anyone that usually rides with a backpack.  Seriously this thing is golden.  Plus it costs about the same as a backpack of decent quality. 

For Sale (2.0)

     With no luck on selling the XR before the LAB2V, I turned my attention to the lonely DR.  Sadly my wife just hasn't developed the desire to learn to ride on two wheels.  She says its still too heavy and too tall - both of which are going to be true if you've only got 4 hours of cumulative riding time on the bike since we bought it 7 months ago.  Ironically with my 10 minute rides once per week to keep it running smooth I think I've got just as much time on the seat as she does.  I can't find a lighter or shorter alternative so looks like this endeavor was a bust.  Anyway its been a nice little bike, let the Craigslist lowball offers ensue!

7 months, 49 miles, and $450 worth of upgrades

Lighting Upgraded

     I had a couple of good nibbles on the 400 and really thought it might sell but it didn't.  Its getting too close to Los Coyotes, LAB2V, etc. so the ads are down for now and its time to work on the finishing touches.

     I'm hoping that I don't have to ride after sunset at all but its better to be prepared.  My DOT legal Cyclops headlight is great for road use, but not terribly good offroad unless you're going really slow.  Been sitting on a couple Rigid LED's waiting to see which bike they were going on.  Wiring is still a little temporary and I don't like how the blinkers sit so that will be addressed but I wanted to see how they worked.  1 spot, 1 flood, 1 hell of a lot more light!