new bike advice sought

right then I am sure that this has been done to death but on the off chance of being flamed to bits here goes.
Went in to the KTM dealers to have a chat and a coffee you know the sort of thing and came out with the idea of a new bike, well second hand.

Its a 2003 17,000 mls, 950 adventure S, which I like as I am tall and so is it. Some nice extras, crash bars, ackro pipes, high level front mudguard some extra electric connectors for those esential touring bits, now my point is.

Any particular points to look for on a 2003 bike, are the early ones any better or worse than later ones?

I had a 950adv for a while, so some thoughts from me:

Seems like a lovely low mileage for an 03 bike

950 (carb) bikes are definitely better than the 990 (fuel injected) machines, but other than that I don't have any specific thoughts on earlier -v- later 950 machines

Crash bars and akro pipes are very useful extras, well worth having, check they have adjusted the fueling to suit the pipes.

I think the S has the old seat, which was an absolute plank. See if they will swap it for a later one as part of the deal.

Check what recalls it has had done, the dealer should be able to tell you. Also check the service history - the first service (after 600 miles I think) is a biggy and should not have been missed.

Hepco & Becker topboxes look the part (if not particularly big) - haggle one of those into the deal as well, if you need luggage.

You can also get more info over on the KTM forum's adventure section:

http://www.ktmforum.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=93

On the early 03 models

slave cylinder on the clutch

Water pump

Fuel pump - replace with Facet 40171 electronic pump

apart from that, should rum as sweet as a nut.

I have an 04 950 and have done all of the above and (touchwood) no problems

HTH

Dave J