Tundras live: Dumb Dad Jokes, Incorrect Opinions, and Relationship Advice.

I’ve worn bright loud Hawaiian shirts at multiple funerals that i attended. It always garnered smiles from the deceased family. I always figured that a small break from the doom and gloom of black suits would be good for their souls.

 

Oooooh! What helmet did you go with?

 

I had no skin in this game anyhow. I didn't have a bike to sell nor do I care what he eventually bought. Seems like you did though.

My arguments with you yesterday were that ktm isn't unreliable nor will it kill people.

 

Holy crap man. I didn't expect you to be pouncing on gear this fast.

Check out motorcyclegear.com some time. The site looks janky as hell, but it's legit. They get a lot of stuff that is going out of production and sell at discounts. They sell new as well, but the sales are pretty good a lot of times.

For a jacket, I recommend you look at a Klim Marrakesh jacket. It looks kinda like a carhartt, but has nice flexible armor and breathes sooooo good. Not good for rain, but I would recommend sticking to warm clear rides to start with anyway. Not a cheap jacket, but definitely works.

You could also get one of the things that is basically an underarmor shirt with the pads and then you wear a lighter abrasion layer on top.

 

Reliability is dubious. Kinda like BMW. Good, yes. Toyota/lexus/honda level? Maybe not. As for the killing bit, a new rider with a penchant for pushing it could get into trouble on the wrong bike. I admitted am not a KTM expert, but their reputation is not for reliability but for raw shit-your-pants-at-a-twist-of-the-wrist performance.

 

other then the cam shafts cough cough…

 

KTMs are the only motorcycles that i owned since 2003. I ride, race, and wrench on all of my own, so i am VERY familiar with them. Some would say i have expert level KTM knowledge. I got to say this, KTMs are just as reliable as any Japanese bike....IF the bike was reliably taken care of by the previous owner. The exact same thing goes for the old Honda XR bikes. They're only reliable if the previous owner kept them reliable. I've wrenched on clapped out on a few friend's Suzuki DRZ400's, WAY too many Kawasaki KLR 650's, Triumph Tiger, many sizes of Honda XR's, and lots and lot and lots and lots of KTMs. All of the previous mentioned bikes are going to reliable when brand new. One problem is when a non-race brand bike is pushed hard to keep up with a race spec KTM. The suspension and chassis are lacking, which in turn causes accelerated wear. Usually the low spec engines don't produce enough horsepower that it will implode on itself, but the owner then thinks they don't have to do any engine maintenance because of that. Along with a budget bike, a budget minded owner might think they only need one bike to rule them all...thinking that a 400cc bike can commute day in, day out on an interstate highway at 70mph...which is another way to kill an engine. I do all the work on my both me and my friend's KTMs. They don't cost any more to maintain that any other brand. The trick is to be familiar enough with whatever motorcycle that you own, that you can at a glance notice any sort of wear items that should be replaced. 99% of the time it will be some $5 part that needs to be preplaced, but if it isn't, then it could turn into a $500+ collateral damage. The same holds true for any other brand of motos as well. I do find that KTM parts cost a bit less than the Japanese. Plus i've found that KTM parts are more prevalent.

You are correct that KTM has a reputation for NOT being reliable. It is a completely false statement though. I do know exactly where those rumors come from too. We all are partial to our favorite brands of bike, and the guys who own Jap bikes have read the KTM maintenance manuals. KTM will spec out that some major engine component will need to be replaced at some crazy low hour increment (i'm exaggerating, but something like replacing the crankshaft every 100 hours). People will read that and automatically say, "the bike must be unreliable since it needs new cranks so often". The truth is those maintenance specs are for full on racing at max HP levels for professional racers. Think of the Dakar rally race. After a couple weeks of racing every day in the dirt and sand at 100% WOT, most all internal engine parts will be screaming for mercy. After the race is over with, then yeah, it might be time to think about changing or rebuilding the crank shaft. A low spec production Jap bike might not even make it far enough to make it up some of the sand dunes by day 3.

 

The haters gonna hate. My 950 adventure had over 70k on the clock when I sold it. Nothing but regular maintenance.

690 enduro had over 20k in mileage as well and was running as good as the day she rolled off the showroom floor.

If and when I buy another bike it sure as shit won't be Honda, kawi, or Suzuki. Those bikes do have their place and aren't dogs by any means but they also aren't KTM quality or performance.

 

I didn't know it was your birthday! I just assume everything you do is in a body builder pose, including eating cake.

 

At one point this was my orange quiver a couple years ago. It’s a bit bigger and a little better at the moment.

 

I vote for beard net

 

I bet the old gals at work love it!

 

I've been shaving for work for 15 years but my wife doesn't like facial hair anyway.

 

He figures if he delivers it, his Ford will get a wash out of it.

 

Happy birthday, @T-Rex266!

 

If he wasn't broken and it wasn't a long drive, yes.