The 500 EXC has 19,000km covered and is about to pass 400hrs so I decided to give her some care and attention. Every year I check the valve clearances and when I look at the measured clearances from 2019-2020-2021 and 2022, I can see the […]
Another chance to get away on a wild camping trip presented itself, and it was an opportunity to not go wasted. I quickly loaded up the 500 and made tracks, this time travelling solo, and in a different direction too. The route was a bit […]
I had a new drone to test, and didn’t want to interfere with the flow of a group ride, so instead just two of us went out and did a bit of stop/start riding around the West. Took a short clip here, and a short […]
After the valve clearance test, I wanted to test the compressibility of the motor. A standard compression tester can do this, but I think a cylinder leakdown test is more accurate. In order to do this test the bike has to be at operating temperature, […]
Seeing as the motor on this used (new-to-me) bike has 150 hours on her, and the KTM service schedule recommends a piston at 135hrs, it’s kinda overdue a piston. Before we actually get to installing the new piston though, we’ll do some checking on the […]
We hit the road early this morning to make full use of the limited daylight that was available. There was no need really though, as we were done by 1pm. Still, was handy to get home and have the bikes washed and put away while […]
I very nearly bought a brand new KTM 500 EXC-F just a couple of months ago. The deal was all but done, but it wasn’t to be in the end and it all fell apart. The story is long and boring, having no offroad KTM […]
The 10th anniversary Paddy Dakar was held last weekend in Doon, Co Limerick. Route A was the highlight of the event for me, with some new single-track trails we hadn’t ridden before. There was a fair amount of rain too, which made for a few […]
So for my opinion on the 2020 KTM EXC-Fs.. I was riding the 250EXC-F, and having had a Honda CRF250X in the past I had a certain expectation on what to expect from a 250cc four stroke, but I was wrong. This bike wasn’t […]
A few of us decided to have an enduro training session, and yesterday was the arranged day for it. Five of us headed off from Ennis at around 2pm and, after stopping for coffee and chocolate eclairs, were on the bikes for around 4pm. 4 […]
It looked like there’d be 5 of us going for what I’d describe as an exploratory spin. Some good trails, some known terrain, but in an area we don’t often visit, so it was always going to double up as both a trail ride, and […]
We’ve organised a group trail ride every week for the past 4 weeks in a row now, and each time it’s been to a new destination. It’s normally a mix of forestry roads, trails, tracks and some gnarly single track too. Road miles are kept […]
What a glorious evening. There was no time really to arrange a spin, but it’s so amazing out there this evening, it’d nearly be wrong not to go. The baby GM1 + Leica 15mm combo were stuffed into a small backpack .. and the baby […]
The last few spins in Clare, Limerick and Tipperary have all been interrupted and delayed by fallen trees. It’s not normally a big deal, we just get past them and keep going .. but when there’s a group of 5 or 6 riders it delays […]
An unexpected ‘who’s going for a spin later?’ message in our WhatsApp group led to the biggest (and most spontaneous) woods spin in ages as SEVEN of us arrived out to see how well our bike lights lit up the path under this magic canopy of trees. […]