1390 Miles on a Supermoto
Discussion
Does a Supermoto tour? Well when I was asked if I wanted to do a trip round the North Coast 500, More to fill the numbers I suspect than through any true desire to have me there as first choice, I jumped at the chance, shouted "yes, when do we go, who's going". a list of names was provided who all sounded like nice chaps but more to the point they were going in a fortnight
Whoops, I thought, I don't have any luggage or other touring things or even a bike to which I could easily attach luggage to. I've got this
a KTM 690 SMC R. Too late to back out now I've said yes and I wasn't going to go back on my word even though it turns out it's not 500 miles, it's more like 1300 miles, because we've got to get there and then back home all in 5 days. A quick internet search revealed you can get a KTM touring screen for 690 enduro which is similar to mine so it would fit. You can also get a little rack and a matching bag. All ordered, oh yeah, I'm doing this right.
When I showed my proud purchases to my fellow tourers it went like this
Them "how big is that bag"
Me "erm 12 litres" sensing mocking in their interview style "but it expands to 18 litres
Them "that's not big enough"
Me "it is, that's the size of three petrol cans" (the ones that cost a fortune at petrol stations as they capitalise on your out of petrol misfortune)
Them "no way is that big enough and are you putting to put the baffle back in your exhaust ?"
Me "No, not now"
KTM delivered my apparently inadequate touring accoutrements really quickly
and they were fitted up. It turns out I had to drill the rear plastics of my bike to fit the rack so now I will have to order new rear plastics on top of all my new touring stuff because there is no way it is staying like a touring bike all the time.
So, after a couple of hours the bike went to looking like this.
Being KTM Powerparts I thought everything would be a straight bolt on but the screen mounts weren't drilled out enough so I had to ream them out a bit by hand to get the collets to fit properly. They also seemed to be short of some washers, lucky I had some in the garage.
Is the bag big enough ? of course it is. I can get a pair of trainers, a pair of trousers, some t shirts and enough of M&S finest pants and socks for five days all in the bag. Along with a toothbrush and some other erm touring type things it's all sorted. One of the tourers asked about a jacket in case it was cold in the evening. What ? I'm wearing a jacket all day, I can wear that at night, anyway I'll be in the pub.
There is a method in my apparent madness though, whilst the first day had about 80 miles of motorway on it and the last day home was mostly all motorway which is a lot of miles and I wasn't really looking forward to it, the rest of the trip was on smaller roads. Really small roads by the looks of it and when my new touring friends got there they didn't have a Supermoto with Brembos front and rear, WP suspension and a slipper clutch all weighing in at only 139 kilos (slightly more with my pathetic touring kit).
I didn't take many photos of the trip but I'll post them up if you like.
Whoops, I thought, I don't have any luggage or other touring things or even a bike to which I could easily attach luggage to. I've got this
a KTM 690 SMC R. Too late to back out now I've said yes and I wasn't going to go back on my word even though it turns out it's not 500 miles, it's more like 1300 miles, because we've got to get there and then back home all in 5 days. A quick internet search revealed you can get a KTM touring screen for 690 enduro which is similar to mine so it would fit. You can also get a little rack and a matching bag. All ordered, oh yeah, I'm doing this right.
When I showed my proud purchases to my fellow tourers it went like this
Them "how big is that bag"
Me "erm 12 litres" sensing mocking in their interview style "but it expands to 18 litres
Them "that's not big enough"
Me "it is, that's the size of three petrol cans" (the ones that cost a fortune at petrol stations as they capitalise on your out of petrol misfortune)
Them "no way is that big enough and are you putting to put the baffle back in your exhaust ?"
Me "No, not now"
KTM delivered my apparently inadequate touring accoutrements really quickly
and they were fitted up. It turns out I had to drill the rear plastics of my bike to fit the rack so now I will have to order new rear plastics on top of all my new touring stuff because there is no way it is staying like a touring bike all the time.
So, after a couple of hours the bike went to looking like this.
Being KTM Powerparts I thought everything would be a straight bolt on but the screen mounts weren't drilled out enough so I had to ream them out a bit by hand to get the collets to fit properly. They also seemed to be short of some washers, lucky I had some in the garage.
Is the bag big enough ? of course it is. I can get a pair of trainers, a pair of trousers, some t shirts and enough of M&S finest pants and socks for five days all in the bag. Along with a toothbrush and some other erm touring type things it's all sorted. One of the tourers asked about a jacket in case it was cold in the evening. What ? I'm wearing a jacket all day, I can wear that at night, anyway I'll be in the pub.
There is a method in my apparent madness though, whilst the first day had about 80 miles of motorway on it and the last day home was mostly all motorway which is a lot of miles and I wasn't really looking forward to it, the rest of the trip was on smaller roads. Really small roads by the looks of it and when my new touring friends got there they didn't have a Supermoto with Brembos front and rear, WP suspension and a slipper clutch all weighing in at only 139 kilos (slightly more with my pathetic touring kit).
I didn't take many photos of the trip but I'll post them up if you like.
I made it to the meeting point on the first day, the petrol station at jct 27 of the M6 from where we headed on the motorway for a bit to clear the roads around Preston which are rubbish for riding on. Then off at around Kirkby Lonsdale to use the back roads to Penrith for a breakfast before carrying on without using Motorways (mostly) to finish today at Fort William. Highlights were the road from Kirkby Lonsdale to Penrith via Sedburgh (A683), Old Tebay (B6260 and 6261) pretty much shadowing the M6 but so much better.
That's approx 350 miles, which is a pretty long way on a Supermoto but I've done a couple of 230 days before so it was fine and I had my little touring screen fitted so there was less buffeting up around the speed limits on the motorway The nationals don't pose a problem wind wise without the screen and are even better with it, anyway I wasn't in a hurry.
In case you were wondering, I got everything in my apparently inadequate touring setup. I took a bit of oil with me because the bike uses a little bit as is normal for a big single and I put that in a fellow tourers adequate pannier but if I had been pressed I could have got it on my bike. I don't think there seems any point in taking lots of tools because if anything major goes wrong it'll be AA time. I had already sussed out the serious ones had got basic stuff to tension the chain etc if I need to. There's no point in us all carrying stuff is there and anyway we were only going to Scotland not the Serengeti.
Kit wise I wore a Triumph textile jacket that I've had for a couple of years. It was a good bargain from the Triumph outlet store online and I don't care if it doesn't say KTM on it. For the bottom half I wore Weisse Textile trousers that I also bought a few years ago and have hardly worn and I've foregone my Supermoto boots for a pair of more road biased ones for comfort. Gloves are Alpinestars SP 8 and as for my helmet I've had Arai and Shoei Helmets before but I wore an Airoh dual sport helmet which is pretty light and quiet and I like it a lot. It also has a peak fitted to catch the wind so my neck was nice and strong when I got back.
I didn't take any extra gloves because I hate winter gloves with a passion and the weather looked ok which also meant the textiles I had on were enough rain protection that I was ever going to need. People are on all sorts of different trips and have different requirements but I felt that I didn't need to take too much stuff with me.
The bike, apart from it's new touring kit was standard apart from a Leo Vince can and I ran it on Pirelli Diablos Rosso II's
The second day took us from Fort William to Ullapool stopping on the way at the Commando Memorial
The scenes that the Commandos look over and trained in were stunning.
After the the Applecross Pass we stopped at Loch Carron for lunch where the weather and views were beautiful
and then onto Ullapool for the night. The next day promised to be Supermoto nirvana
That's approx 350 miles, which is a pretty long way on a Supermoto but I've done a couple of 230 days before so it was fine and I had my little touring screen fitted so there was less buffeting up around the speed limits on the motorway The nationals don't pose a problem wind wise without the screen and are even better with it, anyway I wasn't in a hurry.
In case you were wondering, I got everything in my apparently inadequate touring setup. I took a bit of oil with me because the bike uses a little bit as is normal for a big single and I put that in a fellow tourers adequate pannier but if I had been pressed I could have got it on my bike. I don't think there seems any point in taking lots of tools because if anything major goes wrong it'll be AA time. I had already sussed out the serious ones had got basic stuff to tension the chain etc if I need to. There's no point in us all carrying stuff is there and anyway we were only going to Scotland not the Serengeti.
Kit wise I wore a Triumph textile jacket that I've had for a couple of years. It was a good bargain from the Triumph outlet store online and I don't care if it doesn't say KTM on it. For the bottom half I wore Weisse Textile trousers that I also bought a few years ago and have hardly worn and I've foregone my Supermoto boots for a pair of more road biased ones for comfort. Gloves are Alpinestars SP 8 and as for my helmet I've had Arai and Shoei Helmets before but I wore an Airoh dual sport helmet which is pretty light and quiet and I like it a lot. It also has a peak fitted to catch the wind so my neck was nice and strong when I got back.
I didn't take any extra gloves because I hate winter gloves with a passion and the weather looked ok which also meant the textiles I had on were enough rain protection that I was ever going to need. People are on all sorts of different trips and have different requirements but I felt that I didn't need to take too much stuff with me.
The bike, apart from it's new touring kit was standard apart from a Leo Vince can and I ran it on Pirelli Diablos Rosso II's
The second day took us from Fort William to Ullapool stopping on the way at the Commando Memorial
The scenes that the Commandos look over and trained in were stunning.
After the the Applecross Pass we stopped at Loch Carron for lunch where the weather and views were beautiful
and then onto Ullapool for the night. The next day promised to be Supermoto nirvana
The entire trip for me looked most promising up far North West coast line where after 9 miles on the A835 out of Ullapool I took this picture. Awesome to think that not too long ago, according to the info board, all the mountains were under a sheet of ice.
Anyway a sharp left took us onto almost 90 miles of single track to Durness. Google maps says 3 and a half hours and it really is that tight. I hardly stopped and the range on the fuel was amazing, I was getting around 60 mpg but very rarely hitting 60 MPH.
I took these photos on the B869 at Clashnessie
and Drumbeg
and by then the KTM was well into its stride. The proper touring bikes were way behind and I was just enjoying punching out of corners when the view allowed and riding a Supermoto in almost its natural environment. After Durness and then towards Thurso the route all gets a bit flat and I'm sure some people enjoy it but I would have been happy if we had just turned around and retraced our route to Ullapool.
The rest of the days weren't, if I'm honest, as good as the west coast for riding and I made the long slog back home on the motorway from Glasgow back to the North West of England. The bike ran at Motorway speeds happily enough and only used a little bit of oil.
Is it the perfect tourer ? no way but it's great, as Golgarth said earlier, for when you get there.
(Oh and I didn't run out of clean clothes from my inadequate touring bag) Thanks for reading
Anyway a sharp left took us onto almost 90 miles of single track to Durness. Google maps says 3 and a half hours and it really is that tight. I hardly stopped and the range on the fuel was amazing, I was getting around 60 mpg but very rarely hitting 60 MPH.
I took these photos on the B869 at Clashnessie
and Drumbeg
and by then the KTM was well into its stride. The proper touring bikes were way behind and I was just enjoying punching out of corners when the view allowed and riding a Supermoto in almost its natural environment. After Durness and then towards Thurso the route all gets a bit flat and I'm sure some people enjoy it but I would have been happy if we had just turned around and retraced our route to Ullapool.
The rest of the days weren't, if I'm honest, as good as the west coast for riding and I made the long slog back home on the motorway from Glasgow back to the North West of England. The bike ran at Motorway speeds happily enough and only used a little bit of oil.
Is it the perfect tourer ? no way but it's great, as Golgarth said earlier, for when you get there.
(Oh and I didn't run out of clean clothes from my inadequate touring bag) Thanks for reading
STe_rsv4 said:
I got back from doing 1000 mile around the highlands yesterday.
How wet did you get?.......
Surprisingly not wet at all, it rained one morning but we just put off riding for an hour. The pictures tell the real story , sun sun and more sun. How was yours, did you get wet ?How wet did you get?.......
obscene said:
Is that a standard end can or aftermarket? I changed to a full akra system on mine (Wings also do a cheaper one) and highly recommend it. The difference is night and day and wakes the bike up. Cracking pics! I'm hoping the weather is good this weekend so I can thrash round Wales on mine.
Hi mate, it's a Leo Vince SBK. It sounds good and contrary to my first post I kept my baffle in. Some of the touring lads still commented on how erm....nice it sounded as well. I have heard the Akra kit and you're right, sounds good.Ed. said:
Do you mind telling me which places you stayed at, which you would recommend /avoid what the parking was like.
Hi Ed, we stayed at a place called Bank Street Lodge in Fort William for two nights, once on the way up and again on the way down. The room was clean, ensuite and had a telly and kettle. It was definitely on the upper side as bunkhouses go. Parking was outside but out of view.Then we stayed at the Celeidh Place Bunkhouse in Ullapool. Great showers but not ensuite but would still recommend it. The bikes were outside ( mine was locked to a trackered Triumph) but Ullapool seemed ok, it's well remote. Quick pic below
The third place we stayed was ok but it had plastic mattresses and I didn't get a good sleep. The owners were welcoming though and if you ended there you'd be ok.
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