V2XS

This was my second year of competing in the VINCE, a two day navigation event based in the Spanish Pyrenees. Last year I was teamed up with Dougie and Mark and we scored 39 points. This year it was just Dougie and myself and we managed to more than double our score and finished second !

Here are links to blog posts about last year’s event :
https://v2xs.com/the-vince/
https://v2xs.com/the-vince-2/
https://v2xs.com/the-vince-3/

For the 2020 event, the organiser Austin VINCE put together a nice little video explaining a bit about himself, the background to the event and showing the huge amount of effort and planning that goes into creating something like this – now in its 15th year…

This year there were two classes for the event – the traditional “maps and compass” class and a new GPS class. Last year we did the maps and found it quite hard work so had intended to switch to the easier GPS class for this year. However, a few weeks before the event Dougie attended a map reading class held by Austin and decided we needed a change of plan… So it was maps and compass again.. This didn’t leave much time and the first job was to find some way of fitting the maps on the bike. Last year we used a road book reader and I combined the target route into a continuous A5 scroll that we could just roll through as we went. However, the huge disadvantage of this system is that you have no flexibility to change from the pre-defined route. Dougie was happy to go with A3 maps and already had a massive windbreaker fitted on the front of his bike. I felt that A4 would be big enough (with a magnifying glass on board just in case)..

Our friend David O’Brien (Dangerous Dave) did a great job of scanning the four full size maps, adding the routes already tested by Austin and all the checkpoints (about 80 of them). Dougie did his usual excellent job of planning the routes for the two days allowing for fuel stops – you ride from 8am to 8pm and the best guys are covering 200 miles in that time. Fuel stations are few and far between so careful planning is required. Using Google Earth we were able to do simulated fly-throughs of our planned route to check the trails appeared to exist and to gather additional information regarding difficult junctions. Dave had divided the huge map up into individual “tiles” and I got these printed locally and laminated on double sided A4 sheets.

Really pleased that our planning and preparation paid off. The number of participants was dramatically reduced due to COVID concerns but more than doubling our score from the previous year was an amazing result.

Until next time…
Here is the link to the sign up page…
http://www.austinvince.com/the-vince

I had been on the lookout for another bike that would serve as a bike for Alexander to use when he is down from Limoges, but also for guests to use and local running about. I didn’t have anything very specific in mind – cheap, simple, manageable – and then my mate Phil mentioned he had a DR350S for sale. This is a 1990 bike (30 years old) and is a bit of a classic “Japanese Trail Bike” – it is relatively simple compared to modern machines, being air cooled and kickstart only. It was also cheap, but there was a catch – it didn’t work !

Phil had bought it as a non-runner/project and spent some time and money trying to sort it out but without success. The main problem was that it was “an absolute pig to start” – it seemed to run fine once it was going (usually by bump starting) but was impossible to start by kicking. The deal was done just before lockdown so it was 3 months later that I eventually collected the DR. And Phil was right, it is a PIG to start – it took me two days of trying to eventually start it for the first time ! I discovered that the cable to the decompression lever was slightly out of adjustment, but really it just came down to having the right technique and it now starts up in a couple of kicks (usually).

The starting issue really boils down to the gearing of the kickstart lever – in order to make it easy to kick it is very low geared which means that even a healthy kick barely takes the engine through one revolution. This means that the engine has to be in EXACTLY the right position before starting the kick. Fortunately the decompression lever can be used to get the engine to the right place, more or less. But when you are tired, hot and sweaty half way up a rocky hillside it is easy to forget the right technique.

Other than the starting issue the bike seemed to be in pretty good shape, although there were a few jobs I decided to do…

• Replace the fork gaiters – old ones were split
• Replace a bush in the rear suspension linkage to eliminate the slight play
• Change the footrests – the originals were very small and rather bent
• Fit some tougher hand guards – on the basis the bike would probably be dropped a few times… Had a set left over from the Scorpa T-ride which were just the job.
• New grips to replace the crumbing old ones – actually used the old grips off the KTM
• When replacing the fork gaiters I realised one of the fork seals had been leaking so took the forks to PCG Racing in Cahors who stripped and rebuilt them with new oil and seals for 95 Euros the pair.
• Tyres – the originals were “full knobby” motocross tyres but also rather old and as hard as wood. So they were replaced with the Trials tyres I had spare from previous bikes.

Alexander was keen to try the bike out and came down for a visit – first time since the lockdown – it didn’t go well…
He doesn’t have a lot of bike experience and is shorter than me so the tall seat height and heavy bike (he was used to a scooter) made it quite a handful. He must have fallen off half a dozen times or more – mostly at low speed round the garden – but not having any protective gear (apart from gloves and helmet) doesn’t help with confidence. After he had done a fair bit of practise we went out for a short trail ride – I took the Montesa trials so no risk of going fast…

So although he enjoyed the experience it seemed the bike was just too big and heavy for him – anyone want to buy a DR ?
However, I did a bit of research and discovered that it was possible to buy a lowering linkage for the rear suspension and we could raise the front forks to lower the bike at the front. The next time he came to visit it all got a lot better…

This is the “valley hill climb” in the valley below the house which is quite steep, loose and tricky to get up…

The next video is the “waterfall” which is just below the house – not so steep but lots of rocks and tree roots to avoid. There are two rock steps that you have to get up and the second has a fallen tree across it, which means you have to duck at the same time as trying to get up the step – tricky…

He seems to have got the hang of it now – or maybe just getting carried away with youthful enthusiasm…

The bike had a bit of an oil leak that I decided to try and fix. In the event it turned out to be three oil leaks.

• Drive shaft sprocket seal – got a new one and fitted it
• Oil drain plug – was only nipped up rather than being tight – an easy fix
• Clutch cover gasket – replaced with a new one

Alexander getting more confidence – still not much protective gear although he managed to borrow some boots from Susan. I did a search on Le Bon Coin and managed to find some second hand boots and armour so for his next visit he was fully equipped…

So on this visit we did a trail ride into Cahors and back which is about 80Km and nearly all off-road. Both bike and rider did really well and tackled all of the varied trails on the Cahors route…. Until we were nearly back at the house and had to get up the waterfall again…

This was another attept at the waterfall – but already being hot and tired it probably wasn’t such a good idea….
WARNING BAD LANGUAGE !

Even managed a bit of site seeing….

Looks like Alexander won’t be down for a while now, so I changed the DR suspension back to standard settings and had a go myself. Compared to the KTM it feels very sluggish and tractor-like – the steering response is slow, the throttle response is also quite lazy (it has a CV carb) and the cable operated clutch is rather vague. These are probably all helpful characteristics for a beginner as it is less likely to get you into trouble (says the person who managed to loop the KTM on a hill climb soon after I got it !). But I’m now more used to the snappy response of the KTM throttle and clutch and the super-quick steering – so the DR just felt slow and vague to me. I think Alexander did really well on it. Here is my attempt at getting along the rock garden and up the waterfall on the DR – note the tree across the second rock step part way up the waterfall. Also tried some figure of 8s on the terrace but the limited steering rock and vague clutch response make them quite tricky…

At the end of my last post : My First Car. I was stuck in lodgings in Shoreham with a written off car and no real means to buy another one. I needed something now and cheap – didn’t really matter what it was and there was certainly no need to go for anything “big and fast” as I had already shown myself to be incapable of keeping it on the black stuff. But then you’re getting used to my buying track record by now so won’t be at all surprised to learn that I bought a rally prepared Capri RS3100 !

What use is a rally car when all you need is basic transport – what was I thinking? Well I did have a plan and the car was local and only cost £150. Why so cheap ? It was a part completed, abandoned project and an MOT failure! My thinking was that I have a written off Capri which apart from the body shell is in perfect mechanical condition, so I ought to be able to make one decent car out of the two of them…

The plan was slightly flawed because the RS was a Mk1 model and there were a lot of changes when they introduced the Mk2 and the RS didn’t need lots of mechanical components anyway (even if they did fit), what it needed was welding and lots of it! Did I mention I had never done any welding before…?

The RS3100 model was a “homologation special” to allow Ford to compete in Touring Car Racing. The rules specify that to be able to race the car you have to make a certain number (not sure how many in this case) available to the public. Over the years there have been some great “drivers cars” that wouldn’t have existed if not for this regulation. The RS version of the Capri had a bored out engine, different suspension, revised bodywork with a front air dam, duck tail spoiler on the boot lid and flared arches. Genuine RS3100s are now very collectable and valuable as there are probably not many left.

Was my cheap car a genuine RS3100? I don’t actually know.. but think it unlikely. It did have a 3100 engine, spoilers, flared arches, stripped out interior, bucket seats and extremely stiff suspension. My car looked just like the one in the picture above even down to the “racing” bonnet pins, except that mine was white (once again I don’t have a picture of the actual car). Apart from the colour the only other difference that I can spot is the wheels – my car had the bulbous arches, but was fitted with standard wheels which looked rather anorexic. I think the owner had flogged them off separately as he was off-loading the car on the cheap.

So having bought a cheap car I then moved out of Derek’s place and into a farm cottage near Small Dole with Alan Wall (MGB Roadster) and Gary Dwyer (TR7) who both worked at Ricardo. We towed the wrecked 3.0S there and my plan was to dismantle it, use what parts I needed for the RS and sell as much as I could to try to recoup some money.

Doug stayed on at Derek’s and, shortly after I had moved out, managed to write off his own car – which then took up the recently vacated space on Derek’s drive! Actually it was our mutual friend “Strad” who wrote the car off – he fell asleep one night on the way back from a kart racing weekend with Doug asleep in the passenger seat beside him. Derek was not amused..

In trying to reconstruct these events from memory there is one bit I haven’t been able to fathom – if the RS had no MOT, how was I able to use it to get around…?

At the farmhouse the strip of the 3.0S got underway – there was no garage so I was working outside and by now it was winter and cold. Having barely started on the job the tenant farmer asked me to move it as the farm owner was coming to visit. I remember driving it down the road to a scout camp site for a couple of days, hoping I wouldn’t be spotted – in spite of the caved in front, roof and lack of windscreen the car was still driveable. After that the strip went ahead and I was able to sell many of the major parts – engine, gearbox, rear hatch, windscreen. I then had to pay a scrap merchant to come and collect the shell.

The RS needed a lot of welding – new sills, some floopan repairs and repairing the front crossmember. I borrowed Dougie’s gas welding kit, taught myself to weld and got on with it – usually working after work in the cold and dark. The interior had been stripped out but I managed to just about make the carpets from the 3.0S fit. I was welding short runs to join sections of metal and decided to go over the repair with fibreglass and underseal to protect it. However, this backfired as, when I took the car for an MOT, the inspector said the repair was sub-standard because it looked like I had just fibreglassed some of the repairs and then undersealed over the area as a cover up. So I had to take it home and then burn the extra layers off with the gas torch to expose the bare metal and my welds in all their glory. The other item the car failed on was the front suspension which was so stiff that the inspector thought it was seized. The makeshift solution to this was to change the oil in the suspension struts to a lighter grade – the springs were still stiff but at least the dampers now allowed some movement.

So now I had a running cheap car, but it was pretty crap – noisy, very harsh, very little grip (on the narrow tyres fitted), but at least it was worth more than I paid for it. Rather than persevere with trying to develop the skills to control the car properly I decided the car was at fault and didn’t want to repeat the mistake I had made with my first Capri – so I decided to sell it and look for something with more grip…

The year is 1982 and I have just graduated from Durham University and ridden back home to the folks in Preston on my Honda CBX. The bike story so far is covered here : Bikes – The Early Years. I am due to start work at Ricardo Consulting Engineers at Shoreham-By-Sea in Sussex in mid-August and need some transport to get me there. I need to sell the bike and buy a car…
I also need a driving license…
Fortunately, I had managed to sort that one out earlier in my final year. I applied for the test, scraped together as much spare cash as I could find and went to the driving school in Durham. The test date was two weeks away and I only had enough funds for 5 lessons. Of course I had a lot of experience on bikes but had never driven a car before – amazingly I passed !

My experience of cars was somewhat limited… My brother Tim had owned a Mini and now had a Triumph 1500. I think my Dad was driving a Renault 16. The lads at Durham had a Mini and Escort Vans, although Steve did upgrade to a VW Scirocco in his final year. The other guys I knew from my time working at Leyland Vehicles (who sponsored me through University) tended to favour British Leyland – MG Midget, Austin Allegro, Austin Maxi. The most exotic cars around were a tuned Mini and a Ford Escort RS2000.

So it was against this background that I had to decide what car to look for – no Google to help with research in those days. The sensible option would have been to look for something small, economical, reliable and cheap to insure and run. But if you’ve read any of my bike history you’ll know that I seem to be drawn to the fastest thing I can get my hands on. Probably not a good idea for someone with only a few hours of driving experience…

So I sold the bike and bought the fastest car I could find – a Ford Capri 3.0 S. This was a 1977 Mk2 model and cost me £1500 cash, which in today’s money is around £5.5k – a lot of money for a 22 year old to be spending on anything…

The Ford Capri was first introduced in 1968 and promoted by Ford as “The car you always promised yourself”. It was based on the mechanicals of the Ford Cortina and you’d have to be even older than me to remember them. CAR magazine unkindly called the Capri a “Cortina in Drag”. They had lots of engine options (all petrol) and even had a 1.3l which must have been a real dog. Having said that it weighed less then 1000kg – todays base model Fiesta weighs 1150 kg. It is now a modern classic – even Jamie Oliver has one..

Insurance ? Didn’t seem to be as much of a problem in those days, although I did only insure it TPF&T – quite a risk to take with an expensive car…

The picture shown is not the actual car as I can’t seem to find one, but it was white. I can’t remember if it had the vinyl roof and mine had steel wheels instead of the alloys shown – otherwise it looked pretty much the same. My mate Paul Robinson who lived opposite the old folks had a Mk1 3.0 Capri – so maybe there was some influence from him ?

I think Tim gave me a lift to Manchester to collect the car and I remember the drive back – on the Motorway for the first time and in “control” of a powerful car without really knowing what I was doing. And the bonnet on the Capri was so long you had no idea where the front of the car ended. Although I did find that out the first time I parked the car in my Dad’s garage and put a dent in it by running into the workbench at the end.

I’d like to add more about the car and the driving experience and my impressions but :
a. I had nothing to compare it to – apart from motorbikes
and
b. I can’t remember anyway
I seem to remember liking the instant response and good mid range torque of the V6 engine and also that it wasn’t great at going round corners which I had a habit of tackling as if I was still on a bike. Definitely some tyre squealing involved.

Before long it was time to load up the car with all my worldly possesions – one suitcase, a rucksack and a tool box – and head South to start my new job…

I was “in digs” with a guy called Derek in Shoreham – just a short walk across the footbridge to work – and this is where I met my mate Dougie who was also lodging there. I was a long way from home and even further from Durham so didn’t really know anyone – but there was a guy called Tim who lived near Brighton who I shared accommodation with in Durham – at the Shafto Arms. One evening I drove over to see him, taking the back roads to make the drive more interesting, very interesting as it turned out…

I was on a country road and ahead was an open right hand bend, it had been raining so the road was damp but not soaking. Not sure how fast I was going (officer), but I wasn’t pushing hard, just enjoying the drive. At the apex of the bend the rear lost grip and started to slide… As a novice driver my reactions were slow but I did start to apply some opposite lock – too slow as the car started to cross the white line and by the time it was coming back into line I was in the middle of the road. If the road had been clear all would probably have been OK…. But it wasn’t ! There was a car coming the other way and there was nowhere for him to go as the road sloped down into a ditch on the inside.

We hit each other head on… My car then bounced off to the left ran up a slope on that side of the road, rolled over completely and ended up facing the way I had just come. The other car was stopped on the road. The door wouldn’t open so I climbed out through the space where the windscreen had been. I seemed to be all in one piece so walked back down the road to see if the others were OK. The other driver extracted himself and walked towards me. I said “Sorry about that” and we shook hands. No-one was hurt but both cars were write-offs.

Dougie very kindly towed the car back to Derek’s where it sat forlornly on his drive (much to his disgust). I went back to look at the corner where I lost it and discovered that the road had recently been resurfaced – I had been driving on a resurfaced section but the resurfacing came to an end – just at the apex of the corner. The damp, worn tarmac was very slippery compared to the newly surfaced section.

I’d only had the car a few weeks, it had cost me all the money I had and was now a write off with only Third Party insurance. I hadn’t even had my first paycheck… And I needed some transport as I didn’t want to lodge with Derek and had the opportunity to rent a farm cottage with a couple of other guys, but it was 8 miles away…

I needed to find another car, soon and cheap…

Most of this has been covered already on this blog so I apologise in advance for repeating myself, and I will add links to the other detailed articles with videos within this post for anybody who’s really bored.

Why Off-Road ?

I am very fortunate to live in an area that is criss-crossed with trails that start right outside my house and which you are allowed to use on a motorbike – not the case in much of the UK. I had walked and been running along many of these trails and even done a bit of mountain biking – but I had never ventured off-road on a motorbike (apart from a brief excursion on the massive DR BIG).

If you have followed my bike history so far you will have seen a recurring theme of searching for fun and excitement. In the early days this desire had led me to buy ever faster and powerful bikes but I often ended up disappointed at the opportunities to use the performance (and my ability to manage it!). The previous post ended with the KTM Duke, a bike which I owned longer than any other and was probably best matched to my pursuit of fun in a manageable package. Until May 2018 that is…

It was in early 2018 that my mate Doug announced that he was coming over to France with a van full of bikes (and his mate Mark) to take part in an Austin VINCE motorcycle event in the Pyrenees. I invited him to call in for a couple of days on the way down and he suggested we could explore some of my local trails. I readily agreed but immediately realised I had never ridden off road before… There followed a quick search for a suitable machine to buy to get in some practice before they arrived, so as not to appear a complete idiot and slow them down…

Based on my previous motorcycle purchase record (now with the advantage of the Internet) I should have gone out looking for the biggest and fastest bike I could find. But for some reason I didn’t – instead I searched for one of the slowest bikes that you can buy in order to learn some new skills with low risk. Although as Doug likes to point out he has broken a wrist and a leg in two separate accidents and both at 0 mph !

Scorpa SY 250

I chose to buy a trials bike to learn some low speed balance and machine control that I would be able to use for practise around the garden. The Scorpa is relatively cheap and uses a Yamaha water cooled 2 stroke engine with a good reputation for reliability. Original blog post : Scorpa Trials Bike

Unlike some of my other bike buying decisions, this turned out to be a wise choice as I had no idea what I was doing and had a lot to learn. I started by doing very large and wobbly figure of 8s in the garden, turning on gentle slopes and even jumping over some very small obstacles. I still managed to fall off a few times – even capturing some of the mishaps on video.

Looking back it’s interesting to compare the protective equipment I was using – back in 1978 I was doing laps of Longridge race circuit on my RD250 wearing jeans, denim jacket and trainers. Now I’m doing very slow speed manouvers in my back garden on a trials bike wearing padded enduro trousers with knee protectors, full body armour and hefty motocross boots !

By the time Doug and Mark came to visit I had at least covered the basics and we were able to ride a few local trails – initially on the Scorpa, but then I borrowed one of Doug’s full size bikes which were a lot better suited to going at any speed off road.

This visit marked a significant turning point for me as despite the fact that I live in a place surrounded by wonderful trails (which the other guys were very envious of), I had never done any off road motorbike riding. Although I have had many motorbikes over the years, including some pretty interesting ones, they have all been road bikes. My road bike at the time was a KTM Duke 2 – a 640cc single supermoto. This was my dream bike and I had wanted one for years, but in fact I hardly used it. The problem was that the bike was so capable that I found myself riding fast (too fast) in order to get to a level that I found interesting. This is clearly a dangerous practice on the road and as a result I tended to do very few rides. Trying the off road experience was a revelation because the same level of excitement and feeling close to the limit of what the bike and you are capable of happens at very low speed. I was sold, and so was the KTM shortly after Dougie’s visit. Off roading here we come !
Original blog post : KTM Duke Farewell

The next event that the guys were planning to participate in was a 3 day navigation Enduro in Normandie in November run by a guy called Chris EVANS. I decided to join in even though I didn’t yet have sufficient skill or a suitable bike… I chatted with the organiser and explored the possibility of doing it on the Scorpa – I had acquired a long range tank/seat unit for it – but the limited fuel range and cramped riding position were not really suited to full days of riding. I asked about hiring a bike which was a possibility but would be expensive and then Chris suggested just buying a suitable bike, use it for the event and sell it again afterwards – which sounded like a good plan..

Scorpa T-ride 250F

I searched around for some time and actually went to try out a couple of bikes – a Sherco 250 Enduro (which just felt too big compared to the trials) and a Beta X-Trainer which felt slightly smaller but was reletively new and therefore rather expensive. And then a Scorpa T-Ride came up locally and it felt easy to ride so I bought it. This is a French made bike but again using a Yamaha engine – in this case a detuned 250 four stroke 5 valve enduro engine. Scorpa are better known for their Trials machines and the T-ride is meant to be a cross-over bike in that it is bigger and heavier than a trials while maintaining some of the geometry, but not as large and unwieldy as a full size enduro machine.

Once I started to check the bike over I came across quite a few things that needed sorting out. The steering head bearings couldn’t be adjusted correctly and when I stripped them apart one of the bearings was rusty. There were various electrical issues – a previous owner had done some wiring mods that were hard to fathom out and the bike still had the wiring for the indicators although none were fitted. The bike came with the original trials tyres which were old and some dubious brand so I replaced them with Michelin competition trials tyres – exactly the same as on the Scorpa Trials. I also fitted the Tubliss system to allow me to run low pressures.

I think the T-ride is a great concept and the idea has now been taken up by others – in particular KTM with the Freeride model – in being a slightly smaller, easier to ride and generally more manageable bike compared to a full size enduro. However, the T-ride was only in production for a few years and didn’t have a long development so there were some niggling issues – particularly the wiring. Mind you the same sort of teething problems were also common with the first years of Freeride production.

In all my years of road bike riding I had never had any training – it is a wonder how I survived this long. But for the off road stuff I was determined to learn to walk before attempting to run. And so it was that Doug and I signed up for a session at Tricks in the Sticks in Kent which was a days trials training and extremely beneficial. We also took the opportunity to do some trail riding in the same area with Doug on his BMW 450X and me on his 350 Freeride : Trail Riding in Kent.

I continued to ride both Scorpas over the summer, trying to get up to a reasonable standard ready for the Normandie event in November. I was very aware that we would be riding together as a team and that Doug and Mark were vastly more experienced than me. I did get better and more ambitious which, of course, resulted in the occasional off – one of which ended up with the bike part way down a slope from which I was unable to recover it. Fortunately a couple of walkers came along and were able to help me extract the bike. Short video on that mishap in this post : T-Ride Practise.

And so we get to the Normandie Sport Adventure trip – I thought this would be a a baptism by fire, but I was only half right – there was no fire involved, only mud and lots of it. The organiser Chris took one look at my trials tyres and said “I think you’re going to struggle with that front tyre” – and he was right ! But I didn’t have a spare so just set the pressures as low as I dared and set off. Well actually we didn’t set off because the T-ride wouldn’t start – it had developed a habit of flooding the carburettor and taking ages to clear so we were pushing it up and down the road in front of the hotel trying to get it going. It fired up eventually and generally behaved OK after that but it was a bit of an embarrasing start.

The front tyre was a problem – as soon as we encountered any sticky mud (which was most of the time) the tread would plug up with mud and just slide the front wheel. I had so many slides and close shaves that I gave up counting, but amazingly I didn’t fall off. Admittedly I was going slower than my team mates but they all managed to take a mud bath at one time or another. I like to think that my trials practise had helped my balance, but maybe I was just going slow and the easy handling of the T-ride won the day ? Original post : Sport Adventure Normandie.

At the end of the Normandie trip I really felt I had achieved something having only started riding off road 6 months earlier and had been able to hold my own with more experienced riders on better bikes – well maybe not hold my own, but at least keep them in sight ! To further my skills all I needed now was a better bike…
As mentioned above I had bought the Scorpas to learn on and felt I had served some sort of apprenticeship so it seemed like the right time to sell them and move on. So I spent some time researching the next bike… My idea was to get a newer enduro bike that would serve as a replacement for both Scorpas – which would be quite expensive so I would need to sell them both anyway.

There is a huge choice of enduro bikes on the market and I had a bit of time over the winter to narrow down the selection. And I had the experience of running the Scorpas to draw on. So my short list of characteristics was :

• Mainstream manufacturer – easy parts availability
• Model in production for some time – niggling problems should be ironed out
• No heavier than the T-ride < 105 kg
• As simple as possible – two stroke, no linkage suspension
• Available locally and within budget !
  

KTM 250 EXC

This was just about the only bike that met the specification I had come up with. It was then just a question of finding one… The Bon Coin is a great source for bikes but France is a big country and they can be some distance away – this one came from an hour and a half away in the Dordogne – a 2016 250 EXC.

Compared to the T-ride the KTM is a full size enduro and as KTM like to tell you it’s “Ready to Race”. So as received it was a bit too much for me to handle and it wasn’t long before I was attempting a hill climb and let the engine hit the powerband and it looped the bike. Following this incident I then detuned the bike as far as possible by switching to the soft ignition map, changing the powervalve spring and winding in the pwervalve adjuster. Even in this state it was still very fast, but slightly more manageable for a novice. Over the last year of riding the bike I have gradually undone these mods to get the bike back to full power mode as I have become more used to it.

I was and still am impressed with this bike – it is a proper enduro race bike that has been developed and refined over the years and has none of the niggling issues the annoyed me about the T-ride. The biggest single issue I have had with it has been the carburettor jetting. It seems that the bikes are set up rich from the factory, which is a safe option and KTM probably know that real racers will be tweaking the carbs anyway. When running wide open there were no issues at all and starting was never a problem. The problem for me was a just off idle, light throttle richness that made the bike “blubber” (for want of a better word) – a bit more throttle or a few more revs and it would clear and start to sing but just in that transition it was terrible. Unfortunately that sememed to be the region where I was wanting the bike to operate while picking my way along trails or practising low speed manoevering. Having tried every jetting option in the book (and some that weren’t) I concluded that the throttle slide cutaway was the only thing left that could fix it. Chatting to my mate Doug and he had been through similar issues with the Freeride 250 2 stroke he used to have – he had tried everything (except the throttle slide) and eventually gave up and sold the bike. Predictably the slides are quite expensive so you can’t afford to have a selection – I just bought one (the next grade up) and decided if that didn’t work I would modify it by hand… Which I did, and after lots of trial and error the bike is now running much better.
Other mods to the bike – modified the radiator guard to get better steering lock, fiitted the Tubliss system and balanced the wheels and that’s about it !

Here are a few posts on riding the KTM :
KTM 250 EXC
Sunday Trail Ride
Sport Adventure Dordogne
Keeping Up With The Boys
Golden Gnome Treasure Hunt
Rando Courbiac
The VINCE
Golden Gnome Challenge
Massif de Morvan

When I bought the KTM I had hoped it would be a “do it all” bike – I sold my two Scorpas in order to buy it in the first place. As I have ridden it more and improved my (limited) skills I have come to realise that the low speed control of the bike is one of the hardest and most important things to master. I have fallen off the KTM several times but almost always at low speed. Once the speed picks up the bike becomes more stable and the amazing suspension does a fantastic job of keeping everything under control. But at very low speed it feels tall, heavy and a bit cumbersome – very glad I went for just about the lightest enduro bike around. To try to improve my low speed skills I have been doing more practice around the garden – and fell off several times in the process. This made me realise that to make more progress I needed another trials bike…

Montesa Cota 4RT

In the search for a new trials bike I wasn’t searching for a specific model, just looking for something local and within budget. I went to look at a few bikes (Gas Gas, Sherco) but they seemed quite low quality – even compared to the Scorpa I used to have. Then I went to look at the Montesa and was amazed at the quality – it’s not a bike that is favoured by the experts as it is a bit heavier (being a four stroke), but for me it was ideal. Unfortunately it was a non-runner…
Original post : Montesa Cota 4RT

As the bike wouldn’t start I managed to do a bit of a deal on the assumption that I would be able to sort it out…
It turned out to be a failed fuel pump (the Montesa is fuel injected). Genuine replacements are outrageously expensive but I managed to source an equivalent specification pump which did the trick. The other significant issue was the clutch plates sticking which seems to be a common problem and makes finding neutral impossible. A new set of plates sorted that one out. My low speed bike control is coming along and I can even practise (carefully) in the garden during our COVID-19 confinement – just need to transfer these skills to the KTM !

That’s All Folks !

Well congratulations if you got this far through my bike history… Thank you for reading.

I currently have the KTM and Montesa and no plans to change them any time soon…. But you never know..

I’ll just finish with this short video which shows why it’s important to always wear the right protective gear – and cover the clutch…