Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Mid-Century Moto Mecca Makeover

[Hawk136439]

Gregor,

I'm sitting at my desk on lunch reading up on the progress of your bike and audibly started say "WOW" every time I scrolled to a new picture. The bike is looking Phenomenal!

 

[Vieux]

Great job and great photos!

 

[sakurama]

Thanks guys. I just spent the day with Ben and we made some good progress but over the weekend I went to Colorado with the kids for my mom's 80th birthday celebration. It was a very nice break from the build and I finally got to see my brothers coffee roasting business. So I thought we'd take a quick break and I can show you that.

So both my brother and I have been roasting our own coffee for probably 12-13 years now but last year Sacha decided that he wanted to turn that into a small business (Gato Coffee) so he bought a small commercial Diedrich IR-3 roaster which does 3kg or 6.6lbs per roast. The roaster I've been at home, by contrast, is a Hottop Model B which can roast 275g at a time.



His space is just outside of Salida and has a view of the Sangre De Christo range where we grew up. He invited Lara and I to come down and watch a roast which he does once a week. Above he's dumping in the green beans.



There are apps and programs that you can use but roasting is pretty personal and something you develop a feel for based on the beans you're using and the coffee you like. When you're developing the roast you track the temps and times and then, when you're happy with it you use those notes to repeat it. The process, generally speaking, is to heat the beans to the point that they undergo the Maillard reaction between 250 350F - which is what occurs when food caramelizes.



After this point the beans reach a stage where they sort of pop - produce an exothermic reaction - and that is called "first crack" and it is at this point that the beans are in the zone of "ready". The first crack is fairly loud and sounds like small twigs snapping.



The art of roasting is deciding how long from this point you continue to roast the beans. Well, that's a gross over simplification but it's pretty close. The closer to first crack that you drop the beans (stop the roast) the brighter the coffee will be and the more it will have the fruit and spice notes that are appreciated for espresso or black coffee. The longer the beans go the more they will develop the chocolate and carmel tones that work very well with milk.



Sacha does two beans: a Mexican and a Guatemalan and you can see the very slight different tones of the two side by side above. Each bean needs a specific roast. Also, something to keep in mind, when you roast very dark, to what some might call "espresso" or "french" where the beans are oily and nearly black... well, you've gone too far, past the point where the coffee cracks a second time.



Imagine coffee like toast. If you toast very lightly you'll still taste the "bread" but it will be enhanced through the warmth and slight toasty-ness but if you toast the bread darker you'll notice more and more of the Maillard effect, the sugars browning and carmalizing, and the toast will have a much nuttier and richer flavor. If you keep going you get burned toast - and burned toast pretty much tastes the same - the char masks the underlying flavors and overwhelms with it's bitterness. Which some people like - not people I know but you know, some people. It's a great way to to make cheap beans with different flavors all taste the same.



The other way that coffee is like bread is that it doesn't last very long at it's peak. While bread peaks as soon as it's cooled from the oven (or, perhaps, while it's still warm) coffee needs a few days to rest and off gas the carbon dioxide from the roasting process. It's peak is 3-8 days or so from roasting so knowing when your coffee is roasted is key to keeping it fresh. You can keep it much longer if you put it in the freezer. Before I roasted coffee I'd be the person at the store going through the bags looking for the most recent roasted date.



So there you go - a quick dive into coffee roasting. If you want to help a brother out (specifically my actual brother) and you want to taste some extremely good coffee you can head on over to Gato Coffee and order a bag or two or subscribe to weekly or bi-weekly coffee deliveries which is what I do. I still roast my own coffee but having fresh coffee show up every two weeks has turned out to be a great way to make sure I never run out.

Okay, I have basically one week to finish the motorcycle and I'll be drinking a lot of coffee this week to help make that deadline.

More tomorrow.

Gregor

 

[bdbecker]

I'll be drinking a lot of coffee this week to help make that deadline.

Gregor going through TSA on his way home...

TSA: Would you mind opening the bag sir?
G: No problem (unzips carry on bag)
TSA: Sir, why do you have 46lbs of coffee?
G: Well I like coffee and my brother has a business roasting cof...
TSA: Do you think I was born yesterday?
G: I don't follow...
TSA: Nobody needs 46lbs of coffee.
G: I do.
TSA: Oh yeah?
G: Yeah... I'm m-fing Gregor.
TSA: My apologies sir... I didn't recognize you with that mustache. Sorry for the inconvenience. You are free to go - have a nice flight.

 

[hewey]

Gregor, that's a hell of a nice view to take in while roasting coffee beans!

We've got a local artisan roaster and chocolate maker, they source their coffee beans and cacau direct from the farmers and farmers co-ops overseas. Not only does this mean they make sure sure farmer gets paid a decent wage to support their families, but they can have input in to how the crop is harvested and dried. I went to a tasting and they had two chocolates made from the exact same crop, using the same 'cooking' process. The difference was in how the cacau was dried after harvesting, one batch was spread out so it dried quickly, the other piled up so it took longer to dry out. Completely different chocolates, one was super rich and earthy, the other so fragrant and fruity you'd swear they mixed in some fruit essence. The science of food is pretty fascinating.

Ironically I don't drink coffee at all, but my wife is a massive coffee snob, lord only knows how many hours of my life I've spent waiting as she gets a coffee At the end of the day, she could have expensive vices like motorcycles though!

 

[sakurama]

So just before I left for Colorado I wanted to knock off a simple project for the bike: a seat release.



The stock one is a plastic triangle with a keyed release and I hate keys for things other than ignitions. It just strikes me as unnecessary but for those people who park on the streets I suppose it's not. Anyway, I wanted to get rid of it because it blocks the open space I like so much.



Because I left the tab for the key I needed to use it so it wasn't an extra tab sitting there all ugly. My first plan was to make a loop of cable and I still like the idea but it wasn't a good way to make use of the tab. I looked for small levers that existed that I could repurpose and the ones for seat dropper posts looked promising but they'd take a few days to get and then would need to be modified.



After about four or five hours of messing around I'd given in to the idea of a lever and spent the entire day making these parts. I was both disgusted with how much time it took and happy with the result. Going to Colorado was a big chunk of time and the last thing I needed to do was spend an entire day on a seat latch.



Because the tab was close I had to do a lot of clearancing and then I had to drill for a cable stop and make that too. Plus cutting and making a cable and getting that measurement right. It was a lot of work for such a simple part.



But at the end it's a very nice detail and succeeds on both counts: it keeps open the area around the shock and it gets rid of the key. I have less than a week to get the rest of the bike done and there's a lot to do but I can be happy about the small details even though they take a lot of time.

It's also something important to me and something I like to do with my builds - keep open space to see through the bike. Older bikes often have that but modern bikes are so dense that it's nearly impossible. The rally tower is something that I am looking forward to because that's another opportunity to create transparency.

Also, the harness isn't in position yet - that will be tucked down behind the rail. And I need to figure out what to do with the air temp sensor on the airbox - it's not a great spot but also not possible to move so I need to cover it or something. That's a lower priority. Next is putting on the rally tower and thankfully Ben is coming to help with that.

Gregor

 

[sakurama]

Also, in case you're not subscribed (horrors!) here's the second video for the bike. Slowly I'm getting the hang of video editing. I'm now using Lumafusion and it's all on the ipad. I shoot with iPhone and GoPro and edit on the ipad and that makes this whole thing so much easier. I've given up the idea of "doing it right" with Premier Pro and accepted the workflow that works for me.

Click through to YouTube if you want to see it larger and do the "like and subscribe" thing.

Okay, much to do.

Gregor

 

[zmotorsports]

Excellent workmanship on the seat release Gregor. Loved the video.

 

[Trapps]

"and, yea, we're gonna take that out"

 

[indisguise]

The new video is fantastic. You have clearly found your "voice" when working in this format.

 

[GeddyT]

That's exactly the kind of detail on a bike that I'd happily spend all day on. With no regret! Looks amazing so far.

What is the plan for tuning this bike in light of the new intake and exhaust? Can you flash that ECU or is this a PowerCommander situation? And is that something planned prior to the show or is it just going to be a "looker" until you find some dyno time?

 

[sakurama]

That's exactly the kind of detail on a bike that I'd happily spend all day on. With no regret! Looks amazing so far.

What is the plan for tuning this bike in light of the new intake and exhaust? Can you flash that ECU or is this a PowerCommander situation? And is that something planned prior to the show or is it just going to be a "looker" until you find some dyno time?

Well, here you go - sorry, cross post from ADV:



I have, what, 5 days left? Not even all the parts are here...



The Aurora Rally tower is here and finally I was able to get that mounted with Ben's help. There's a lot to like about Aurora (it uses the stock KTM rally screen, it's designed to be safe in a crash, one of the KTM designers helped with the integration) but perhaps the best part is Dimitri, the owner, who is just an all around great person and a true enthusiast who, for lack of a better term, gets it. When I got in touch with him and explained what I was doing he was all in to help - immediately.



I explained that I wanted to highlight the materials and structure, the framework as it was. Could he make me a tower that was all natural aluminum? No color? Of course he could! He also offered to push the project a bit farther but that's for later this week - it UPS doesn't drop the ball. So the tower showed up exactly as I asked - all aluminum. KTM's are very branded with all the orange. My bikes don't use much color - I want the materials to shine.

The point of the nickel frame isn't that it's shiny but that it looks like metal and that will contrast against black - I want you notice the frame. The rally tower is encased in clear polycarbonate and it's so cool to see into that - like those models we had as kids where you could see the organs and skeleton of a person through the clear body, or the clear plastic engines. Seeing inside something is magical. So I didn't want the tower to be black or orange but to be true to the material - aluminum. It's a very complicated structure - I want you to see it like it's mounted in a clear display case. There's more to this but we'll get there.



Ben had put on Power Commanders before so he spearheaded that which was a lot of wires. Happily Rottweiler sells these preprogramed for the modifications you plan on doing like mine: intake and exhaust, no cat but keeping the exhaust sniffers so I don't lose the cruise control. The instructions were clear but it's a lot of connections and tapping into wires. I have a small tool that makes this much easier.



Not sure if it has a more official name but I believe it's just called a "terminal pin removal tool". You need the right size but it has a specific diameter and goes over the pin of a molex connector, squeezes the flared tabs that hold it in and then a spring loaded plunger pushes out the pin. Works a treat and allowed us to get to the right wires to make jumper connections.



The next thing I learned about was Tesa tape. It comes with the Aurora rally screen kit and it's what's used to wrap harnesses by KTM and most rally and motorsport teams. It's not going to leave sticky residue like electrical tape and it neatens things up considerably. I love this stuff.



I almost had a panic attack when I finally hooked up the battery and turned the key to start working on the lights - nothing. Zero, no click, no lights, no dash, nothing. After about 30 minutes of phone calls and texts I realized that the posts on the starter relay had gotten swapped and once reversed it all came to life. Thank god.



It might seem strange that I'm going to great lengths to put turn signals on the bike but I come from a BMW background - we're geeky for safety and lights. Actually, Andrew, who joined my first tour in October, mentioned that the blinkers on the Rottwieler tail tidy were a bit hard to see at the pace we were riding and from a good distance. It made sense. I reached out to Cyclops who is based in Washington because they make the nicest LED signals and they had a new set to test out. The market is flooded with cheap LED's from China but they never last - I've tried.



The Rottweiler tail tidy is well made but because I've removed most of the tail it didn't have provisions for the Cyclops blinkers and I wanted to make them tight to the rear tail light.



I found a piece of scrap aluminum square tube in my drops bin...



...and after a bit of time with the band saw and tig welder...



... I added some wings to the sides to allow me to mount the blinkers.



They fit as tightly as they can. I'm not sure if I'm going to rewire the tail tidy LED to light up the sides with the blinkers or the brakes. What you can't see in a still photo is that the Cyclops signals are also running lights, brake lights and the best part is the blinkers are sequential like a 60's Mercury Cougar. Who doesn't like a **** cougar?



The fronts are also running lights which may not work inside the screen - we'll see.

There's a lot of reasons to swap to a tower; better wind protection, better lighting, cleaner look and better dash customization and to that I can add much more space. I tried to mount the first iPad on my KTM 950 back in 2010 - it didn't work. But think about it - when you look at a map you don't use a pocket atlas right? You use the largest map you can. Digital screens have the advantage of being able to zoom in and out but without screen real estate you lose the ability of seeing detail AND context at the same time. That is key to map reading.



This is the Tripltek Android 8" tablet that Locul mentioned earlier in the thread. I chose it over the Carpe-Iter because it is brighter and has a larger battery - much larger. It's been on all week at half brightness and it's still at 65% so it should be able to go a full day at 100% brightness and not depend on the bike to charge it. But I will make sure there's a charge option. The Aurora allows you to mount the dash up high and for many reasons it just seems the best spot. I need to make a mount for the tablet which will be a huge project on it's own but just look at that screen! I'm going to order the Carpe-Iter buttons to control it from the bars and I installed the Drive Mode Dashboard which is very nice. I'd like to get the dongle that allows it to ready the motor information - does anyone know how that works? A dongle in the diagnostic pig tail?



Ben also helped to seal the wheels - that went half well. The front was no problem but the rear... it was a disaster. We put on the Outtex but it wasn't a great fit for the back rim because it's so narrow. Then we couldn't get the bead to seat. We tried the ratchet strap, we tried blowing it up with starting fluid - no dice. I gave in and threw a tube into it. Then pinched the tube - twice.



I'm going to go more into the wheels but for now the rear is mounted and balanced with a tube. The front is tubeless and I'll go back to the rear after the show and seal that up my old way. The wheels are 1.85-21 front and 2.5-18 in back. The goal for the day is to mount them to the bike, put on the new brakes and check clearances because this tire is much, much larger than the stock one and I'm running 15/48 to just get the gearing back to stock. I'm not looking forward to bleeding the brakes but that will allow me to finish the brakes and brake lights and then, hopefully, toss on the tank and check that it fires up.

Lots to do still.

Gregor

 

[sakurama]

Taking a taco brake...



I prepped the wheels getting the sprockets and disks on so we could put the brakes on and bleed them. Ben came over and I picked up breakfast taco's from the truck down the street. I had never had breakfast tacos until I went to Austin a few years back and now I'm a convert.



With rotor and new IronMan sprocket I balanced the rear wheel up. I love these sprockets because of how minimal they are.



The first thing we discovered was that the wheels weren't centered - well, the front wheel. It was off by 2.5mm and I have no idea why but that was preventing the new brakes from centering up. I did the measurements and made new spacers. I think I'll need to do the same for the rear but only to make the spacers a larger diameter - the new wheels seem to have larger seals.



Next was fitting up the Brembo Monobloc calipers I had on the shelf. These are pretty standard sport bike fare and I had an Ohlins front end from a Ducati or Aprilia that had these and the 100mm spacing was the same. The only trouble was the slot was a tiny bit narrow - like the disks were too far out. I measured the new wheel to the old and it was the same so I put the calipers into the mill and trimmed off 2mm on one side to get the clearance. When that was finally done I decided I didn't like how the pistons were sticky so I took them apart and cleaned them up.



You might wonder why change the calipers - there's plenty of power to lock the front wheel with the stock brakes. True. You can also lock the wheels with old drum brakes too so the difference is power with feel. Feel in brakes comes from how much of the input gets through to the output. If you squeeze the lever do you feel the resulting squeeze of the disk accurately? Flex of components robs you of that feel and its one of the reasons why everyone used to change out the rubber brake lines on older bikes. Brembo Monobloc's are machined from a single block of aluminum so structurally they are less likely to flex than a brake made of two halves held together with two bolts. Less flex means more direct feel. More feel means more information about what your tire is doing. More information is always a good thing.

Is this overkill on a big dirt bike? Sure. But the goal on this bike has been to make the ultimate BDR machine and that means pavement too. I'm torn about going to a single disk but if I can find someone who can order me a new non caliper fork lower for the XPLR Pro forks that retains the guard mount then I'll try it. For now I'll go two disks.



Out back I wanted to try something different - less brake. I've found the 890 to have a very grabby rear brake and that has made backing it in very tricky. This rotor, hanger and caliper are from a 690 and is a single piston caliper as opposed to a twin but a smaller disk and it also has provisions for the ABS sensor. And it's also a Brembo which makes my OCD happy.



From racing flat track I like my rear brake with as much feel as possible - I try to use the largest rotor I can fit and then a less powerful caliper. The large rotor keeps heat down and the small caliper reduces pressure. Again, it's all about feel. Locking the rear wheel (with out ABS) is pretty easy so for me the goal is enlarge that area where the wheel is just starting to lock. A trick we do on flat track bikes - learned from Danny Walker - is to insert a small brass main jet into the brake banjo bolt to restrict the flow. Another trick is to cut the pads to have less area. This is an experiment.

So both brake changes are designed to give better feel. Riding fast or well is about comfort and comfort comes from accurate feel. Hopefully I don't cook the rear but if that happens I'll make a new hanger to allow a bigger disk. I'm not planning on flat tracking the bike but hopefully this will smooth things out and give me back the feel I need to slide the back end with control.



The stock calipers don't have the same fittings - they use a combination banjo/bleeder - so I needed to dive into my brake parts bin and source something. A few were a little rusty so I soaked them overnight in Evaporust.



There are two thread pitches for brakes: 10x1mm and 1.5 and Brembo's are the finer ones. Since most all of my builds use Brembo I have enough. Now, do I use the same button head style as the rear or go for the dished...



Because the rear tire is so much larger I was worried it might not fit. At Ben's suggestion I ordered a longer 120 link chain and that accommodated the larger sprocket and gave room for the tire. I'm running 15/48 as opposed to 16/45 which nets out to a 7% change with the tires which seems like an ideal amount. Gearing Commander is a good site to figure out gearing changes.




I might look at options for gearing after I try the current setup but I think this should be a solid place to start. Hopefully I can get the brakes bled today but my son's birthday party is happening so I won't have much time. It's going to be a real crunch to get this finished.

Gregor

 

[GeddyT]

This is just beautiful. It's like reading the AWD 950 thread all over again (a little less epic, but what isn't?). I know it's crunch time with the bike, making you super busy, so feel free to ignore these questions/feedback. If you have time, though:

1.) Maybe I missed it, but why the change in wheels? Was it just for the new and shiny aspect (they are beautiful, that's for sure)? I thought KTMs come with pretty nice Excel rims, and the 890 ADV is a 21"/18" out of the box? Maybe I'm wrong on that. Also, interesting choice on the Goldentyres. I've heard really great things about them. Didn't realize they make DOT varieties, but I see that they do.

2.) You're right about the front brakes. ADV bikes probably have the toughest problem to solve when it comes to a braking solution. I'll be curious to read what you think about the monoblocs up front after riding with them offroad. You're right about solid components providing better feel, but I worry about the outright power giving you the same problem in the front that you complain about with the rear: push-button lockup in the dirt. One possible solution is a master cylinder with less leverage and more travel. You could put a Brembo RCS master cylinder on the front for not much money (in the scheme of a project like that), set it to the 18mm pivot, and you'll gain more travel in the brake lever for the same outright braking power, which equals better feel. You'd still retain all of the power of the monoblocs and dual discs for hard stopping on asphalt.

3.) Not sure what Evapo-Rust costs, but a very cheap alternative is vinegar. It's just diluted acetic acid, and an overnight soak (or a couple of nights if you have the time) works quite well for rust removal with zero effort at a few bucks per gallon. Use apple cider vinegar, and the shop won't stink so badly afterward!

4.) Surely that chain adjustment sticker on the swingarm is going to become the target of your OCD?...

 

[sakurama]

This is just beautiful. It's like reading the AWD 950 thread all over again (a little less epic, but what isn't?). I know it's crunch time with the bike, making you super busy, so feel free to ignore these questions/feedback. If you have time, though:

1.) Maybe I missed it, but why the change in wheels? Was it just for the new and shiny aspect (they are beautiful, that's for sure)? I thought KTMs come with pretty nice Excel rims, and the 890 ADV is a 21"/18" out of the box? Maybe I'm wrong on that. Also, interesting choice on the Goldentyres. I've heard really great things about them. Didn't realize they make DOT varieties, but I see that they do.

2.) You're right about the front brakes. ADV bikes probably have the toughest problem to solve when it comes to a braking solution. I'll be curious to read what you think about the monoblocs up front after riding with them offroad. You're right about solid components providing better feel, but I worry about the outright power giving you the same problem in the front that you complain about with the rear: push-button lockup in the dirt. One possible solution is a master cylinder with less leverage and more travel. You could put a Brembo RCS master cylinder on the front for not much money (in the scheme of a project like that), set it to the 18mm pivot, and you'll gain more travel in the brake lever for the same outright braking power, which equals better feel. You'd still retain all of the power of the monoblocs and dual discs for hard stopping on asphalt.

3.) Not sure what Evapo-Rust costs, but a very cheap alternative is vinegar. It's just diluted acetic acid, and an overnight soak (or a couple of nights if you have the time) works quite well for rust removal with zero effort at a few bucks per gallon. Use apple cider vinegar, and the shop won't stink so badly afterward!

4.) Surely that chain adjustment sticker on the swingarm is going to become the target of your OCD?...

It's funny I meant to actually discuss the whole wheel thing and then this post ended up being about brakes. I'm going to actually mount up a different set of Goldentyres on the stock wheels and then talk about the wheels and differences. There's a big difference and it drastically changes the way the bike handles and works off road but it's a huge topic that needs photos and space. So maybe the next post is going to be about that.

I do have two different radial masters that I can use on this but I'm going to start with the one sized for the pair of calipers - I think it's 19x21?

Yes, if there's still a sticker on there that I haven't noticed - then it's going away. I'll go back and check!

Gregor

 

[bdking]

The 890 has 21/18 stock but the rims are a bit softer and less beefy than Excels. Also these wheels are narrower, 1.85” front and 2.5” rear. That gives the tires a taller, rounder profile which is better off-road. I had wheels built for mine (but 3.5“ rear) and with the GT 723 and narrow rims the bike is noticeably taller. Between that and the longer legs Gregor’s bike is gonna be taalll. (I think that’s Dutch for “tall”, which is “really tall.”)

Gregor has a couple of Brembo radial master cylinders in the bench. Hopefully today I can get over there and we can get the brakes all charged & bled.

My 1290 Adventure had big dual disks and Brembos and had good feel and control off-road. I used that bike with ABS off at Jimmy Lewis’s class and it was as controllable as by 990. It takes a pretty good squeeze to lock the front and (if you’re in balance) you can just plow the front along and release the locked wheel with control.

 

[Uofime]

Hopefully the abs pump doesn’t give you grief bleeding. Did you keep it from going dry when you tore down the frame?

I wouldn’t believe myself saying this five years ago, but gravity bleeding brakes is the best way.
Doing lots of track days over that time and all the brake system maintenance that entails on a heavy awd street cars has taught me a lot.

I’ve fooled around with vacuum bleeders and pressure bleeders of varying types too, but what I always use anymore is just some old Gatorade bottles with varying size clear lines punched through the lid and gravity.

Just keep bleeder bottle lines tight on the bleeder screws, crack the screws, keep the master full and let gravity do the work. Once it’s had some time I’ll tighten the bleeders and one by one crack them and force pressure through, but there’s never air bubbles by then anyway.
Good luck!

 

[gasgas17]

The stock tubeless wheels are really wide which is not great for strength and are made of some kind of soft cheese. Not a great spec for a 450 lb dirt bike that may drive over some sharp rocks at speed. I have the 790 variant of this bike and am also switching over to the narrow wheels for the dirt rides. The narrower rims give big rock less leverage from the centerline of the wheel to be able to dent the rim. That and the narrow rims are are just made from stronger materials. Much less likely to leave you stranded in middle of nowhere with a wheel you can't repair. All that and the improved off road handling is a big bonus. Also better rim/bead protection from the tires as they are more pronounced past the edge of the rim.

 

[sakurama]

1.) Maybe I missed it, but why the change in wheels? Was it just for the new and shiny aspect (they are beautiful, that's for sure)? I thought KTMs come with pretty nice Excel rims, and the 890 ADV is a 21"/18" out of the box? Maybe I'm wrong on that. Also, interesting choice on the Goldentyres. I've heard really great things about them. Didn't realize they make DOT varieties, but I see that they do.

Okay, here's a much more thorough explanation:

Someone (GeddyT!) asked about why I changed the rims and while I think most of the people who frequent ADVRider have a pretty good idea I like to take the time to explain because when you're getting into this there's a lot of knowledge that is taken for granted or maybe not all in one place or well explained. So here's a little more about rims and why many riders tend to swap them out.

It's a lot more than, "The stock rims are soft..."

The first thing to understand is that an Adventure Bike is a compromise. Compromise sounds like a bad thing but really it's a best of both worlds situation and if you're here you know this already - we can ride an adventure bike out of Kansas to someplace more interesting like Colorado - no shade on Kansas...literally. The other thing to understand is that adventure bikes are big and powerful because no one wants to ride through Kansas topped out at 65mph. Two cylinders are smoother, more powerful but heavier.

All that power, all that weight, gets to the ground and is held up by two small contact patches on your tires. Everything happens there. While a little worn this is the venerable Continental TKC80 which is perhaps the most popular big bike dual sport tire and it is shown on the stock KTM 4.5" wide rim in the most popular size: 150/70-18. The numbers are mash up of metric and english 150mm is the width, 70 is the height expressed as a percentage of the width (weird right?) and 18 is the rim diameter in inches. Tires are the perhaps the worst example of measuring systems yet created.

Having road raced I can tell you that there needs to be a certain amount of tire on the ground for a certain amount of power. Way back in the 70's most bikes ran on 120 width tires or narrower. It was that way because that was all that was needed. Motors didn't make more than 50-60hp so tires didn't need much traction. The world we live in now with 180 and 200 width tires is because of all the power bikes make - nothing else. Wide tires handle poorly or rather slowly.

Here's two sets of tires from Goldentyre - the top is the 823 in 150/70-18 and the bottom is the 723 in 140/80-18. We're just looking at the rears right now - on the right. Look at the profile, the curve of the tire. The top tire (or tyre for Golden's sake) is wider but also a gentler curve.

A motorcycle turns by leaning. Leaning is the process of tipping the bike from the center of the tire to the side of the tire. The more gentle that arc the slower the lean and the less nimble the bike is perceived as. Imagine a golf ball and a beach ball (or any two very different sized balls) and you want to roll them a quarter turn. The small ball can be rolled very quickly. Let's say the golf ball has a circumference of 16cm - to roll a quarter turn is 4cm. The beach ball is 160cm so a quarter turn is 40cm. Distance takes time. The fastest, best handling motorcycle is a 125 GP bike - they're much faster in a corner than a MotoGP bike and they use very narrow 120 width tires. MotoGP bikes use wide tires because they have to, that much power requires more meat, more rubber.

So our big ADV bikes are all pushing out 100+ hp now and that needs a wider tire. Compounds of rubber come into play but tires are as wide as they need to be and manufactures know that the vast majority of ADV bikes will stay on pavement so they need a tire wide enough to handle the power everyone wants on pavement.

Still with me here?

So the same two tires in front here. Look at the angle of the side knobs - the 140 (second from right) is practically 90° to the face. We all know that even MotoGP bikes can only lean to a mind boggling 65° and so we're into something different now. Leaned over the 150 width tire in front will have way more rubber on the road and therefore more grip.

Same 140/80-18 Golden 723 tire again but now mounted on a 2.5" rim and you can see the knobs are spread out a bit. They would be more at an angle on a narrower rim and I have that example on my BMW:

This is the same tire - a Golden 723 in 140/80-18 that is mounted on a 1.85" wide rim. I went this narrow for the BMW because I'm only dealing with 70hp and not 100hp and because it really helps the slow handling of an older motorcycle like the BMW. That narrow rim is quick to turn and it made the BMW handle great.

The other part of why we change rims is protection. That is what most people are thinking about but really it's secondary to the handling.

It's not just "the stock rims **** and bend easily." We know the rims need to be wide to keep more rubber on the road but the other part of that is wide rubber needs wide rims, wide rims generally mean lower profiles (that second number in tire size) and lower profiles are more responsive as they don't flex as much. Sport bikes typically have 180/60 or 200/55 and that second number is lower. So back up to the top photo of the 150/70 and you'll see the rim is very close to the outside of the tire and there isn't a lot of sidewall. Compared to the BMW above which has oodles of sidewall. Hitting a rock on that 150 tire doesn't give you much leeway or protection.

Sidewall on a dirt bike is both a form of suspension and rim protection. When you hit a rock the narrower rim is much more protected by this huge sidewall. It's not just that the after market rims are stronger it's that the narrower rims we tend to put on offer more protection.

So, more rim protection and faster handling - what's the downside?

Off road? Pretty much nothing. We're already dealing with very little traction if we're in dirt so the benefits are manifold. On road? Lots of compromise. The narrow tires are going to speed up the handling of the bike; it's going to turn quicker and drop onto the side quicker but the main downside is of course traction. On big bikes like the 890 that can even be in a straight line as 120hp is enough to spin the tire on pavement and on a 1290? Yikes. Once you start turning you're going to have less rubber on the road so you're going to have less grip than the stock tires and wheels and if you're aware and careful it can even be fun. Sliding a motorcycle is about the most fun you can have so knobbies on narrower rims let's you light up the rear on pavement pretty easily but I've spent years racing; road, flat track and dirt and I'm comfortable sliding on any surface.

Because the 890 has 100+hp I went with the 2.5" wide rim instead of the 1.85 on the BMW. Ben chose 3.5" for his rear wheel and we both chose 1.85 fronts so it will be fun to compare what the difference is between 2.5 and 3.5 is. Another thing to consider is that rims narrower than 2.15 don't have the safety beads that most tubeless tires require.

You can head over to Upshift Online - they did an article in issue 64 on rim width that is pretty good and has some good photos too.

I hope that primer on rims and tires is helpful and sheds some light on the decisions I made on this build which is biased towards the dirt.

Gregor

 

[gearhead1960]

Gregor,
I agree that the tire sizing is one hot mess, but it's much better than it used to be. The current system was implemented in the US in the 1970's from my recollection. Not sure of Europe/Asia in this regard. Also, don't recall if this system was developed overseas and the US adopted it or if it was by collusion on the part of the manufacturers. Anyway, the old American system was based on load ranges (no speed rating either). For example an old F70-14 carried x amount of weight on a 14" wheel. This might sound OK at first glance, but one manufacturer's F70-14 could have a total diameter and section width different than another manufacturer. Not very standardized. While not perfect, the current system at least provides a standardization of sizing, load range, and speed rating across manufacturers. By theory (not always by practice) one maker's 150/70-18 should equals another makers 150/70-18. Interestingly enough, Michelin in the 1970s tried with some auto manufacturers to produce metric rim sizes that was abandoned after several years. Ford tried jumping on the bandwagon with the Mustang, but it was very unpopular with consumers.

 

[Seagoon]

Gregor,
I agree that the tire sizing is one hot mess, but it's much better than it used to be. The current system was implemented in the US in the 1970's from my recollection. Not sure of Europe/Asia in this regard. Also, don't recall if this system was developed overseas and the US adopted it or if it was by collusion on the part of the manufacturers. Anyway, the old American system was based on load ranges (no speed rating either). For example an old F70-14 carried x amount of weight on a 14" wheel. This might sound OK at first glance, but one manufacturer's F70-14 could have a total diameter and section width different than another manufacturer. Not very standardized. While not perfect, the current system at least provides a standardization of sizing, load range, and speed rating across manufacturers. By theory (not always by practice) one maker's 150/70-18 should equals another makers 150/70-18. Interestingly enough, Michelin in the 1970s tried with some auto manufacturers to produce metric rim sizes that was abandoned after several years. Ford tried jumping on the bandwagon with the Mustang, but it was very unpopular with consumers.

I'm not sure about this but I believe Michelin brought out the metric sizes specifically for run-flat tyres so that it was impossible to mix the two tyre types on one vehicle.

 

[sakurama]

Hopefully the abs pump doesn’t give you grief bleeding. Did you keep it from going dry when you tore down the frame?

I wouldn’t believe myself saying this five years ago, but gravity bleeding brakes is the best way.
Doing lots of track days over that time and all the brake system maintenance that entails on a heavy awd street cars has taught me a lot.

I’ve fooled around with vacuum bleeders and pressure bleeders of varying types too, but what I always use anymore is just some old Gatorade bottles with varying size clear lines punched through the lid and gravity.

Just keep bleeder bottle lines tight on the bleeder screws, crack the screws, keep the master full and let gravity do the work. Once it’s had some time I’ll tighten the bleeders and one by one crack them and force pressure through, but there’s never air bubbles by then anyway.
Good luck!

The rear went super quick - took us all of 5 minutes. The front is proving much harder. We've put a bottle and a half of fluid through and have pressure but it's a little mushy. I'm not sure how we could gravity bleed with the ABS pump. Just as they sit? Derek at Cheshire Motorsports said that it can help to raise the calipers up off the bike but the ABS pump, needing to be in it's spot on the frame, complicates the situation.

I might try your method today. Do you do this with the lever pulled in to open the path? We used to leave our bikes over night with a zip tie pulling the lever to the bars to open the master up and that tended to finish the process. It needs to be addressed but today I'm going to first clean the shop and then prioritize the punch list and knock out a few things to let me button things up.

There are still parts coming from Canada, Greece and from the US and they all are probably showing up tomorrow or Wednesday so whatever I can do today gives me time tomorrow.

Hey Sean, I'm going to try to make my exhaust bracket today but if I'm not comfortable with my titanium welding can I use the "call a friend" option? I'm going to give it my best effort so we'll see how that goes.

Gregor

 

[Uofime]

abs modules are tricky they usually have a purge cycle you can initiate, but most new stuff requires a special tool to do it. The back yard way is just to go out and engage the ABS and then bleed again and hope the air got pushed out of the valves in the module, wash, rinse, repeat and cross you fingers your feel comes back. The other option is to find someone with the tool to engage the purge cycle, probably a dealer because the basic tools usually cannot do it.
In general for gravity bleeding you don’t want to engage the master because that blocks the reservoir (otherwise you couldn’t build pressure).
As long as your bleed port is at the high point of the caliper I don’t see any reason to remove the calipers. You want the air to go up to the reservoir or out of the top of the calipers. It is those middle high points that can trap bubbles and give you grief.
Good idea on taking a break, cleaning up and hitting it the next day, this isn’t something you want to do with a foggy brain.

 

[Trapps]

Sliding....

RIP Nicky!

 

[Gammaboy]

Radial master cylinders are a pain in the **** to bleed on a good day. Have you tried reverse bleeding? Big syringe full of fluid on the caliper bleeder, crack the bleeder at the master and push fluid through backwards?
Now that you've got some pressure you may be able to pump the pistons out a bit, crack the bleeder at the top and push the pistons back in.

Is the Tesa tape the cloth type? There's actually many, many Tesa tape varieties, including plain old electrical tapes.

 

[gasgas17]

Sliding....

RIP Nicky!

Two local guys I grew up with here in Nova Scotia both ended up working with Nicky when he raced AMA Super sport and Superbike. So we all used to get the inside race reports and behind the scenes details back here at home. We all became pretty big Nicky fans and lucky for us the TV coverage was awesome back then too. Of course we were pretty big Duhamel fans too, being Canadian.

 

[GeddyT]

Radial master cylinders are a pain in the **** to bleed on a good day.

I've gotten more brake fluid in my eyes and mouth than I'd like to admit (tubing exploding off the bleeder and spraying fluid everywhere). My two most hated maintenance tasks are bleeding brakes and changing tires. When this first came up, I almost launched into a tale of a month-long ordeal to try getting the sponginess out of a CBR600's front brakes after a lowside, but I didn't want to derail the thread.

 

[Vertigo Cycles]

Hey Sean, I'm going to try to make my exhaust bracket today but if I'm not comfortable with my titanium welding can I use the "call a friend" option? I'm going to give it my best effort so we'll see how that goes.

Gregor

You got this! Just don't try to weld titanium to stainless and you'll be fine.

sent "yesterday" from my DeLorean

 

[964haus]

"....I wanted to knock off a simple project for the bike....." - Gregor

"This simple bracket took me a whole week to complete and I'm still think it looks like sh!t" - Everyone else

 

[sakurama]

Radial master cylinders are a pain in the **** to bleed on a good day. Have you tried reverse bleeding? Big syringe full of fluid on the caliper bleeder, crack the bleeder at the master and push fluid through backwards?
Now that you've got some pressure you may be able to pump the pistons out a bit, crack the bleeder at the top and push the pistons back in.

Is the Tesa tape the cloth type? There's actually many, many Tesa tape varieties, including plain old electrical tapes.

Our local KTM mechanic suggested something similar for the ABS - push the pistons back in to force fluid back up into the system and then bleed it again. I'll give that a try tomorrow.

You got this! Just don't try to weld titanium to stainless and you'll be fine.

sent "yesterday" from my DeLorean

Thank you so much Sean - really. I don't think I "nailed" it but I'm happy enough.

Sorry for the cross posts from ADV - I only have so much time so I try to write these so they make sense for both...

So the seat latch was a detail I got bogged down on but then there are details that I want to focus on even if I miss other things. You know, like brakes. For me that was the exhaust hanger. A small part of practically zero importance to anyone but me. For me it represents the first titanium part that I'm welding for a bike. In the hierarchy of welding I did steel, stainless, aluminum and now I'm learning titanium.

I bought a collection of titanium tube off ebay that I wanted to play with and after making up a test part, cleaning it meticulously and tacking it I could hear it cracking. Not enough heat? I did a few more and they kept cracking. I finally added filler and got the tack to hold - this was going to be way harder than I thought. I finally got a full weld around the part and it looked pretty good and then... I broke it with my hands.

How the **** do people make bicycles from this stuff? What the hell? I texted my Sean (who you know builds amazing titanium bicycles) and whose lessons on ti got me started. He walked through my settings, my purge, my filler and nothing made sense.

So he just drove right over and as soon as he picked up the tube he said, "This is too heavy - I don't think it's titanium" which is what I thought at first and so I spark tested it and it sparked white. So Sean tried welding it and it cracked on him too. He tried a few things and finally said, "I don't know what this is but it's not titanium."

What I didn't realize is that when I spark tested it I ground the end of the tube I had broken off and it was the titanium filler that was sparking. The other end, I eventually tried, sparked warm and yellow like you'd expect from stainless. So in fact I paid a small fortune for some cheap stainless tube.

Oooooooohhhhhh. I'm not as stupid as I thought. I mean I'm stupid to have bought titanium off ebay I guess but at least my technique wasn't too bad.

So I'm no expert on titanium but just like stainless it must be back purged. It used to be thought that you needed to weld it in a bubble but that's not the case - it just needs argon front and back so I spent a few hours making up fittings for all the tube ends and drilling and prepping the tubes. And in the middle of that my lathe crossfeed just locks up. I can't get it to turn without huge effort and so I stop and take it apart...

Evidently you need to take apart and clean your lathe more than once every 10 years...

I don't know why it chose today - maybe some bronze chips got in there and were the thing that put it over the edge but I spent four hours taking the whole carriage apart and cleaning it and putting it back together.

But back to the exhaust bracket!

The bracket is a series of compound angles and cuts and titanium requires a zero gap fit up so you have to nail the fit. This, because it requires more precision than I'm used to, took me a long time.

I'm smiling because the lathe is fixed and I haven't realized I'm almost out of argon. It was the sweet spot of the afternoon.

Welding titanium is very different from anything else. It needs zero gap fits and then you tack weld the entire joint. These are the "tacks" which look like finished welds. My color isn't too bad but I did keyhole twice. You need a lot of heat quickly and briefly. Too much heat and it just melts and you get a hole. Not enough and it retreats. I think of welding different materials as having an envelope of viability. Steel - you can pretty much weld that within a 20-50amp range and be okay, stainless is like 15-20, aluminum let's you get away with 10-15 and ti needs you to be within 3-4 amps it feels like. It's a narrow zone.

The other thing that makes it much harder than aluminum is that needs huge argon coverage front and back. You have to weld with a big gas lens and a back purge so you're using double the argon as other types of welding. That I discovered when I ran my argon tank out 20 minutes after the welding supply closed. Usually you do that on Friday at 5:05 so I've learned my lesson and I had a spare tank of Argon waiting in the wings. Yay!

So there you go - about a day and a half of effort into a simple bracket. I did save 200 grams though so that's about 13 grams an hour.

This is what the system came with - stamped steel. My bracket weighs 73 grams - a savings of .0001% off the total weight. I just know I'll feel that weight every time I twist the throttle.

If you know titanium you'll see that I've gone too hot on my second pass. My tacks are fast and they have no color which is what you want but my second pass - the coverage pass - uses filler and I'm not as fast/good when it comes to adding filler and pulsing so I put too much heat in. They should be colorless and shiny silver. It feels very strong and springy so I'm hoping it will hold up despite my less than perfect execution.

But! I made my first titanium part! It was small, difficult and complicated but looks, to me at least, really amazing and is exactly what I imagined. I learned a huge amount as well which is always something I'm trying to do and I had the time as I'm waiting on the remaining parts.

An interesting side note: I polled people on Instagram about what angle I should mount the pipe and while the majority said higher there was a very vocal group that took the time to write me and ask that I match the angle of the subframe tube so that the pipe and subframe were parallel. I hate to disappoint those folks but I feel the pipe has to be higher so that it makes a closing angle or triangle between the pipe and subframe. Angles create tension, command attention and look aggressive so I had to go with the pipe mounted about as high as it could go.

Next up will be a titanium luggage rack which should look good against the new tail.

And finally I got to clean my lathe - I mean that was on my list sometime in the next year or so...

Tomorrow I give the front brakes another go, start to fabricate the tablet mount, install the hydraulic clutch and give it all a once over for tightness. I should be getting the new triple clamps from Rottweiler (and a few fun bits too) and they shouldn't be too difficult to get on the bike. My fingers are crossed for bodywork which is arriving from all corners of the globe.

And I'll leave you with this photo - the Aurora-Rally Tower in all of it's complicated beauty shining through the clear screen. When I asked Dimitri to leave it all aluminum I was hoping it would look really cool behind the clear screen and it looks even better than I imagined. I can't wait to get this thing finished. While I loved the 890 for all it's function it wasn't as thrilling to look at as the 950 was but this bike excites me now every time I walk into the garage - it's different and beautiful and complicated in a good way.

Gregor

PS Anyone local who wants to head to the 1 Moto Show this weekend and see how much I finished can get a 20% discount on tickets with this code: SAKUMOTO20

 

[gasgas17]

It's so refreshing seeing all the orange being erased away. Man I am tired of KTM orange. I see a frame colour change in my future some day. All the silver bits are looking retro yet modern at the same time in the sea of black parts we currently live in. And that tower is a throw back to every kids Meccano set. Me like!

 

[zmotorsports]

Excellent work Gregor.

Titanium is tricky stuff for certain, especially when you don't weld it often. I've only welded it a few times and it seems each time I have to re-train myself to some degree.

As for you cross-slide, I had issues with my compound slide last year and it always happens at the most inopportune time. Luckily mine was near the end of a small job so I was able to push off tearing it apart and cleaning/inspecting for a few days.

 

[sakurama]

So yesterday...

Ben came over again to help and we re-bled the brakes. Also, I had to swap the out the rear brake from the 690 - there were too many small differences in fit that I couldn't resolve with the time I had left. I will go back and revisit that, most likely to make my own rear caliper bracket. With the rear rotor replaced we bled the front via Rick's method of pushing in the pads and that certainly seemed to make the difference. I still wasn't completely happy but then we went out to check Ben's bike and the lever felt identical to his. We'll see how that goes.



With brakes bled we took the bike off the stand (which is now too short) and checked the sidestand angle. It's leaning almost 20° and so again we checked Ben's bike and his stock suspension with the 723's was at 15° so it looked like I needed to add about 1.25-1.5" to the side stand.



I pulled the sidestand and cut it and made a tube from solid billet that I bored to give double wall thickness so I could fit it inside for extra support. I welded it up and went outside to give it a quick coat of paint...



...and came back inside to find the bike on it's side. I had loosened the front wheel chock to let the bike lean a little as I was checking the fit and distance and it had stayed that way for an hour and then, when I went outside, it slipped from the chock and fell into the welding table smashing the tower. Aurora designs these to collapse in a crash so you don't get impaled and it worked very well. I didn't take a photo of it on it's side because I went into that mode when you crash where you think if you pick the bike up fast enough you can go back in time and it will not have happened - you know that right?



Luckily Aurora anticipated my tragedy and left me a little note on the tower. I took it all apart and then had to go back and look for older photos to see how each part was bent. I didn't think I'd be able to fix it at first but the aluminum was pretty ductile and bent back without cracking. Little by little I made each part straight. After an hour or so it was back together and about 98% perfect. I am so glad the plexi or the body wasn't mounted. No doubt the bike will end up on the ground eventually but I want at least a few photos before that happens.



After that USPS arrived with the last parts from Rottweiler and they were good ones. I'd hemmed about the triples but I wanted to move the ignition and swap the bearings to tapered rollers and eventually decided that the new triples had many advantages and were worth the coin. The quality and the machining on these is really something and these are the hard coat finish which is a dark gray - so now I'm like Batman - I only work in black. And sometimes very, very, dark gray (that's for all the Lego fans).



The other thing in the package were these titanium footpegs which are just a little over the top. The bike had Fastway pegs on but the were the extra long versions which I really disliked as they always caught my pants legs when I went to put my foot down. I have fallen over more than once catching my pants so these are much shorter but far more aggressive. I may dull down the points a bit. Oddly they reused the stock steel pivots and since I was too tired to think straight I looked in my bin of titanium and found a 12mm rod and thought, why not? So I remade the pivots in titanium. I don't have much experience machining titanium so this was another chance to see how it worked.



I wish I could say these were my welds but they're not. These are really beautiful and I dare say it - worth the cost.



But holy hell are they sharp!



The last thing I did for the night was to make some new frame plugs from aluminum. I'm down to about 7-8 things on my punch list and this is my last day to get things done for the show. I know I'll have a lot more to finish after the show but for now I'm just trying to get it as done as I can. The GPS mount is going to take some time that I don't have. I'll need a quick solution today for the show however.

So disaster averted and almost done. I hope to get it together and started today.

Gregor

 

[trytochaseme]

You could start an only fans and just post what you post here and I would pay for it. This is straight ****. I can not wait to see this bike all together!

 

[GeddyT]

I'm guessing the body parts all showed up on time then?

 

[Gammaboy]

If you've seen the latest Instagram stories, yes, yes they have. Holy hell that bike is amazing.

Gregor, the likely reason that the pegs use the stock hardware is that Ti galls really badly - make sure you keep those pins lubed!

 

[sakurama]

Today was an unbelievably long day but it was nice to start the day with a note from Lyndon Poskit who I haven't spoke with in years. He had heard about the build from friends so it was nice to know that someone thought it was cool enough to tell him since Lyndon makes some of the coolest bikes.

Anyway, I started at 6am and just finished now - at 10pm. That's not the craziest day but it's at the end of a long stretch of days. They build in intensity.

I used to run a carbon fiber fender on my 950 and I liked it. When Dimitri sent me the carbon fiber side panels for the Aurora-rally fairing - not for any reason other than he thought the build was cool and wanted to contribute a bit of extra "bling" I thought I should see if I can get a few more pieces. I mentioned to Dimitri that I could get almost all the body in carbon fiber but the side panels as no one made those for the Adventure. Dimitri, in essence, said, "hold my beer" and reached out to his friend Papakakis Carbon Fiber who, just a few weeks ago, started pulling molds to make the side panels. I mentioned I was was able to find a twill weave and they matched it so the whole bike would have the same style of carbon fiber.

The panels showed up at 3pm today - the day I'm supposed to be loading into the 1 Moto Show. I still hadn't mounted the Tripltek dash yet and UpShift was kind enough to make me a set of custom graphics. The carbon crash guards came from Rottweiler and amazingly they all match up.

Before that I spent the day fitting the skid plate, adjusting the exhaust fit, and installing the triple clamps with Ben's help this morning which feels like two days ago. We took a while to sort the dash, the tower, the steering stops, the Highway Dirt Bikes handguards. I like small details like facing stainless bolt heads to clean them up and remove markings so I did a lot of that and then making custom washers and spacers. It was a day of many details.

It's a small detail but I like small details and I think they count towards the end result. Yes, I plan to counter sink the skid plate and replace the bolts with flat heads. I also have mismatched bolts on the triple - I ran out of time and fasteners.

A new friend Isaac Siegl of Speedy Siegl Racing was watching my Instagram stories and wrote that he'd just loaded his bike into the Show and wondered if I needed any help. Yes! I replied and in about an hour he showed up and helped me with the graphics and mounting the tablet. Thanks Isaac.

With the tablet mounted I can finally appreciate the thing I have been wanting for so long - a giant *** screen. I have to say a special thank you to Locul here - Mikael is the one who found the Tripltek tablet and that seemed like the brightest thing out there. I never heard of them before. Thanks man, you're always giving me the push I need. He's also the one that got me to start making videos. Someday we're going to have that beer together.

And miraculously a part that I've wanted to get for as long as I've seen them showed up today - Thork Racing's bluetooth controller for their Drivemode Dashboard. I never thought I'd leave the Apple ecosystem but I'm very excited about this dash and controller. I didn't have the time to hook it up yet but I'll get that done after the show. The mount that Isaac and I fabbed up is just a quick one for the show - I have plans for something a bit better.

I got the tower all dialed in and checked my clearances and steering lock. I'm surprised at how much steering lock I have right now. It's all of it.

The guys at UpShift make great graphics kits for the 790/890 and the patterns are very tricky to do and get cut. They've put a lot of time into making them perfect. So when I wanted to make custom graphics I asked if they could hook me up as a special favor. They were happy to help and took my brothers logo and converted it into a great set of graphics. I was very nervous to install them since the carbon fiber panels are one offs and the graphics are as well. Isaac and I did the fenders but when I asked if anyone could help with the sides my friend Andy DiBrino offered to come over and help install the sides. As a pro racer Andy installs graphics all the time and he made it look easy.

Andy said it might be the coolest KTM he's seen - which is a big compliment from someone who has a 790 flat tracker, two 890 SuperHooligan race bikes and a 450 Supermoto and races with support from KTM. I hope that in the next few weeks Andy will get the chance to take the bike and give it a good flog. He wants to race it and the MX race for Adventure bikes was cancelled so maybe we can find another venue.

I missed the load in but I'm sure that I'll find a spot for the bike tomorrow morning before it opens. If you see me come by and say hi - I love to meet the people that follow along.

Okay, I'm wiped out but I'm done. Off to get some sleep.

Gregor

 

[Horror Business]

Nicely done! Enjoy the show.

 

[gasgas17]

The bike looks impressive. The frame really sets it off. I am really digging that controller for the tablet. I just bought a used Samsung tab Active Sm off ebay to test the waters so to speak. 8" screen and weather proof. As I age, it has become harder to see the Montana 600. I pretty much have to put my readers on. If I could only mount them low in my helmets shield! I am hoping the 8" screen will make things easier. If it works out, I could see myself splurging on that controller.

 

[Gammaboy]

So... I have to ask, will there be a set of Super Mortard wheels in the works for it?