<center> # Motorbikes I've Owned & Used Originally published 2023-04-25 by Nick Sweeting on docs.sweeting.me/s/motorbikes. </center> --- [TOC] <br/> ## Motorbikes I've Owned ### ⭐️ 2023 KTM 500 EXC-F (USA) The best motorbike I've owned so far, bar none. It's wicked fast (~55hp), reliable (1,500mi oil intervals), and light enough (~250lb) to deadlift over waist-high logs. I'd been eyeing this bike for years before deciding to finally pull the trigger. After my terrible experience with the KTM 790 Adventure R, it took me a while to work up the courage to try KTM again. It's the only bike I've ever bought new, because I wanted to make sure I got the 5-year warranty this time around. I immediately put a 4.5gal tank on it to get 250mi+ of range, which made it the ultimate long-distance, lightweight, adventure+enduro bike. I've taken it to [Carnegie](https://goo.gl/maps/NzVurWfyZ1bbouhA6) every chance I got, jumped it over many dozens of logs in Mendocino, ridden it 400mi+ from SF to Burning Man, and plan to do many more adventures in the future. #### Mods - high oil capacity clutch cover - front headlight - windshield from tenere 700 - rear luggage rack - blue accent mods: bolts, chain guard, covers, etc. - and lots more... #### Photos  <br/> ### ⭐️ 2021 Yamaha Tenere 700 (Canada) Heavy but reliable, predictable, and powerful enough to get the job done.    Ever since 2020 I'd been eyeing the T7, but they were very difficult to come by and all the dealerships were perpetually sold out. In 2021 I spotted one late at night on Kijiji, in a city 1,000km+ away on the Gaspe peninsula. In the span of a few hours I messaged the seller to hold the bike for me, and managed to convince my partner to join me on a short-notice ride to buy the new bike in [Matane, QC](https://goo.gl/maps/H76L8a6YvajFz9N16), then continue to 2-weeks of riding ~2,000km+ more around the entire peninsula. We piled both of us + a backpack full of camping gear onto my tiny DRZ-400, and rode on full knobbies on the highway for ~6hr overnight from Montreal to Matane. We made it the ~1,000km by ~10am in the morning, and I bought my new Tenere + registered it at the Matane SAAQ by 12pm without incident. With Gaby now on the DRZ-400 and me on my new Tenere, at 2pm we set off to ride the entire Gaspe peninsula FQMHR loop, a multi-week ~2,500km journey around the peninsula on 70% dirt trails. Gaby rode the DRZ-400 ~2,500km amazingly well on both pavement and dirt as a new rider, and ended up dropping the bike fewer times than I dropped my new Tenere!  I've since ridden this bike across the USA 4 times, finished on the podium in multiple offroad rallies with it, and ditched my KTM 790 Adventure R completely. The Tenere is still going strong as of 2023, and I suspect we have a long, illustrious future ahead. <br/> ### 🐕 2006 DRZ 400 S (Canada) I got this bike from a rural mechanic who'd been modding DRZs and riding in long-distance offroad rallies for years in Quebec. It was originally 3 different DRZs that have been combined into one over time: a 2003 frame, a 2006 engine, and 2004 parts. I got it for ~﹩4.5k USD, and it came preloaded with a 434cc big-bore kit, keihin 39 carb, larger headers + exhaust, a good tune, upgraded suspension, custom rally tower, oversized tank, pivot pegs, wider ratio gearbox, engine guards, kickstarter, and a pelican top case, and a box of free OEM parts, upgraded parts, tires, etc... all included. This bored out beast is wildly fun to ride, and only slightly impractical because of the loud exhaust and rally-focused setup. On a good day it feels like it can accelerate between highway speeds harder than my KTM 500, even though it's 100lb heavier (but it's 1/3 the price). Small bits and pieces seem to break often from old age and abuse, but it's never left me totally stranded. It once rattled the vacuum slide plate to pieces, ingested half of it through the carb into the cylinder, crushed it up and flattened the spark plug, spat the pieces out the exhaust, and still managed to sputter and limp its way 150mi+ home.   <br/> ### 🍋 2020 KTM 790 Adventure R (Canada) Incredibly fun, but was a terrible, terrible investment to make on my part. I should not have bought an early model 790 before they worked out all the kinks. I *definitely* should not have doubled down by trying to import it from Quebec to California when I moved last year. I kept thinking: "it's a high performance beast" and "of course minor teething problems are to be expected" and "surely I've fixed everything that could possibly could go wrong"... But it took a lot of time, money, and headaches before that was finally true. The grin this bike puts on your face while it eats up foot-deep potholes at 50mph without even flinching is addictive, but don't let it sway you into believing *for a second* that KTM's prowess extends to <u>reliability</u>. Here's the unbelievable list of some of the misfortunes that struck me on this bike: - siezed piston on the highway at ~8,000km, requiring a >1yr full engine replacement job (luckily covered by warranty, but still a hassle) - sudden front brake master cylinder failure while riding, causing 90% loss of braking force (later acknowledged and recalled by KTM) - swingarm bolts backed out on their own twice, requiring locktite red (scary a.f.) - $2k+ multiple different clutch subcomponent failures (jets, disks, springs, pads), finally fixed by drilling out clutch oil jets, and installing the magura hydraulic clutch + barnett kevlar kit + camel 1 finger clutch mods to modify the total lever throw & disk durability) - &gt;$600 fuel level sensor failure, needing a full fuel tank replacement - frequent clutch oiler jet clogging by clutch debris, requiring drilling out the nozzles - intermittent immobilizer failures, insta-killing the bike while riding when voltage sags - frequent random dying at idle and requiring multiple attempts to start when cold - 12v battery failure / loss of energy storage capacity, requiring full replacement - leaking coolant hose 2x straight from the factory (both when new *and* after replacement) - ABS sensor / electronics failures, brackets snapping, bolts backing out, and more... <!-- - at ~13,000mi the valves have just sounded starting like they're way way out of spec (keep in mind this is a *brand new engine* making a new *valve failure noises* after 5,000mi, not the usual basket-of-wrenches it sounded like when new) California DMV partially processed the vehicle import when I moved from Montreal, they took my Canadian title but refused to issue a CA title due to emissions issues, effectively stealing the motorbike and making it impossible to sell or ride (despite the emissions equipment all being equal or better in the Quebec model)--> I've had to drop the oil so often for maintenance that I've never actually needed to do a "scheduled" oil change, it's never made it more than ~1,500mi without getting an oil change. And this was the bike I got *after just previously putting 100,000km of hard riding on a Kawasaki Versys 650 with no issues* (on-road and off). The Versys only needed one clutch replacement in 6 years. Despite riding them both on the same trails at similar speeds, and avoiding slipping at high revs, the KTM 790 needed 3 clutches within its first 12,000 km miles (3 different clutch subcomponents failed), among countless other show-stopping repairs. I love my KTM 500 and but the 790 has been a disaster. The shops I go to also agree that the 790 is particularly cursed, they see a few of them a week compared to almost no 890s for the same issues. I finally sold it at a massive discount to someone else in California, giving them a full disclaimer about the import issues and engine history. I think it's a great deal for them given the price, but I wouldn't recommend buying one of these new unless you get a newer model with a 5-year warranty. https://790adventure.net/ owners manual: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19SutdJn_H7zlCeoZnobJbrgCZv8TNy76/view repair manual: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lx_fvYqYg_FZqNwW0w6MT6wI3VYrcJFH/view other docs: https://790adventure.net/models/documents-manuals-parts/  <br/> ### 🐁 2014 Kawasaki Ninja 300 (USA) This is a nimble little bike that a friend I was living with bought as a starter bike, but I ended up using it more than them. Its narrow body makes it perfect for lane-splitting in SF Bay Area traffic, and remarkably for a 300CC it can hit 110mph (on a slight downhill with a tailwind). My friend let me use it sporadically, and I ended up timesharing it with the subsequent owner as well. Despite being a bit cramped, I took it on several fully-loaded long-distance trips. In 2019 I even rode this bike with a passenger from SF to Burning Man and back.  <br/> ### ☠️ 2012 Kawasaki Versys 650 (USA) This was my first bike owned from 2015 to 2019. I bought it used from a police officer in Alameda who's wife made him sell it, and I bicycled all the way from Mountain View to Alameda to go pick it up. I put just shy of 110,000km on the Versys, 70% on-road and 30% offroad. One night, a friend learning to ride borrowed it to do parking lot practice, and promptly totalled it running into a pole at 20mph (luckily they are fine). This bike can do 80% of what a Yamaha Tenere 700 can offroad, and it's slightly better on the street and only half the price. This bike will have a permanent seat in my all-time-favorite-bikes list, even though I no longer own it. My little brother ended up getting a Versys 650 later on too. Towards the end I was constantly denting the rims and blowing fork seals because I'd take it on trails meant for 250cc 2-strokes. It took multiple trips where I had to ride pinch-flatted front tires 300km+ home from trails before I decided to upgrade to something more dirt-focused.  [2012 Kawasaki VERSYS (KLE650CCF) OEM Parts, Babbitts Kawasaki Partshouse](https://www.kawasakipartshouse.com/oemparts/l/kaw/50a9a224f87002235ccd8bb4/2012-versys-kle650ccf-parts) #### mods installed - skid plate, crash bars, hand guards - magura hydraulic clutch - luggage rack and top rack - barkbuster handguards, adventure mirrors, oxford heated grips - aux LED lights #### maintenance history - ~110,000km totalled by a beginner borrowing it to learn - ~92,000km front rim replaced because of too many dents + reshapings - ~88,000km skidplate and mirror replaced due to underside impact with rock - ~80,000km right footpeg assembly replaced after it snapped off - ~60,000km front left? fork rebuild due to leaking seal + rock shocks install - ~60,000km front + rear brake bleed (during braided line replacement) - ~75,000km new spark plugs and air filter - ~82,000km valve check (1 shim added on each exhaust side) - ~86,000km new battery - ~87,000km new chain and sprockets - ~88,000km new throttle body assembly (due to failed throttle position sensor / TPS) - ~88,000km new clutch pack - ~88,000km oil change - ~88,000km new stator - ~88,000km new Anakee Wild rear tire - ~90,000km new TKC-80 front tire - ~90,000km new brake pads (front and rear) - ~91,000km front rim reshaped to fix dents <br/> <br/> --- <br/> ## Motorbikes I’ve Tried ### Pre-2014 - Random Scooters in China - Random scooters in Cambodia - Random small Honda ?? In China fixed in Jiangsu for XiaoLi's family ### 2015 - Kawasaki Versys 650 (first bike purchased in Mountain View <3) - Moto school learner bike? Some old honda cruiser? - Kawasaki Ninja 300 (daiyi’s) ### 2016 - 2017 - AKT TTR 180 (Colombia) ### 2018 - BMW R800 (Berlin rental 2018) ### 2019 - Honda Hawk GT NT650 1985 (NYC Bert's) - Kawasaki Versys 300 (NYC Dan’s) - DRZ-400E (Colombia with Harvey) - Honda CRF 200 (Colombia motocross track with harvey)  ### 2020  - KTM 790 Adventure R (Montreal 2020) - Triumph speed triple (NYC rental 2020) - DRZ-400 (montreal, 2020, colombia 2018, colombia 2022) - Tenere 660 (South Africa rental 2020)  ### 2021 - Tenere 700 (montreal, 2021) - BMW F750GS (Lisbon rental 2021) - Ninja 250 (testing Anya's bike in SF 2021) ### 2022  - No-name 200cc Chinese Bike (Tulum rental 2022) - AKT TTR 200 (Colombia rental 2022) - Honda CRF 250 (Colombia Enduro race 2022) - KTM 1290 Adventure R (le classique QC KTM demo bike) - KTM 500 EXC (le classique QC KTM demo bike, then bought one in SF) - BMW R1250GS (Munich trip rental) ### 2023 - Italika 150cc bike (Mexico City rental w/ Britt) - BMW G310 (Mexico City rental w/ Britt) - CFMoto IBEX 800 GT Adventure bike w/ KTM 790 engine (Patagonia rental w/ Britt) - 2023 KTM 890 Adventure R (Colombia rental w/ Britt) <br/> --- <br/> ## Related Journals * **[🏍️ Motorbiking Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/motorbikes)** * [🚲 Bicycling Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/bicycle-journal) * [🚐 Vanlife Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/vanlife-journal) * [🧗‍♀️ Climbing Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/climbing-journal) * **[🏁 Racing & Rally Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/racing-journal)** - [🏂 Winter Sports Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/snow-journal) - [🌊 Water Sports Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/water-journal) - [🪂 Air Sports Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/air-journal) - **[🚁 Drone Flying Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/drone-journal)** * [🔠 Guide: Riding Tips and Tricks](https://docs.monadical.com/s/motorbikes#%F0%9F%94%A0-Riding-Tips) * **[🗺️ Guide: Off-Road Route Finding & Navigation With GPX Tracks](https://docs.monadical.com/s/offroad-navigation)** * [🧳 Guide: Adventure Gear & Packing Lists for Off-Road Moto-Camping](https://docs.monadical.com/s/packing-lists) * **[🏍️ Listicle: Motorbikes I've Owned and Enjoyed Using](https://docs.monadical.com/s/motorbikes-used)**