Picked up my new Adventure, dropped my new Adventure

So I picked up on Friday my used (new to me) KTM 990 Adventure. Didn't get home until late so I left her on the back of truck until the next morning. I felt like a little kid on XMAS day waiting for sun to come up so I can get the bike down off the truck and do some work on it.

I finally gets light out and I happly get her off the truck. I then replaced the rear tire, install hard bags, install G2 throttle tamer and then decide to go on a quick ride before it got too late.

There's this new road there building over by me, so there lots of dirt ahhhh I mean mud (we had lots of rain), so I decided I was going go riding on it. :blink: It's a dual sport and I should be able to ride through anything right!!! Of course for you experience dirt riders, I'm new to this whole off road riding thing..... Well I'm riding on this mud road which is about 3 inches deep, and it's like riding on ice. I do manage to get about a 1/2 mile down this mess of a road before the front end finally washes out on me and down I go for the first dump. The left hard bag goes flying off, so she is flat on her side. :dribble: Now I'm having a heck of time picking her up because there's so much mud that the rear tire just slides as I try to tip her on her side.. :glare: There's no one around for miles and after many attemps, a lot of cursing I finally get her picked up. :clapping:

Now all I'm thinking is how the hell am I going to get out of here without dropping it again. I head back the way I came and the bike is just slip sliding away (isn't that a song)... And sure enough the front end washes out once again and down I go. This time it fell over on the bag so it was easy to pick it up. So I mount up once again with about 400 yards to go to my beloved pavement. I start to ride with my head and eyes up looking well ahead, however against my better judgement (I seen in some video) I decided this time to keep my feet down walking with the bike to help keep the bike up if it slips. Sure enough the front end washes out AGAIN and down I go AGAIN.... Well this time my left foot went under the rear bag and twisted. :angry: . It hurts like hell but I was able lift bike up again and get the hell out of that mess. I was never so happy to be on the wonderful pavement.

I finally get the hell out of there and back to my house. And today I will be going to emergency room to have my foot and knee look at because it really hurts and I cant' put weight on left leg!!! :blink: There was no damage to the bike.

I learned a valuable lesson... Don't ever ride on a road that is all mud with no hard areas to escape too. However I'm looking forward to riding over there again when it drys up around here!!

CHRIS_D said:

... I decided this time to keep my feet down walking with the bike to help keep the bike up if it slips.

Click to expand...

I cringed as soon as I read that line. I knew what was coming next.

I hope you heal soon.

CHRIS_D said:

I learned a valuable lesson...

Click to expand...

Yes, you learned a lesson. But it wasn't the one you were supposed to learn. Prepare for more downs until you learn it.

Your story saddens me. I went over to the Santa thread to see if you were the one who posted pictures of a KTM 990 Adventure there, and you were. I took a quick look at the tires in the pictures, and it was pretty obvious that you were going down if you headed into mud with no experience.

Here are a couple of thoughts to share.

1. Dual purpose or not, tires that work well on pavement do not work well off road. Period. Mud just makes this even more true. You can compromise and have either really crummy road performance (by using knobbies), really crummy off road performance (using street tires), or just crummy off road performance and mediocre road performance by using dual purpose tires. It goes without saying to stay away from the front brake.

2. A 990cc bike, no matter who makes it and no matter how much weight they've been able to shave off, is too heavy to take into mud or loose gravel. Just take a look at Ewan MacGregor and Charlie Boorman. MacGregor can't keep the bike up even though he is a relatively atheletic person. The reason is the weight of his bike, exacerbated by all the junk he carries on it when there are chase vehicles that could do this work for him (wouldn't make for as interesting TV I guess). Boorman does better, but he has a lot of experience riding lighter bikes off road. MacGregor appears to be still learning.

3. If you want to get off road, start on a dry packed trail, and start with a lighter bike. A true dirt bike will weigh less than 300 pounds. A compromise dirt bike/ dual purpose bike, like the Honda XR650L, with weigh about 350 pounds. A liter bike outfit for adventure will handle logging roads and packed gravel, but in my experience such surfaces will give you a workout, and the heavier the bike, the greater the workout.

That's quite a lot of bike to begin experimenting with dirt. I got a KLX-300 and it's convinced me that I don't want anything bigger to have to pick up. It's not much for touring though.

CHRIS_D said:

So I picked up on Friday my used (new to me) KTM 990 Adventure. Didn't get home until late so I left her on the back of truck until the next morning. I felt like a little kid on XMAS day waiting for sun to come up so I can get the bike down off the truck and do some work on it.
I finally gets light out and I happly get her off the truck. I then replaced the rear tire, install hard bags, install G2 throttle tamer and then decide to go on a quick ride before it got too late.

There's this new road there building over by me, so there lots of dirt ahhhh I mean mud (we had lots of rain), so I decided I was going go riding on it. :blink: It's a dual sport and I should be able to ride through anything right!!! Of course for you experience dirt riders, I'm new to this whole off road riding thing..... Well I'm riding on this mud road which is about 3 inches deep, and it's like riding on ice. I do manage to get about a 1/2 mile down this mess of a road before the front end finally washes out on me and down I go for the first dump. The left hard bag goes flying off, so she is flat on her side. :dribble: Now I'm having a heck of time picking her up because there's so much mud that the rear tire just slides as I try to tip her on her side.. :glare: There's no one around for miles and after many attemps, a lot of cursing I finally get her picked up. :clapping:

Now all I'm thinking is how the hell am I going to get out of here without dropping it again. I head back the way I came and the bike is just slip sliding away (isn't that a song)... And sure enough the front end washes out once again and down I go. This time it fell over on the bag so it was easy to pick it up. So I mount up once again with about 400 yards to go to my beloved pavement. I start to ride with my head and eyes up looking well ahead, however against my better judgement (I seen in some video) I decided this time to keep my feet down walking with the bike to help keep the bike up if it slips. Sure enough the front end washes out AGAIN and down I go AGAIN.... Well this time my left foot went under the rear bag and twisted. :angry: . It hurts like hell but I was able lift bike up again and get the hell out of that mess. I was never so happy to be on the wonderful pavement.

I finally get the hell out of there and back to my house. And today I will be going to emergency room to have my foot and knee look at because it really hurts and I cant' put weight on left leg!!! :blink: There was no damage to the bike.

I learned a valuable lesson... Don't ever ride on a road that is all mud with no hard areas to escape too. However I'm looking forward to riding over there again when it drys up around here!!

Click to expand...

wow, I feel your pain. Loved those pics of the bike.

yep, I raced Enduros for many years with a Suzy RM125 and 2 Suzy PE175 wearing out all three bikes eventually. Enduro is riding through the woods averaging a certain speed for each marked section like a car rally event winning by scoring the least number of points by entering a checkpoint either too early or too late.

Had a blast and would like a KLR something some day.

Let's ride safe and be careful out there,

Mike in Nawlins'

> Yes, you learned a lesson. But it wasn't the one you were supposed to learn. Prepare for more downs until you learn it.

El Toro said:

1. Dual purpose or not, tires that work well on pavement do not work well off road. Period. Mud just makes this even more true.
2. A 990cc bike, no matter who makes it and no matter how much weight they've been able to shave off, is too heavy to take into mud or loose gravel.

Click to expand...

And there it is.

Nicely put El Toro. You've obviously got the experience to back up your opinions. I've spent the better part of my life riding dirt/gravel/mud/snow and yes, even ice. I've been off the dirt bikes now for about 10 years, and I've been toying with getting into it again - hey, theirs just to many great gravel/dirt roads around here not to! But that being said, I cringe every time I see story's like Chris's.

I'm still looking at my buddies WR250R.. even at that, it'll just be used as a trail bike, not a _dirt bike_.

El Toro said:

Your story saddens me. I went over to the Santa thread to see if you were the one who posted pictures of a KTM 990 Adventure there, and you were. I took a quick look at the tires in the pictures, and it was pretty obvious that you were going down if you headed into mud with no experience.
Here are a couple of thoughts to share.

1. Dual purpose or not, tires that work well on pavement do not work well off road. Period. Mud just makes this even more true. You can compromise and have either really crummy road performance (by using knobbies), really crummy off road performance (using street tires), or just crummy off road performance and mediocre road performance by using dual purpose tires. It goes without saying to stay away from the front brake.

2. A 990cc bike, no matter who makes it and no matter how much weight they've been able to shave off, is too heavy to take into mud or loose gravel. Just take a look at Ewan MacGregor and Charlie Boorman. MacGregor can't keep the bike up even though he is a relatively atheletic person. The reason is the weight of his bike, exacerbated by all the junk he carries on it when there are chase vehicles that could do this work for him (wouldn't make for as interesting TV I guess). Boorman does better, but he has a lot of experience riding lighter bikes off road. MacGregor appears to be still learning.

3. If you want to get off road, start on a dry packed trail, and start with a lighter bike. A true dirt bike will weigh less than 300 pounds. A compromise dirt bike/ dual purpose bike, like the Honda XR650L, with weigh about 350 pounds. A liter bike outfit for adventure will handle logging roads and packed gravel, but in my experience such surfaces will give you a workout, and the heavier the bike, the greater the workout.

Click to expand...

+1 on everything El-toro said

My only thought should you delve into the mud again is STAY ON THE THROTTLE and keep your weight to the back of the bike. I also learned this the hard way. Riding street and offroad are very differant. Tires make the difference in a big way. You will have to decide what your preferance of riding would most likely be. I have run both ends of the spectrum and knobbies are much better for dirt but you sacrifice on the street. I have also run an 80/20 street tire on the XR and it was pretty useless in dirt once 1/2 worn and forget it all together in fine sand.

Since you still have the feejr i would replace them with some 20/80 knobbie tires. JMO

I'm sorry, I was chuckling when I read your post, perhaps even guffawing.

Why? Cause I've been there, done that, and, like you, will end up doing it again.

Sometimes we never learn.. :blink:

I just decided to run some Conti TKC's on Wabs..



instead of the more dirt-aggressive Metzler Karoo's.



Supposedly the TKC's actually handle the street pretty good and do pretty good in the dirt too.

Full thread here.

Haha...Chris, don't stress too much. That's EXACTLY the same kind of shit I woulda done. All excited to try out the bike, not really thinking things through, and ending up ass-deep and M-A-D. Glad the bike pulled out of it with no scars, and hope all you did was twist your ankle. Now, listen to all the good advice already posted here and try to keep from doing it again. AND if you decide you don't want that thing, lemme know...I'll abuse it for you. :huh: :lol:

Thanks folk for all the great advice. It's true I was all excited just like a kid and knew once I was rolling through all this mud that I was going to end up on my ass. I was really surprise I got as far as I did before dumping it. However, It was a sinking feeling knowing I had to go back that 1/2 mile to get out of there. I kept saying to myself how stupid am I by getting myself into this situation :fool: All I can say is boy I am glad there wasn't any video cameras out there!!!! :blushing: :blush2:

I like the advice of staying on the back of bike when doing this, I wouldn't even of thought of that. I guess I better start buying some books and reading!!!

I knew buying this bike that I was going to end up dropping it a few times.......Okay maybe more than a few times!!! In fact you just can't buy a bike like this with the mind set that you aren't going to drop it. I do however plan to buy all the guards that I can possibly put on it.

One thing I do know for sure is that I will stay out of deep mud for a while

dcarver said:

I'm sorry, I was chuckling when I read your post, perhaps even guffawing.Why? Cause I've been there, done that, and, like you, will end up doing it again.

Sometimes we never learn.. :blink:

I just decided to run some Conti TKC's on Wabs..

instead of the more dirt-aggressive Metzler Karoo's.

Supposedly the TKC's actually handle the street pretty good and do pretty good in the dirt too.

Full thread here.

Click to expand...

I don't blame you for chuckling!!

Let me know how those TKC work out for you. I been eyeing those myself.

Follow up question - is the side bag ok, not damaged?

Wabs is running plastic bags.. and I notice that most ADV guyz are running alum or steel bags..

Chris - Lots of lessons for you to learn in the dirt. Get used to it. It would have saved some expensive plastic, bags, etc if you had a dirt bike and crashed it a bunch first. Oh well.

Glad you're not too banged up, the bike now has character. That Katoom has some power to it too, be carful out there, but mainly, HAVE FUN!

Look forward to posts with pix of your off road adventures.

Sorry, but that was pretty funny though.

dcarver said:

Follow up question - is the side bag ok, not damaged? Wabs is running plastic bags.. and I notice that most ADV guyz are running alum or steel bags..

Click to expand...

Here's some pics of the "big ass bags" that are on the KTM. As you can tell they're heavy duty plastic which is nice because it's not as noticable if you get a scratch on the side. I was eyeing the black Jesse bags but Iwouldn't be able to install the Aux tank that I want plus I didn't want to see all those scratches that I may place on the bags. :blink: As you can see she is pretty clean now after my dirt fiasco!!! Howver, this was after spending an hour + spraying her down with Simple Green and water.





Did you notice my poor FJR hiding back there? As you can tell she's a little jealous right now!! :huh: :dribble:

FJRBluesman said:

It would have saved some expensive plastic, bags, etc if you had a dirt bike and crashed it a bunch first. Oh well.

Click to expand...

Hey 'FJRBluesman,

Actually no damage to bike at all, not even a scratch. Believe me this is how much mud was out there. It was a slow soft landing each time.

BAGS! That's ballast! Holy smokes, do those bags have their own zip code?????

Bike still looks nice. RIDE ON!

FJRBluesman said:

BAGS! That's ballast! Holy smokes, do those bags have their own zip code?????
Bike still looks nice. RIDE ON!

Click to expand...

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Great thread, I'm really enjoying the 'Adventure'.

You said the bag came off in the crash.. no damage to the mounting points or supporting bracketry? (There's a new word)..

Last week, I was splitting lanes on Wabs and thinking, My Gawd, what a big ass I have (bag width)..

and I think you're, uhh, girth, maybe larger than mine..

How wide are you, bag to bag?

LOL, that should get Odot/Bustanut going..