South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

its done, its sold. my beloved katie the ktm was ridden away from my house at 8pm on the 7/7/10 and i almost shed a tear! i shall miss you!

it was ridden away exhaust rattling itself loose, gaskets hanging out all over the place,..etc..

**couggh sportsbike cough**

rear brake pedal falling off, rad panels making a break for freedom........ the list goes on

£600's worth of bluetack based DIY gasket dripping out

So whats the next bike you plan on owning for 4 weeks then?

fu*k the lot of you, she was in perfect nick for the sale! and gav, a bandit hopefully mate!

You're well rid of it, they are not really suitable bike for everyday usage. The lack of expansion tank amazes me, and the design of the top end lubrication is hopelessly inadequate, one small 7mm diameter hole to allow the rocker arm to be splash fed which is why the rocker arm seized on the shaft in the first place, needing to be spark eroded to get it out of a blind hole ( another bit of bad design, should have had a threaded hole on the outside end to enable a puller to be used). It's not all bad though, the design of the tappets is quite well done compared to Suzuki/Honda itemsTo be honest it would be fine as a sunny day toy for just blatting around town on but for any more serious use it just isn't upto the job. It's a shame though because to get the kind of output that they have acheived from the motor is very good, they should have put some more thought into the overall longevity and durability of the design, as with a lot of this type of motor the service intervals are ludicrously short, which doesn't make for long life on the road. If it's any consolation someone had been into the top end before you bought it, as there was evidence of 'orange hermatite' having been used to seal the flange faces of the cam cover/rocker box, which none of the factories use, they all have their own sealer like Kawabond or Suzukibond or the Yamaha 3bond that I prefer to use, although Wellseal is one of the best and oldest on the market, but not really of use when there is any chance of some warpage of one of the sealing surfaces.