As some you already know, your obedient scribe is planning a trip, what my wife and I refer to as ‘going walkabout’ after the australian tradition of ‘seeing what’s out there’. In this case, I’ll be using a KTM 950 adventure for transportation, and ‘out there’ is shaping up to meaning most states west of the Missouri river; current the roughly plotted course doesn’t include kansas, oklahoma, nevada, north dakota or montana.
Grand plan is a rough rectangle, with seattle, san diego, austin, and des moines forming the corners. I have friends and/or family in all those places. The only hard date in the 4 week adventure is that I and 3 buddies have tickets to the World Superbike races at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah on memorial day weekend.
So with this in mind, I sold my BMW F650 (a nice single, but crossing texas on a 650 single didn’t appeal) and acquired a low-mileage KTM 950 adventure and set about setting it up for travelling like I like. This meant replacing the bald back tire, changing the oil, adding controls for the heated grips (instead of the simple switch) and for controlling a heated jacket liner Warm-n-Safe makes these great controllers . It also includes a GPS mounted somewhere easy to reach and easy for 50-year-old eyes to read. Pics in the next installment.
All of this is powered from a dedicated, fused circuit that is run from the battery in the skid plate, up to the under-seat tray, and then distributed to the various accessories from there. also included is a relay to insure that I can’t walk away from the bike with the grips turned on.
The bike already had a lot of what I think I’ll need: factory panniers, tank bag, rear bag, hand protectors, crash bars, aftermarket seat from Renazco Racing, and the factory ‘touring windscreen’. What it didn’t have was decent lights. A little reading turned up the answer: the USA headlight is but a pale imitation of it’s european counterpart. Soon, a box arrived at the house with a euro headlight and switch, and an H7 low-beam HID conversion. Install happening soon. Read about it in the next installment of ‘preparing to go walkabout’.
Right now, I have to get ready for the April Fool’s Trial! see ya there!
blackdog