I embarked on some maintenance and repairs of my KTM recently, and came to the conclusion that this whole internet thing, you know, blogs, and forums, and email, and websites and all, it’s really something. I would have been lost without the online community on KTM TALK, a forum for KTM owners and enthusiasts.
The basic issue: when you replace worn out sprockets on motorcycles, you generally need to replace both the back and the front. If both get worn to to the point where they start to resemble shark’s teeth, instead of symmetrical triangular profile, then you probably need to replace the chain as well. On high-end racing bicycles, road and mountain, you usually replace the chain frequently enough to avoid wear on the front chainrings and rear sprockets clusters. A new Campagnolo front chainring on my road bike costs more to replace than both front and rear sprockets on my KTM motorcycle. Go figure. The lighter the part, the more you pay. Chains, on the other hand are cheaper, and you can make cool hippie bracelets out of old ones, which is nice if you are a hippie. Go figure!
Back to the motorcycle: Both front and rear sprockets looked like shark’s teeth, so it was time to do the job. I used an online parts finder at KTM Cycle Hutt to open up a schematic of my bike and order the part online. This is the same system the local chumpshow uses to find and order parts. The parts showed up in a few days, free shipping, and I was excited to rip into this project. The problem is, the front sprocket I ordered didn’t resemble the worn one that was on my bike. That’s when I consulted the community on KTM TALK. Ask a question, get an answer. It turns out there is a thing called a “dampened front sprocket” with a massive rubber bushing that sandwiches the metal sprocket. These are only put on new bikes as a sound dampener to ever so slightly reduce the operating noise inherent in these Austrian-made gas-powered rattlers. They also do not appear on the KTM online parts diagrams. The replacement sprockets do not come with the rubber, because, once the bike makes it into the good old U.S.A., why does KTM care if it’s a little noisier? Point is, if I didn’t have KTM TALK, I’d still be scratching my head wondering what to do about these two rubber pieces that look like cross-sections of a hockey puck. I’ve had great luck finding answers on ADV Rider as well, and it seems like the good resources there also cross over to KTM TALK. Just a heads up, y’all. The world wide intraweb thing is pretty cool.
Video posted on Youtube from the Day 1 of Loop the Lake. We started in the rain, and the ride from Einstein’s in Olympus Hills to last gas in Cedar Fort was about as hairball as it got all day.
An affiliate adventure posse from Oregon, led by Rob McCready, sent in some photos and commentary about a recent outing in Oregon. Rob had looked me up, after hearing about our recent Trans-America Trail ride into Oregon, wondering if we had crossed the Discovery Route and ran into any snow. Turns out, Rob used to work with my friend Gary Huck at Summit, and Gary put us in touch, being familiar with itsallaboutthebike.com. Rob and company were taking the Discovery Route #4, from Prineville to Seneca, Oregon, all on dirt. And mud. And snow, as you can see below. Rob was riding a silver KTM 950 Adventure, his buddies on various BMW GS models: Scott Norton on the red GS, Pete Day on the black Adventure, and Dave Combe on the black GS. Click the photos below and they will link you to these and some more recently uploaded images of this adventure in our Flickr gallery, along with colorful commentary from Rob.
Keeping the posts updated on the road proved to be a challenge. Until I have a chance to go back and place images in the context of the posts, you can see a sampler of photos I took with an iPhone on Flickr:
Lord Darth called a planning session for the upcoming Trans-America Trail trip at downtown SLC pizzeria, Settebello. Obi-Ben had just taken delivery of a pre-owned Kawasaki KLR, in cherry condition, I must say. Upgrades for the trip include new Continental TKC knobbies and a Wolfman Luggage tankbag. Much pizza was eaten, and not much planning was done, but duties were assigned: Darth is chief navigation specialist, Obi-Ben is chief medic and infantry, Moto is responsible for procuring grub and spirits, and Hans is in charge of keeping it all together for the first few days. It was decided that rollout will be early morning on Saturday, May 17th, after breakfast at the Blue Plate Diner in Sugarhouse.
Obi-Ben’s newly acquired Kawasaki KLR, with new rubber and tankbag.
Hans, Obi-Ben, and Darth Nater showing off his egg on a stick. Photo by Moto.
Today, I experienced a contrast so stark and revealing by comparing experiences with two local Salt Lake City motorcycle shops. One good, one not so good.
I have been shopping online for the perfect pair of adventure dualsport riding pants. After striking out on my search for Rukka Allroad pants, which I determined after extensive research to be possibly exactly the pants I was looking for, I turned my attention to another brand and model, the Rev’It Dakar pants. Rukka is a legendary Finnish brand known for quality workmanship, 5-year warranty, and of course, a certain Euro cool factor. In my mind, they also stand out for being virtually unattainable. As Darth Nater can attest, Rukka gear does it all. The only problem is, there is only one place to get them in the U.S., from a distributor in Arizona. Said distributor had nothing in stock when I called to inquire, and their online store is so archaic, it didn’t inspire confidence to say the least. Bartman recommended giving Rev’It a look. I was pleased to find out that Salt Lake Motorsports was a stocking dealer of Rev’It gear, as well as being the local Ducati dealer here in the Beehive State.
I settled on the Rev’It Dakar model and was able to visit their store and try on the pants, which resulted in a purchase. I wanted to try them on with my Sidi Crossfire SRS boots to make sure the fit was right. The young woman who helped said no problem, take them home and try them on with your boots, and if you have second thoughts or any doubts about size or fit, just bring them back. She put them on a hanger and zipped them up in a Salt Lake Motorsports garment bag, as if I had just bought an Armani suit. Now that is what I call friendly service.
The not so good experience was with one of the local KTM dealers, Edge Motorsports. I called to inquire about getting my bike in for an oil change and minor service in advance of the Trans-America Trail trip, with the May 17th departure date looming. The surly voice of the young lady on the phone at their service department assured me they were three weeks out on being able to work on my bike, and I was basically SOL. I have a hard time imagining there is no way they could squeeze it in, but it was the attitude of the person on the phone that turned me off the most. Take it or leave it. So I am going to change the oil myself and probably wing it on rebuilding my leaking hydraulic clutch master cylinder. Too bad Salt Lake Motorsports isn’t a KTM dealer.
In Chicago at a work conference, discussing e-commerce with other travel and tourism marketing professionals. Listening and observing, and wondering if some of these folks feel like they are trying to catch and hold on to a greased pig, that’s the analogy I think of when I hear folks ask questions relating to how they might “monetize social media” and the like. And the greased pig squirts off into the corner, and then someone else tries to catch and hold it. I learned today that in the Social Media Ladder of Technographics, I somehow qualify and fit the profile of Creator (because I started this blog). I learned the online travel industry, generating $112 billion dollars in sales a year is the largest segment of e-commerce, porn notwithstanding. Talk about monetizing something. The truth is, most of the time, I was thinking about the upcoming Moto May-hem trip: Utah to Port Orford on the Oregon Coast, following a mostly off-road route called the Trans-America trail. I had a call with my master Yoda, Bart to discuss new tires for the KTM 640 Adventure. I have been reading reviews online for dualsport Pirelli tires, Metzelers, and Dunlops. My bike is currently equipped with Metzeler Enduro 3 Sahara tires, front and back. The reviews were inconclusive, so it was good to get some direction from Bart. Based on his advice, I am going to give the Dunlop D606 tires a try. Stay tuned for a full report after I get them mounted.
