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Well, I picked up another bike over the weekend. I got off of work about 6pm on Friday, dropped off my bike, grabbed my van, then drove 11 hours straight to Davidson, NC to buy this!
An '04 KTM 950 Adventure S. Slept an hour and drove back. HOLY COW is it ORANGE!!! If I sit flat on the seat my feet miss the ground by about 4"-6". I'm not even close. I've never ridden a dirt bike that was this stable at 100 MPH though. Pretty cool first day. OK, here's where I'm going to post some of the issues I have with this KTM. Let me start off by saying I Love this bike. Now the rest! Here's an E-mail I sent out to the KTM 950 Yahoo Group on 6/21/06 A few weeks ago my '04 950 S started to over heat. 62 degrees (F) and raining and my bike was over heating! WTF! I had my friend (a Ford A mechanic and bike nut) check it out and his best guess testing it at my house (no holy s#!t tools and diagnostic equipment) is that I have a blown head gasket. We removed the radiator
cap and got the bike up to temp. As we rolled on the throttle instead of the
coolant going down as it got sucked through the motor, it rose and over flowed
out of the radiator. He said that the combustion gasses were going from the
cylinder into the water jacket causing air to get into the system and water to
over flow out of the puke tank over flow line. Makes
sense to me. There's
a KTM shop about 15 miles from my house so I called them to see if there was a
recall notice. They told me that there was a service bulletin about losing
coolant but they don't have the 950's so I didn't want them to work on it. The
bulletin said check (in this order) hoses and clamps, radiator clamp, water
pump, then head gasket. I found a reputable shop about 50 miles from my house
that just started to carry the 950 line. I took it out there today and they are
going to look into it. They
told me they'd call me either way and let me know if it was covered by KTM.
Here's an E-mail from 7/20/06 OK so it's been a month since I dropped off my 950 at the dealer. I got a call today that there are about 10 recalls for my bike and they'll need it for another few weeks just to get all of the work done. I'm OK with that! KTM's picking up the tab and I have 14 or so other bikes to ride so I tell them to call me when it's done and I'll come get it. I had also told them to mount a set of tires and do an oil change while it's apart and I'll pay for that stuff while they have it. I figure it's the least I could do since they got all this stuff covered for me. GREAT NEWS!!! About 15 minutes later I got another call from the shop. They read me the details off of somebody else's chart. "MY" bike had about 10 service bulletins and 2 recalls. The radiator cap and the water pump shaft seal would be covered by KTM and that should fix my over heating. I told him that it wouldn't fix the over heating. Something was PUMPING air into the coolant system and neither the cap, or the water pump would cause that. He tells me "OK, we'll get the oil changed, those tires mounted, and you're due for a 7,500 mile service. Did you want us to do that too?" I said: "If KTM's not paying for it don't touch it." He seemed shocked that I didn't want to spring for a 7,500 mile service after they had my bike for a month and managed to get me $75 worth of KTM parts, and 1/2 hour labor covered under the recalls. Am I outta line
here? Here's my next E-mail from 7/20/06 after a lister pointed out there was not a 7,500 mile service but a 7,500 KILOMETER service! He said miles, I'm at work so I couldn't check on it. I told him to do the oil and the tires just to throw some $$$ his way for getting the head gasket covered. If he's not gonna get it covered, I'll buy the bigger feet for my Coats machine to handle the big wheels. I don't have the time but I'm not afraid to get dirty and I will be doing all the services myself. Thanks for the input. <Phone ringing> Hello, Uh, hold on a sec! It's my KTM dealer, I'll finish typing in a second. OK I'm back. My dealer called KTM back and now got them to cover the head gasket (s) (probably just one). He said he can't get to it until Sept. or Oct. I'm going there next week to pick it up. I'll decide then whether or not I'll just do it myself or bring it back to them.
I went and picked it up a few days after that phone call. Newest update on 8/8/06 I dropped it off today 80 miles from my house at Hanover Powersports in Whippany, NJ (http://www.ehhondayamaha.com/). These are the guy who gave me a test ride before I bought mine. KTM told me in a phone conversation that ALL of the service bulletins would be covered by them. We'll see what Hanover says to me. When I dropped the bike off I asked them if when they changed my oil they would install my Scotts Stainless Steel Oil Filter. They said “Sure, no problem.” And I signed the paperwork and was on my way. I'll keep the group posted if anybody cares. Maybe I'll just post it on my site on my 950 Adventure page. This page! Maybe I'll post it tomorrow. It's late here. G'night all. I was bored! Saturday September 2, 2006 So a week
(August 15th) after I brought my bike over to Hanover Powersports in
Whippany, NJ (http://www.ehhondayamaha.com/)
I called to see if there was any progress. They told me they were waiting on
parts so I let them be for 2 more weeks. After 3 weeks
in the shop (August 29th) I called to see how we were looking. Fred
in the service department said that the parts they were waiting on had come in
but they were waiting on some more. I thought “Oh great it’s gonna be
another 3 weeks.” I got a phone call the very next day (Wednesday August 30th)
telling me it was ready. I asked Fred what exactly was done since I was riding
it home I wanted to make sure I’d actually GET home. He told me “We did your
oil change, and your valve adjustment.” I think he heard my jaw hit the
receiver! I said, “That’s ALL you did?” He said, “Yeah, all the rest of
the stuff was KTM recalls.” So then he tells me that they did both head
gaskets, water pump shaft seals, and a few other things that I forgot already.
He assured me that the bike was FIXED and ready to ride.
After I get off the phone I start thinking that the oil change
shouldn’t be on my bill since KTM is paying for the head gaskets the oil
change should be included. You can’t replace the head gaskets without changing
the oil. I also start wondering how many testicles a valve adjustment’s gonna
cost me. I made some calls and decided that if they did the valve adjustment
since everything was apart anyway and charged me under $125 for it I wouldn’t
complain. I figured that if they called me and said “Since we have everything
apart we can adjust your valves for $125.” I would have told them to go ahead
and do it. If it was any more then that I was gonna fight it.
The only time I could get a ride there was Saturday September 2nd.
So my wife Jaime, son Diesel, and myself hopped in her Jeep and drove to Jersey.
The forecast called for heavy rains and leftover hurricane winds from Hurricane
Ernesto. I don’t mind riding in the rain, I really kinda like it, but the
winds were FRIGHTENING!!!
We left later then we wanted (about 9:30) and got there about 11 am. I
had my Gobi bags, KTM tank bag, mirrors, windshield, GPS, EZ Pass, and some of
the other crap I took off before I brought the bike in. I get in and ask Fred
what the deal was with the valve adjustment and oil change. He said, “You told
us you wanted us to change your oil so we did and since we had the bike apart we
adjusted the valves.” I said, “I didn’t ask you to “CHANGE” the oil I
asked you to use “MY” filter when you were changing my oil. And what’s the
deal with the valves? It’s like an hour labor since the bike was apart
right?” He said “No, it’s a five hour job.” I said “You charged me
FIVE hours labor for the valve adjustment I didn’t ask for?” He said “NO!
KTM was paying to have the bike taken apart so we did it while we were in there.
The whole bill with oil change and valve shims is $115.xx.” I said “Oh, OK,
cool. Where do I pay?” I grabbed my bill and ran to the cashier. It wasn’t a
heated exchange by any means just a little confusing.
I went and bought some windshield bolts (I thought they were back in the
windshield well nuts but they weren’t), put everything on, checked tire
pressures, put on my rain gear, and headed out.
Did I mention the WIND?!?!?! It was probably blowing about 25-35 MPH. It
wasn’t too bad on the roads but the George Washington and Throgs Neck bridges
were OUT OF CONTROL!!! I was riding with my feet out and when the wind blew me
over far enough for my feet to touch I pushed off the pavement and tried to
right myself.
I white knuckled it back to Long Island and rode it straight to work.
Never got over 4 bars just like it used to.
I am very happy with the service I got at Hanover. I’m also glad they
had the brains to inspect and adjust the valves while the bike was apart and
waiting for parts. Thanks guys.
Here are some pics of the 950 in LD rally trim complete with fuel cell.
OK, here's another chapter in my KTM Adventure story. In the '07 Rhody Rally (pics from above) the tranny started feeling notchy on the way back to Rhode Island from Maine. The bike made it back to Long Island and it put us at about 750 miles for the weekend. A new KTM shop called Island Motorcycle opened about a half hour from me and I've known the owner (Dave) and the head wrench (Joe) for about a decade or so so I took the 950 in there to see what they could do with the tranny. Joe rode it to see what I was talking about and agreed, "yep, there's something wrong with the tranny". He spoke to KTM who had asked him to do a few things which he did that ruled out the clutch and confirmed, "yep, there's something wrong with the tranny". I spoke to him over this weekend (January 12th and 13th 2008) to ask him while he had the clutch out (per KTM's request) if he could update the clutch rod as per ADV Rider Forum in this post. He said he already spoke to KTM and they told him NOT to put the old push rod back in it. Only the new, updated part was to be installed. That was pretty cool. That's where it stands now. More as it develops. OK I’m off to bed. G’night. Here are some pics taken off the web.
More to follow.
This page was last updated on: 01/14/2008 |
