This image of the crowd in the Pentagon parking lot for the Rolling Thunder parade was used in the latest issue of Motorcycle Consumer News in an article by Glynn Kerr

You should be there.

Noon to 6pm. Music by Killer Filler. Hot Rods.

Come check out the shop. Have a bite to eat. Listen to some music. Tell all your friends.

Well, sort of.

A clip of some french action movie.

But now that I think about a chase sequence involving some actual supermoto bikes could be pretty awesome. Maybe even though in some trials bikes for extra fun.

aka, take a little of this and a little of
this.

Had a minor accident tonight involving me and a car. I’m fine as best I can tell. A couple minor scrapes and maybe a bruise on my right knee.

I had just turned right onto gorman st from western. The car in front of me went to turn right down Faucette, made it well into the turn, then as I was passing them in the center of the lane, they whipped the car back left and turned right into me. They basically broadsided me from the right and pushed me over on my left side. I got on the brakes hard, but they were already beside me. So basically, they turned left into me.

The bike and I were pushed over to the left side. The bike took a little damage on the right side from the car hitting it. I skinned my right knee a bit at some point, and got some bruises. Not exactly sure when/how I did that.

The bike took a bit more damage. Front brake lever, clutch lever, clutch level mount all got broke off. Both left side turn signals. Some of the bodywork got scratched, especially the headlight nacelle. I haven’t gotten to do a real good looker in daylight yet. No good pics yet, just some phone cam pics.

Some of the folks who saw it stopped and waited for the police, and gave an account to the police. One of them was an off duty EMT so that was convienent. They all seemed to agree it was the cars fault and there wasn’t much I could do to avoid it.

z_kungfu came and picked up the bike in his truck, so thanks for the help.

Now that I think about it, the first thing to break on each of the bikes I have were clutch related.

Very fun bike. Very light (320lbs or so dry) with about ~50hp, so it’s fairly quick. The riding position is pretty upright and high, so it works well in traffic. It handles better than the bonnie, and seems to want to let you lean it over and over. I suspect it will lean over to and well beyond the point that the tires will grip at normal speeds, a bit different than most street bikes.

One issue I’ve had so far is the license plate mount. The previous owner mounted it up inside the fender above the wheel (you occasionally see sportsbikes setup like this as well). I’m not entirely comfortable with that since I’m not sure it’s legal, and the plate is actually a pretty good reflector. Being another black bike, that might be handy to have. Not to mention there are no plate lights that way, and I believe thats a requirement for it to pass inspection.

Mileage seems to average upper 40′s (49.9 on one tank, and 48 on another). Range before it hits reserve is about ~110 miles, so thats not too bad. Previous owner said he tended to hit reserve around 80 miles, so he must of been riding it pretty hard.

The front end gets a bit light under hard acceleration (as in, in the air). Not a bid deal, just different than what I’m used to. It definitely feels like a big dirt bike. Also, it’s not that hard to get the back tire in the air on heavy braking, especially if you are trying to (er… not that I would ever try that….).

The back brakes seem a little weak in comparison to the mondo front brakes. This may just be an adjustment issue. It is possibly to lock up the rear tire, but it takes a fair amount of effort. Not sure this is intentional or not, as sliding the rear tire around seems to be one of the preferred riding styles for this type of bike.

There’s not a huge amount of after market parts available for the bike, so customization options are somewhat limited. I’d like to get some hand guards to match the green, and maybe some black handlebars instead of the stock dull metal ones, but those are basically purely aesthetic changes.

2001 KTM Duke II in black and green.

It’s rad.

I was kind of looking for more of a sport tourer bike for the next bike, but I’ve had super moto’s in the back of my mind for a while, and that came up locally with a great deal.

I think I now understand why the supermoto guys are so fanatical. That thing is a ton of fun.

KTM is an Austrian company. Which means I know have a British bike, a French/Spanish bike (the Sherco trials bike), and an Austrian one. I’m slowly covering all of Europe.