Took the Husky to the Woods
Wanted to take the Husky out so left the trials bike at home and went to the woods all enduro style where I tried to keep up with a GasGas TXT280. To be fair to the TE300 it’s a wonderful machine, and so easy to […]
Tag: ktm
Local DualSport-ing
Motivation has been a bit hard to come by of late. No problem motivating myself to get out for a spin, but the thought of sitting at the computer and posting something online just wasn’t there. This past winter seemed to almost be never ending, […]
Ride, Rinse, Repeat
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. […]
West Kerry & Cork
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 […]
Splitting the Stones
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 […]
Super Sunday
It was a beautiful Sunday morning for 3 of us to hit the trails. Summer part II might not last so we’ll take what we can. CRF250 Rally – FE250 – TE300
Viral Trails
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 Homemade Nav Tower
Adventurising the 500 means making it more capable of navigating and covering some major distances. In order to travel light, I probably won’t be bringing a computer, so plan on either using a phone or tablet to navigate using OSMand. This setup will eventually be […]
Suspension
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 […]
Ringing in 2020 with a bang
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 […]
Cylinder Leak Test
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, […]
Valve Clearance Check
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 […]
The Goat
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 […]
Suspension & swingarm bearings
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 […]
KTM 500 EXC-F
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 […]