EXCs 200, 250, 300

[dammad1]

Whereabouts in OZ are you going dammad? Just curious as I went for a recent scopeout with a view to moving myself.

Moving to Brisbane, had a job offer I couldn't refuse so we are going to go for a couple of years to see if we like it.

[dammad1]

Leave the missus behind, take her instead..

I have seriously considered it, if the bike could look after the kids it would be a done deal. LOL

[vazza]

Sick bike dammed!

Thats hilerious camchain haha! Might have to go with the wraparound one..

[camchain]

Good luck Dammad, change is as good as a rest. Hopefully you'll get another bike straight away and give some ride reports. For some reason you have to have a road registered bike to ride off-road on public land.
Hard to recalibrate to massive size of the country after little NZ. Looking at map thinking, right - lets head up to X for the day and uh-oh that's 1500km! Couldn't see myself living there as I realised I'd miss the green fertility of NZ too much.

Sorry back on topic. Yeah Vazza get a bootilicious Hyde one and test it for the rest of us. Be keen to see one close up. BTW watch out for the wierd extra oil drain plug (right side) on your new KTM. Not enough thread on it and very little thread in the case as well. Nasty and will strip the case thread easily if not careful. Or maybe they fixed it on the 08?

[vazza]

Sorry back on topic. Yeah Vazza get a bootilicious Hyde one and test it for the rest of us. Be keen to see one close up. BTW watch out for the wierd extra oil drain plug (right side) on your new KTM. Not enough thread on it and very little thread in the case as well. Nasty and will strip the case thread easily if not careful. Or maybe they fixed it on the 08?

Yeah might have to check them out.

Ahh yep, ill look into that! Cheers for the headsup! =)

[vazza]

Had a little ride around the property today.. I found that im to hunched up when riding, feels like its to low. Im thinking I need bar risers or something. Anyone else use bar risers?

[Reckless]

Make sure your bars are set in the front bolt mount on the triple clamp you can rotate the bar mounts (offset bolts) to move the bars forward as well I think. I have 6 days triple clamps on mine so not sure about yours. The bars where on mine where set back on the closest row of mount holes! I didn't think 20mm would make such a huge difference bit it did!
Bar Risers
I had them on and took them off as they where pushing me back to far! Danger hates them reckons them and high bent bars stuff up your riding position. I reckon he's bang on, now that I've taken them off my heads over the bars more and my arms are straighter and more in line with the angle of the fork. Only done one ride without them though, going to the Sandpit this weekend to see how it goes on the forest.
Just my 2c

[vazza]

Hmm, interesting. My bars are set to the front bolt mounts allready. Might just have to give it a proper ride and see how it feels.

[dammad1]

Had a little ride around the property today.. I found that im to hunched up when riding, feels like its to low. Im thinking I need bar risers or something. Anyone else use bar risers?

I had bar risers on before I put my damper on, now the uder bar mount lifts the bars a bit more than the old risers and I also have high bend bars.

Thats a very general comment Reckless, the most important thing is that the setup is comfortable and encourages you to stand, maybe if your short then tall bars and risers might not be the go but for me at 6"3 1/2" mine are set very high. The biggest mistake I see is people have there bars low and back so they feel comfortable sitting, which most people on here will no is not the go unless your on a sunday morning cruise.

[REDRIDER]

Hmm, interesting. My bars are set to the front bolt mounts allready. Might just have to give it a proper ride and see how it feels.

hey vin I jumped on 300 a while back and felt exactly the same, low bars raked right back, felt like they were sitting in your lap. im sure its a matter of preference and setup...

[Reckless]

I had bar risers on before I put my damper on, now the uder bar mount lifts the bars a bit more than the old risers and I also have high bend bars.

Thats a very general comment Reckless, the most important thing is that the setup is comfortable and encourages you to stand, maybe if your short then tall bars and risers might not be the go but for me at 6"3 1/2" mine are set very high. The biggest mistake I see is people have there bars low and back so they feel comfortable sitting, which most people on here will no is not the go unless your on a sunday morning cruise.

Yes dammad it was a general comment. Point taken! I suppose your 6'3" to my 5'10"ish we'd have a completly different set ups. I suppose mine where to high then, because dropping the bars made all the difference. My son is more than 6' and I've just taken his off because it felt so good to me. I'll now prepare myself for putting them on again if he doesn't like it! Cheers! I totally agree with your "encourages you to stand" comment! Good advice mate to find your own sweet spot!

[Danger]

A cool subject about bar position and yeah you need to try different things to find your sweet spot and its not going to be the same for everyone. But a few points I have noticed, but try things for yourself.

I notice that most riders tend to ride too far towards the rear of the bike, I call it gumby riding as it always reminds me of the gumbys that I used to see riding around on the rear of the seats on the old XR's, you know when everyone used to ride their trail bikes on the roads?
Most people are afraid of their front ends, that's why they ride like gumbys and like to keep away from the front end. Bar risers tend to promote this.
Having a MX back ground and from the late 80's era of racing the technique was elbows well up and a over the front end style with a right angle in the arms at the elbow, this encouraged me to prefer a well forward and a low bar position.
These days the riding position is more relaxed with the elbows not so exaggerated, and also a straighter leg but still a more forward and ride central technique as suspension has improved, many riders use a higher bend bar but I feel most have gone too far by adding risers, which with the new geometry's and higher bars puts people back into the gumby position, especially off road riders, I see this all the time. Moto X riders have a way better riding position in my opinion naturally.
A friend of mine and myself could never get comfortable on his '05 CR250, it always felt like the bars were in the lap. We compared it to my RM250 and found that the CR had foot pegs way forward, the RM had the foot pegs further back and you still can't find a better handling chassis than the RM250 in my opinion. The RM was a smaller bike, but it felt more spacious and comfortable. He tried all sorts of bars on that thing to try and overcome the funky ergo's. He liked the RM so much he sold the CR and was going to get the RM until I talked him into the KTM he now has and he has not looked back. The KTM feels like the RM as far as ergos once tweaked to do so.

The standing versus sitting thing, I used to be a 95% standing rider until I smashed my hands in a couple of bike accidents, then to just grip the bike I had to learn to ride sitting. I remember a couple of times in the first few years after my accidents at Moto X's when I would be hammering and my right hand would fly off the bars! Pretty scary and made me slow down. Its not so much of a problem now and I can ride standing and still hold on although I'm not doing much if any MX these days because I hate waiting around all day waiting to ride for 10-15 mins every couple of hours. But the point is I can stand, but chose to sit most of the time and stand when I have too. My suspension is good enough so that I can sit in most off road situations and I describe my position as a lazy style, with the elbows not as high as they used to be, but its very economical energy wise. I sit forward or I stand with the legs straight and central and the bike works under me with no pulling on the bars.

A little something about Dick Burleson, a Motorocycle Hall of Famer. He started his career as a Pro MX'r and has American National titles before the AMA was in existance but then went on to enduro riding. The following is copied from another website.
"From 1974 to 1981, Dick Burleson won eight consecutive AMA National Enduro Championships, a record so extraordinary that it may never be broken. Burleson’s total domination of national enduro earned him the nickname "King Richard." In addition to his incredible domestic record, Burleson also won an amazing eight consecutive gold medals in the International Six Days Trials (now called the International Six Days Enduro). Among American off-road racers, Burleson is one of the all-time greats."

I remember in talking about off road matters on another forum with another multi ISDE medalist Dwight Rudder who still knows Dick Burleson. Dick Burleson still trains off road riders, and he teaches them to sit, unless you have to stand. I didn't like this advice myself until I was forced to adapt to sitting when riding, now I think its good advice, but you need to sit forward or central. This man should know what hes talking about. I also know their are riders who like to stand all the time, Stefan Everts is one although a different riding situation to off road riding.

For KTM riders over 5'10 a tall seat is a must, they are small framed and the foot peg to seat distance is small. A tall seat will help.

I ride with a group which is pretty handy in the trees, not Chris Birch or Karl Power off course, but we pass most people when on the gas. I noticed that the only real difference when we were chasing each other in tight trees was corner speed, and that I would probably do a section and maybe 1 in 5 turns I would not really nail, and the group would gain perhaps 10-20 feet until they muffed their 1 in 5 corners or so. So I started to play around with my setup.
I already had my bars in the no3 position on the KTM and a low flat rolled forward renthal bar. I had my RM set up the same so I could swap from bike to bike and adapt without trouble. I talked to Karl Power and he said to try rolling the bars back as he noticed that he could get through corners much quicker when his bike was setup like this. I looked at my bars in relation to the fork angle and they were rolled slighty forward of a straight line. I tried running them in line with the forks and then slightly rearward. Well me all of a sudden I was nailing all the corners and leaving my mates behind (on the track)! The improvement was substantial. Both bikes were setup with the bars still low and in the same position but rolled back in the risers.

I would have to check Karl Powers stats but I'm sure Karl is over 6' tall and I've ridden a few of his bikes. He also uses a renthal bar and does not use risers and I feel comfortable on all his KTM's or Husabergs.
A couple of my other friends on KTM's are over 6' tall and use risers. One of them did some Chris Birch training, and Chris rode his bike and Chris told him to ditch the risers and gave the reasons why, much as I've outlined above, about staying over the front, weighting the front end etc. Chris is also over 6' tall I believe?
So we have two of the top KTM riders at the top of the off road world and neither use risers on their bikes. Doesn't mean you shouldn't but its an indication as to a trend needed for correct riding position and speed.
Note a taller rider generally has longer arms. I actually have long arms for my height (apeman?)
Again not all set ups will suit everyone so don't get upset Dammad, this is not aimed at you or anyone else and you should set your bike up to suit yourself (gee I'm trying to be careful not to step on anyone's toes these days, time to take a break from this site I think)!
Point is small changes to bike setup and riding styles can reap rewards.

[clmintie]

Seriously Danger, I will buy your book.......

Thanks for the efforts you put into this site.....

Phil.

[Reckless]

I must agree with Climintie 10/10 Danger!! And thanks a bunch as well! Very interesting read "as I go off and check the bar angle on the bike"

Re the Book! I have so much of your stuff copy and pasted pm me if you ever write it!!

But mate 2:47am did the missus say no or something LOL!!!!

[xen]

Yeah great info Danger, cheers