2005 KTM 450 EXC - worth a punt as a fun weekend off roader?

[TorqueDirty]

Hi folks,

Well the desire to be back messing about on 2 wheels (and sometimes one) is strong!

I sold my last bike about a year ago (2005 Speed Triple) and now fancy a dirt bike to mess about on.

There is a KTM 450 EXC for sale near me. Not in great condition but I'm not to bothered about that as long as it is mechanically sound - it will be covered in mud most of the time anyway. I know nothing about these bikes other than a bit of internet research.

Anyone know anything about these bikes? I had a Honda XR 650R a few years ago and it was a hoot but frankly a bit too big, tall and heavy for what I wanted it for (chucking it about on dirt). Am I likely to find the KTM slightly less huge or are we talking broadly the same thing here? I'm no pro rider by any means but I have been knocking about on various decent sized bikes for 30 yrs and apart from 2 silly incidents have managed to keep everything rubber side down.

I was after a little 250 or 350 but nothing has come up and the KTM has. Anything I need to look out for apart from the usual? Do they require very careful maintenance or can I expect to blat about happily on the weekends without having to do a full service every time I park it up? I have seen some people talking about very regular oil changes and valve clearances.

Lastly what sort of money should I expect to pay for one in “well used” condition?

Thanks for any advice.

TD

[TorqueDirty]

Thanks Guys. So it sounds like it will be quite feisty! Not a huge issue as I won't be doing anything very technical - but of course I don't want to be flipping it over every 10 mins.

Out of interest how would it compare to a 2001 XR 650R?

I did not really have any major issue with the XR except that it was not exactly chuckable - for me at least because I did not have the last 10% (50%?) of skill to be able to do it consistently.

Problem is that even smaller and older bikes are crazily expensive and I might be able to get hold of this for say £1500.

An XR 250 / 400 would be fine but cheap ones are rare as hen's teeth around here from what I can see.

TD

[TorqueDirty]

Birky_41 said:

My brother owned an xr250...it wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding

I had an xr650 back in 2004-2005. I sold it to a mate who put the super moto wheels on it you see here but this was the bike. I don't have many pics around this time as phone cameras were crap ams my digital camera was huuuge



Apart from sting oil in the air box from big wheelies it was the best wheelie bike I've ever owned

If you were cool on this the ktm will be fine, just more sporty in pretty much every way

Yup, that is what I had. Lots of fun and then quite a large amount of pain from a poorly executed high speed wheelie on tarmac! Wish I had not sold it now to be honest, but my arse begs to differ!

TD