Five weeks, 12 countries and just practice!

Sending $10,000 halfway around the globe to purchase a bike I haven't seen is not something I do everyday. To compound my feeling of angst, I usually buy bikes brand new. This 2006 KTM990 Adventure was second hand.

It's scary how large sums of money so quickly disappear with electronic funds transfer and it would be a week before I would rendezvous with my ride and ease my anxiety.

Also waiting on the other side of the globe was Darren, my riding buddy. He would be riding a BMW R1200GS Adventure for the trip. Darren uses the bike as a daily commuter into London and he was looking forward to taking his steed off this well travelled route.

This trip is very open ended and we hope to post regularly and encourage riders to contribute to our tour of Europe. For the five weeks there are only two definites; the ferry trip from Plymouth UK to Santander in Spain and getting a photograph of my bike in front of my mother in law's old house in the Czech Republic.

Both Darren and I film our adventures on motorcycles and post them on youtube and sell some stuff to bike magazines. We hope to share this adventure in the same way and this thread allows riders to follow and even influence the outcome of the ride.

Our first stop is Bideford where we will camp for a couple of days and attend the Austin Vince adventure Film Festival and hopefully get some pointers to improving our story telling before we head into Europe.

Now the title mentions practice. Our aim for this trip. in addition to having fun, is to practice filming and story telling for our more adventurous London to Sydney ride in 2012.

Anyway time to show you my bike for the trip.

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I purchased the bike from The KTM Centre in Hemel Hempstead, which is less than an hour north of London. It's a 2006 model KTM990 Adventure with a low 6,500 miles on the clock.

Jason Jones, the owner of the KTM Centre, was very helpful right from the start of this project. He went out of his way to help this crazy Australian realise a dream and did so with patience, humour and enthusiasm. The bike looks like it is brand new. Nothing was too hard for Jason and his staff, who prepped the bike beautifully.



Now I might warn you at this stage that there is going to be some KTM, BMW rivalry. If you look in the back ground of this picture you'll see Darren's mount, a red tanked BMW R 1200Gs.

Here is a photo of both bikes nestled under an Aston Martin transporter at Snetterton raceway.

this is going to be good.

hope so

Best wishes for a fantastic trip. Look forward to following your travels. Rod

Lookin forward to this

This should be interesting.....

I’m having a little difficulty adjusting from thinking kilometres per hour to miles per hour. The 990 is reasonably powerful and a quick snap of the throttle has taken me over the speed limit more than a couple of times.

I’m finding the road signs and general riding environment very different and sometimes difficult to identify and understand. For example the homes and cottages are so bloody close to the road and the Brits park in both the same and opposite directions of the travel of the lane.

One concerning challenge that I am yet to master is picking out speed cameras, particularly those nasty, average speed over time revenue raising variety.

On Saturday day the 28th of May we headed out from our base at Woburn for a 100 mile freeway blast to the Snetterton Raceway just out of Norwich. Darren, wanted to visit a mate who was racing his Aston Martin and the freeway ride gave me an opportunity to get to know the bike.

The trip down was event free but on the return I was very surprised to see the low fuel light at 109 miles! The manual says the low fuel light indicates you have about 20 miles of range left. I thought the bike would be good for around 200 miles. The bike took 16 litres and I can’t help but think the low fuel light activated early.

Anyway these thoughts bring me to todays activity, calculating the fuel economy of this bike. By other 990 standards, it seems heavy on the juice and I need to sort this out and know the range of the bike before we head into Spain, which is only a couple of days away. The bike is fitted with Twin Akropovics and an ignition mapping system, that I’m not too sure about.
After we filled up we got back on the freeway to be greeted by a vey gusty head, and at times, cross wind, that more than once blew me right across the lane. The only place I’ve experienced stronger, gustier winds, was at 1800 metres in Central Otago, New Zealand and they were blowing me off line on a ….dirt bike. Now that was strong.

The wind buffeting the helmet was also a tad annoying and at times so intense my vision was blurring. The ride home wasn’t pleasant.
I forgot to add that compounding that windy challenge was another, well, personal windy challenge, caused by the excesses of a huge curry dinner the night before. The night prior to the ride I recall laying in bed, literally stuffed to the eye balls having half digested curry regurgitate in my mouth feeling like I was going to explode….both ends!

Anyway, time for another vid, our second VLOG of our visit to Snetterton Raceway. I would love to get on this track with a bike!


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This fuel economy is bothering me a little....160 kilometres on 16.5 litres, that's worse than a small car! The majority of that test was in a ferocious head wind that nearly took my head off. But I wasn't giving it any stick. It just seems high to me. I think I might hunt around ADV and get some guidance.

Well the preparation is all done. I'll keep working on that fuel issue but in the meantime a finishing touch.

Don't start talking about fuel consumption on an Adventure - the thread will head off in completley the wrong direction at very high speed

The bike can do up to about 15 miles per litre - but only if you keep the speeds down (around 60/65 mph) and are gentle with the throttle. Not a lot of fun but sometimes it is better to be bored and make it to the next fuel station than to have a really good time for half of the day and spend the rest pushing a dead bike..................

Otherwise an acceptable measure is about 10 miles per litre. 160km to 16.5 litres does seem rather poor. What pipes do you have fitted ?

I have twin Akropovics and a power commander engine management system.

The Akras certainly have a reputation for messing up the fuel consumption (particularly if the KTM Akra map is used). Might be worth getting it checked out on a dyno - otherwise you are going to be looking at a hefty fuel bill over the next couple of months !

Well, don't have time to get it looked at so I guess a big fuel bill is heading my way.

Subscribed!

One hour to go. A bright sunny day for the UK, effing fantastic.

Bikes nearly packed.

Fuel ignition mapping system disconnected.

Now back to yesterday, where we had a bit of fun at our base camp in Woburn. Found some dirt, I suspect the only dirt you can legally ride. the 990 is good in the dirt!

Also found a great cameraman, who'd never been near a camera but did a good pan for me. . Well done Tom from Woburn, UK.

Who would have thought that by midday I would be riding around the village on a Triumph Tiger 800 XC.

Video attached as usual. If you like it, rate it and tell your friends.


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Watch out for those deer!

Mudman!

Good luck Dave!!

Cheers,
Dan

Great little vid there edog. Keep up the good work and stay safe