Monthly Archives: August 2017

Picked up a 2006 KTM 950sm with 33k km on it last night. Almost had a trade for my cbr 600rr but went ahead and sold mine privately and worked out a better deal with the seller. I’ve read some really good things about these and first impressions are great! It came with KTM panniers and tank bag and a service manual on a CD, but otherwise it’s stock. It’s been sitting for a year, so runs lumpy and has a habit of stalling at idle. I’ll get a good poke around it at the weekend and hopefully clean out the carbs and balance them to hopefully fix it. Changing plugs and oil/filter too. Just need to get about a month out of it before Winter sets in (snow for 6 months over here) and I can start putting some new bits on it.

List is as follows:

Pair of slip-ons

Rottweiler Intake

Remove emissions shite

re-jet

New rubber (current tires are squared off)

Check clutch slave cylinder, water pump and fuel pump (known issues)

Anything else I think would look cool!

When it’s moving, it feels great, moves around nicely even with shite tires, pulls strong (can tell why people say they’re wheelie machines) but just need to sort the carb issue and it’ll be perfect.

Attached Images

ktm 950sm.jpg (96.9 KB)

Anyone ever have any experience of Dominator exhausts from Poland? They are all over fleabay and look quite reasonable.

Riding to a Limerick earlier this evening on an R road. There’s a staggered crossroads on an 80kph stretch which is lethal since the crossroads is on a bend and arsicons frequently pull cages to the middle of the road before completing the cross and are ‘legally’ stopped indicating right – logic is simple they are on the road stopped until traffic clears however they don’t give a toss whether following traffic has slowed or come around the bend at the limit. Poor road layout, incorrect speed limit etc etc. Today was a classic whereby a British short wheel base yoke with a triple axel trailer ran the stop sign and proceeded ahead of me on the road. I fully tested my horn (bike that is) a few times and hoped the blood pressure was not too high… He eventually pulled in when he could and waited until I came along side. This is where I found it interesting- I was fit to rip him a new one however he firstly apologises profusely and stated that he saw nothing of my extra bright dipped beam and my two jap LED spots. He saw absolutely nothing… A classic SMIDSY. Question is how do we cope and manage this phenomenon? Personally I ride very defensively and yes I am old and yes it’s only a glorified sewing machine that I ride etc. Fuck it you can’t teach the survival skills needed to cope with this kinda shit or can you? Hey, be careful out there….. Learn something new every day….

Itv4 now

Tt classics