These wild camping trips are becoming a regular thing now with 4 trips under our belts .. and the fifth one only a few days away!!! The first trip was a real learning experience. My initial impression of the bike was that it felt wrong. […]
Pondering mortality? The never ending social distancing? The efforts to protect ourselves and our families from the terrible sickness, and at the same time thinking the queue for Lidl is possibly worse than the sickness could ever be, and we’d nearly rather try our luck […]
The 2016 500 EXC should have be sprung as standard with 4.6 springs in the forks and a 7.2kg spring on the shock. The previous owner must have been a big guy, as my used model came fitted with 5.0 springs in the front, and […]
Christmas and New Years.. time for family and friends, some nights out, some blinking lights, and some broken bikes. In between all the festive events, a little time was found for some essential bike maintenance, and a couple of rides too. The end of year […]
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 […]
Some people say that if you have €100 to spend on your bike, then spend €99 of it on suspension. I’m not sure I agree with the 99:1 ratio, but definitely 50:50 .. your suspension is the most important part of your bike IMO. Like […]
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 couple of spins to Tipp over the weekend saw us explore some old, and some new trails, and make some new friends too. It’s great when you meet another group of riders that you kinda know to see from previous events, but don’t really […]
Working all day till 6pm. Looking out the window at the sun splitting the stones. 28°C But still stuck in work. Got home in time to fuel up the custom cub, pump the tyres, and hit the road. What started as a spin around the […]
It seems everyone you talk to is running different tyres and pressures, and everyone has an opinion on what works best. What they really should be saying though, is what works best for them. A tyre that works well in dry sand might not do […]
Ever had a wheel bearing failure? You get that metal on metal knocking from the back wheel, and it kinda ruins your day, right.. Seeing as I’ve had a number of ruined days, these days I consider wheel bearings as a consumable, a service item, […]