Sabtu, 24 Agustus 2013

Almost Bling

Pipe guard
I had Pirie guards on my Husky and loved them. But I wasn't willing to wait for them again. KTM had this one and it seems to be fine. Actually, the hardware seemed the same as my old pirie. The big difference is that this one doesn't have an aluminized reflective back coating. So far it hasn't melted. ;-)

Bling

I don't really believe in bling... but! I saw this cool oil cap on eBay. On my old bikes I found the oil cap often seemed to be hard to remove. This one has a 6mm hex socket built in, so removal should be easy with the standard KTM wrench. Also has holes for safety wire should I want to do that.

Skid Plate Fix

The EXC-F doesn't come with a skid plate, so I ordered the KTM one. I noticed this is fastened with only a single zsus fastener. My dealer recommended I drill another hole in in and to use a zip tie to be sure it doesn't fall off.
Hmm... it was easy enough to order a 6mm U nut fairing clip (extruded U nut fastener). Here is a pic of the original zsus and the new u nut:

Here it is installed... slides right on:

And finished with a handy panel bolt. I added a captive washer to the back of this bolt so it stays on the skid plate even when it is removed from the bike:

Jumat, 23 Agustus 2013

Big KTM Tank

One of the main reasons I went from Husky to KTM was the great availability of aftermarket parts. Most critically, I wanted a big tank. My old Husky had a total range of only about 50 miles... that just wasn't working for exploring. So the same day I bought the KTM I also ordered a big tank. I actually negotiated it as part of the purchase deal.
I bought the Orange 13L (3.4g) KTM tank, as it was bigger, but not way bigger than I needed.
Here are a few pics:



Mounting it was pretty straightforward.  You do need to use new hardware on the tank as the fittings from the original tank won't fit. That hardware came with my tank. Also note the radiator mounting tabs are unused.
 This confused me for a moment as I thought those tabs might endanger the tank in a fall. But the hardware kit come with rubber bumpers to install in those tabs so all is good!

Also, on the first fill I carefully marked the gallons on both sides of the tank.  That often helps to let you know if you can make it to the next gas stop!

Desmog

This is the infamous smog canister:



E-Ticket’s description of this process is great. You can find it here:
http://ktmtalk.com/index.php?showtopic=440785&st=208

Why desmog? The can is known to fill with fuel if your tank is filled all the way and it can make starting hard. Magazines noted this in their reviews. What do you need to do if the canister  fills with gas and causes problems? You have to take the canister off and empty the gas in it... and you shouldn’t pour this dirty gas back in your bike... so if you are wilderness somewhere what are you going to do? No, no that doesn’t sound very good!
The smog stuff also gets in the way of servicing the bike. Many of the larger fuel tanks won’t fit on the bike with this cannister in the way. It’s heavy. And... well thats enough for me.
A couple other points on desmogging:
There is a vent on the cam cover that goes to the airbox. Some people remove that stuff as they don’t want any oil from the airbox getting into the intake of the engine. Personally, I note the XCF-W also has this same venting arrangement to the intake, so I kept it that way. Other people choose to vent the cam cover to the atmosphere, but I personally see no big advantage there.
Also, you need a bolt to plug the hole where the SAS mounting spigot. I don’t see this in the XCF-W parts book and my bike didn’t come with one. I've since heard in might be in the 500s parts book? You can find bolts that fit (like some oil drain plugs might be the right size). There are vendors who sell a desmog kit with a nice aluminum bolt, but they are expensive. I ended up going that route, but I was unhappy with the kit and thus won’t mention it here.

Fork Bleeders

Then what? Well I started easy. I wanted some fork bleeders. I truck the bike to the trails and I like letting the pressure out of the forks while the bike is tied down. And of course zeroing the pressure after unloading and before riding is important.
I wanted some low profile bleeders, as some that I’ve seen stick up pretty high. Surfing a bit I found these by System Tech Racing, STR.
http://www.systemtechracing.com/Articles.asp?ID=143
Installation is simple, and here they are on my bike. You can see the bleeder is nice and low. And they come with a sweet orange top.


KTM 350 EXC-F

I bought a 2013 KTM 350 EXC-F about 3 months ago, after selling my 2010 Husqvarna TE 250. I had the Husky set up just as I wanted and I knew that I would do most of the same mods to my new KTM right away.
Fortunately, E-Ticket has written a GREAT guide on ktmtalk.com for most of the great mods for the 350. He deserves most of the credit as much of what I ended up wanting to do had been done by him first and it made it easy to read his directions. Thank you E-Ticket!
That said, sometimes I have my own take I things and I’ll show them here. For instance, I’m short and light, so some of the mods are focused on helping me reach the ground. And I’ve very careful to try and keep things as light as possible.
Here is the bike when I started: