Whoohoo! New Bike Day!

[Roadracer_Al]

I found an '08 KTM 690 Enduro on ADVrider in Arizona. Fate would have it that I had to work in Yuma last week, so I made arrangements to meet the owner. The deal went down smooth, and bought it at asking.

It's lightly farkled - aluminum skid plate, heavy duty billet brake lever (the cast levers are fragile), an Acerbis tank neck, and a KTM hard-bag luggage rack (but no bags).

The real WIN on the deal was the mileage -- only 243 miles and in immaculate condition. It had literally never been off road and looked showroom. The seller decided he wanted an SM, not an Enduro.

The thing is fuel-injected, and has 3 different maps, "noob" "normal" and "race". I haven' t even tried the race-mode yet, it's pretty wicked fast on the normal setting. The noob setting really softens the throttle response a lot, and limits the top end.

With the addition of hard luggage, I think my dual-sport fantasies are about fulfilled - it will cruise effortlessly at 80 and return 45 mpg.

[Bucho]

You are such a bastard!

[the dude himself]

You are such a bastard!

What he said. Some guys have all the luck.

[Rut Row]

He hasn't told the story yet - he broke his ankle - over to you AL!

[B DIRT]

[Roadracer_Al]

Great Kyler, thanks for outing me, DAMN it

And I was so enjoying the envy of others. You know Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s ... y_of_needs I think there should be one right below "respect of others" for "envy of others", it's so 21st century.

Here's the long version. I spotted the bike on ADVrider, and the seller lives in S.E. AZ. I knew I had an upcoming trip to AZ to teach Total Control Advanced Riding Clinic at the Yuma Marine Corps Air Station. I asked the seller if he'd meet me in Yuma, which we agreed to do. The bike was exactly as described, and I bought it Sunday PM. The dude was cool, we talked for probably an hour after completing the deal.

In the TCARC curriculum, instructors do "incorrect" and "correct" demos. I rode it in a few demos on Monday, and it was working great - good handling, fantastic power, the 80/20 dual-sport tires (I want to say Scorpions, but I'm not 100% sure on that) were sticking pretty well.

We were teaching the Level 1 and Level 2 classes back-to-back, and to two groups for a total of four days. On the last exercise of the second day, the "Decreasing Radius Turn" exercise, I was warming up for the "incorrect" demo in which I use a double-apex line through the turn, which involves adding lean angle while already leaned over, which of course is dangerous and sub-optimal. I was trail braking through the turn and probably had too much braking for the added lean of the second steering input. I definitely didn't run off the edges of the tires or run out of ground clearance, it was clearly operator error. The skid mark was really interesting, and I wish I had a picture of it - it started off very narrow, and increased in width as the tire slid more, and you could see diagonal stripes where each knob was sliding at about a 45* angle to the path of travel.

My foot got plucked off the peg, and twisted around toward the outside (there were scrape marks on the arch-side of my footwear -- Doc Martins, dumb, I know) and maybe under the luggage rack. The xray shows that I took a small hunk of bone off the end of the tibia, although my ortho at todays appointment suggested that the bone chunk is very rounded, suggesting an old, un-knit break, and that this may be merely a bad sprain.

They gave me a week's prescription for vicodin (IMHO, they ought to sell that shit in candy dispensers at the pharmacy), and I used it liberally to teach the other two days (from an office chair on the range, which was knicknamed "the mobile gimp unit") and to man-up for... wait for it... the 640 mile ride from Yuma to Oakland. I was OK on the bike, but getting on and off at gas stops was a beeeyatch. I didn't have any vicodin left when I got home.

[mdubya]

Wow. Nice get Al. I could put that thing to use over here.

Edit: ouch.

P.S. search your favorite online pharmacy for Ultram, aka Ultraman.

[badguy]

DAMN that sucks about the break/sprain. Glad you got a good deal on the bike though Hope you heal up quick.

[Roadracer_Al]

MDub, Bad, thanks for the well-wishes.

I wouldn't call the deal a "smokin hot" deal, but it was certainly a very reasonable deal.