ARMA
Registered user
I'm making a road trip at the moment from London to Thailand. I'm on a little X-country and riding with a guy on a KTM990. So far so good, I'm keeping up barely but when the going gets rougher I'm enjoying the weight difference. We got stuck twice yesterday in the Iran mountains between Tabriz and Tehran. Firstly we went offroad for some pictures and got bogged down into this weird sticky clay. Mine got through ok, just about but the KTM bogged in hard. Pulling it out though it was me covered in mud so not sure I'm really benefitting the weight advantage!
We had some trouble in Hungary with bad fuel, it cut our range down by a third but my bike took it on the chin, the KTM hunted badly and stalled a lot so another good mark for the little single. In Iran the fuel is top notch. I have a 5 litre fuel extension and saw 201 miles with still no reserve light while the KTM was warning empty at 180 on 20 litres. Another huge green light for the little single. My fuel system is vacuum fed from the breather tube and it is having issues. In the mountains at 2200metres we're so cold it's cutting out the fuel feed but it's also cold enough that my laptop screen is freezing too so I'm willing to excuse her for that.
Other than that the bike is running very nicely. The KTM is blasting away on the motorways, I'm only keeping up because he's letting me but even asking the high revs from her all day the engine is delivering with no problems (so far). In town, the cumbersome 990 and me swap roles, he's struggling a bit through the mental traffic here.
She's had a lot of mods and now wears a bodged on screen that's uglier than a Bulgarian supermodel but it works and that's all that counts. We're in Iran at the moment and the internet is heavily censored so I'm not sure I can even post this. Certainly pictures aren't working. Iran is an amazing place, stunningly beautiful and rugged with very warm and friendly people but that is changing as we move on. Last night we were getting a fair bit of sarcastic abuse as most people are taking us for Americans. A couple of lads tried to corner us and asked us where we from. Once we told them it was smiles and handshakes and welcome to our country. Even on the toll booths we got asked first where we were from. Once we said, England then it was no charge for us and have a great day in our country. We tried to buy a spare spotlight bulb, H3 in Tabriz. We were asked where we from there, we told them and then the bulb was free and they brought us free tea and chocolate too. In fact I can't recommend Tabriz enough. The people were utterly amazing and the welcome we got blew us away. We've met other bikers on the road, a German couple on BMW Dakars but they seem to have visa issues and we've lost contact (even mobiles don't work here) and a couple of guys from the Europe who saved our arse when we screwed up entering the country with no money.
But this forum is about the bike so... She's running beautifully and I'm nothing but proud of her. I had to make a lot of last minute changes as I lost two weeks of preparation so I could travel with my companion so she looks a little bit "Frankenstein".
We've got another four or five days to the Pakistan border and then off to India. When we get there the weight difference should really start showing but then it will be me digging out the heavy bike while he sits on it so not sure i'm going to be the one better off. To be fair the KTM is very impressive offroad and on. It handles what he throws at it easily in every situation so far. and he only drives in two speeds, flat out and parked.
I will get pictures on when possible but can't upload to a site as everything with a .com address is censored here. If anyone can suggest a workaround that might help. Cheers guys.
Jack
We had some trouble in Hungary with bad fuel, it cut our range down by a third but my bike took it on the chin, the KTM hunted badly and stalled a lot so another good mark for the little single. In Iran the fuel is top notch. I have a 5 litre fuel extension and saw 201 miles with still no reserve light while the KTM was warning empty at 180 on 20 litres. Another huge green light for the little single. My fuel system is vacuum fed from the breather tube and it is having issues. In the mountains at 2200metres we're so cold it's cutting out the fuel feed but it's also cold enough that my laptop screen is freezing too so I'm willing to excuse her for that.
Other than that the bike is running very nicely. The KTM is blasting away on the motorways, I'm only keeping up because he's letting me but even asking the high revs from her all day the engine is delivering with no problems (so far). In town, the cumbersome 990 and me swap roles, he's struggling a bit through the mental traffic here.
She's had a lot of mods and now wears a bodged on screen that's uglier than a Bulgarian supermodel but it works and that's all that counts. We're in Iran at the moment and the internet is heavily censored so I'm not sure I can even post this. Certainly pictures aren't working. Iran is an amazing place, stunningly beautiful and rugged with very warm and friendly people but that is changing as we move on. Last night we were getting a fair bit of sarcastic abuse as most people are taking us for Americans. A couple of lads tried to corner us and asked us where we from. Once we told them it was smiles and handshakes and welcome to our country. Even on the toll booths we got asked first where we were from. Once we said, England then it was no charge for us and have a great day in our country. We tried to buy a spare spotlight bulb, H3 in Tabriz. We were asked where we from there, we told them and then the bulb was free and they brought us free tea and chocolate too. In fact I can't recommend Tabriz enough. The people were utterly amazing and the welcome we got blew us away. We've met other bikers on the road, a German couple on BMW Dakars but they seem to have visa issues and we've lost contact (even mobiles don't work here) and a couple of guys from the Europe who saved our arse when we screwed up entering the country with no money.
But this forum is about the bike so... She's running beautifully and I'm nothing but proud of her. I had to make a lot of last minute changes as I lost two weeks of preparation so I could travel with my companion so she looks a little bit "Frankenstein".
We've got another four or five days to the Pakistan border and then off to India. When we get there the weight difference should really start showing but then it will be me digging out the heavy bike while he sits on it so not sure i'm going to be the one better off. To be fair the KTM is very impressive offroad and on. It handles what he throws at it easily in every situation so far. and he only drives in two speeds, flat out and parked.
I will get pictures on when possible but can't upload to a site as everything with a .com address is censored here. If anyone can suggest a workaround that might help. Cheers guys.
Jack
