Happy sunny Monday to you.
So a seat arrived for the KTM gs 300 today. Bargain, £25 including delivery, and even better, it fits!
Not sure if I covered how this arrived to me, so here goes. I bought it from a gent long distance, I took his word it was a 1998. It looked the part on the photos, at least.
When it arrived I took it for a ride, and it did not turn left or right on full lock, the forks were hitting the fuel tank.
There was a gap between side panels and airbox, that should not be there. The seat did not line up with anything.
He had fitted 1998 forks, that are still on it. He had fitted (badly) a 1998 seat frame with home made extensions. he had also fitted a 1998 fuel tank that was not held on properly as it had different locating points. So yes, it looked the part, no it was not functional or pleasant to use.
So I found and fitted a 1993 - 1997 seat frame, found a correct petrol tank/plastics, after trying to work out what I needed, and the seat that arrived today is off an lc2 125 KTM, that I found out uses the same seat.
So today was the first ride with a seat that fits, and bolts on.
Imagine what it was like to ride on a loose seat? I did anyway, ride it that is.
When I say finished or is it, well the truth is this is a pure race bike, it is intended for competition, and every ride something can give, like today, the chain tensioner wheel at the back disintegrated whilst I was having fun. Next time it could be the engine, who knows, but I am going to rebuild that once a month anyway.
So now I have to find another tensioner as the chain is a little slack.
Take a look at the carb below.
There are other reasons this bike is such a beast, and that is down to fine tuning. The front header pipe, exhaust expansion pipe, is a gnarly gold series, designed for racing.
And the silencer (cough cough) loosely termed as on full throttle you can hear it for miles, is a race use only power core 2 free flow.
The bike has been set up well by someone in the past, not the last idiot that owned it, that is for sure. As it has lightweight rims, and mm adjustable handlebars.
Unsure if the wheels and bars are standard or not.
For sure the exhaust is not.
I topped it off with Blackbird racing graphics.
I took this bike down to the frame, and restored it from there up.
And although I want to recover the new old seat, I can say it is as finished as it ever will be.
The noise it makes is hard to describe, as it is so quiet if you just take it easy and potter around, but give it a fist full - as I do lol, and you can hear a roar, deep and throaty from the incoming air to the airbox. Then a crisp pinging sound on the front of the exhaust, sort of steely sounding and loud, then the third noise is coming from the silencer, loud and proud.
The latter is what people from 50 feet or more away will hear, the orchestra plays best only for one, the rider.
Another superbly warm and lusciously sunny day here today, 28c, and my tan is looking superb from gardening in no top for 5 hours in the AM, the afternoon was spent having a workout, known as the KTM..
Here is wishing you a lovely day too. I will try to read more peoples articles or posts soon, just very busy at the moment with a farm, bikes, children and life.
