Paris Dunkerque a cocoricorando event.

The 21st of April was the start of the Cocoricorando event "Paris Dunkerque". 

This is a 3-day event and takes you on various off-road tracks from Paris to Dunkirk. It's not a contest, but it's what they like to call "a ballad."

In terms of tracks, you have 3 options. You can either do it all on the road, or the adventurous circuit which is a mix of road and off-road, and finally the extreme circuit which takes you from Paris to Dunkirk almost exclusively off-road.

The tracks will be mailed to you a week in advance, giving you time to set up your navigation equipment. Alternatively, you can rent a tripy GPS from them for the duration of the event.

For me it was the 1st time but this was the 10th anniversary of the event. I can honestly say that the event is very well organised. There is a briefing at the start. they take you through the program for the next few days and what to do in case of a problem with the bike or if you get injured. They also provide breakfast at the start.

The first and second day were actually very easy 2-track trails. The Tird was the exact opposite. I think they saved the hard part for the last day.

Anyway, the first day took us to a campsite where we would stay for 2 nights, which allowed us to ride lighter on the 2nd day. The second track was a loop that takes you back to the campsite.

The food from breakfast, dinner and for us also luch was really good. The campsite was also a 4 star campsite so the sanitary facilities were at a good level. Being able to shower after a ride is certainly very welcome.

I filmed some during the 1st day, but unfortunately not the days after. I couldn't charge my camera batteries for this.

Here are some impressions from the weekend, I'll leave a link to my YouTube channel if you like to watch my playlist Paris Dunkerque 2023  here.

Bye for now ✌

BTO "La Printaniere" event by Forest event

'La Printaniere'

About a month ago I did one of the most difficult rides for me on the KTM adventure during the BTO organised by forest event. It didn't help that it rained a lot before the event. On the day itself however we had rather nice weather and even good temperatures.

The start was held on the French border to Belgium and went into the Belgian Ardennes. There were some easy tracks combined with some more technical stuff and ruts… I hate ruts especially withe a bike weighing in at 255kg. 

Let me tell you that I couldn't feel my arms anymore at the end of it, at times I even wanted to quit but but I'm gladd I didn't .

I drove with some buddies, Gerald on the Ducati deset X and Jean-Paul on the T7 Yamaha.

Anyway it was a great experience and an eye opener and definitely a good practice before the start of the Paris dunkerque event organised by cocoricorando 🇫🇷. 

Hear some pictures taken during the BTO event.

Airoh commander boost update!

As a motorcyclist you have to wear protective equipment, but how often do you have to replace it?

In 2017-18 I bought the scorpion ADV-X helmet. It was reasonably priced and it ticked all the boxes for me in terms of usability, it had a flip-out sun visor and a peak for off-road riding.

It wasn't until recently that it started to show its age. The sun visor button didn't work very well anymore, as it has seen quite a bit off road it starting to show.

So I decided to buy a new one. At first I looked at the successor to the ADV-X, but I noticed that it became even heavier than its predecessor.

That's why I bought the Airoh commander boost. It is a nice helmet with a matte finish. It comes in a variety of colors and I bought it, how could it be otherwise, with the orange color scheme to match my bike.

It came with a bunch off parts like a pinlock, and adapters for the different configurations and even an action camera mount.

I took it for a first spin and I can say it's a better helmet than the Scorpion, or maybe it was a long time overdue to change helmets.

I'll elaborate more on how it performs later when I post a longer term review. For now you will have to settle for some pictures.

29-04-2023 update

So I’ve been wearing the helmet during a few event in the past 2 weeks. I drove it on highways, off-road and byways. 

This is what I observed. For highway use this might not be the best helmet out there. The reason being that a lot wind is getting inside the helmet especially if you don’t put the chin cover piece in. I didn’t put in the chin piece te be able to get the helmet on and off easier. Next time I'll add the chin piece to see how much off a difference it makes.

Other than that it provides a really big field of view that;s something I really like in all circumstances. I really get the impression that people actually can see you inside the helmet.

In the off- road the “breath ability “ plays in its favour so it doesn’t cook your brains. 

During my return from France I got hammered by a rain storm and I have to admit that it felt save at all moments. It  is a nice place to be like your own privite cocoon shielded from the outside world. Also the padding is of decent quality too, this also adds to the wearing comfort.

One of the things that also stand out for me is the weight it is really light and it really feels nice during longer rides. 

That’s it for now I’ll keep you updated on how it does in the long term.

Bye for now 👊

New rear tire!

It's been a while since my last post, lets say life just gets in the way. 

I finally got to install new my rear tire. Previously I ran the motoz rallz tubeless tire with dimensions 150/70-18 on a 2.5 inch rim. 

As a consequence the tire was very rounded because that's not the kind of rim what this tire is designed for.

So in comes the Rallz 14/80-18 tube type tire, and this one fits the 2.5 inch wheel perfect. Now that's a very small size tire for a 160HP bike. 

I took the bike for a spin yesterday and needless to say that the traction control has its hand full controlling the back wheel. I wanted to scrub the tire in and see how its behaves. 

I'm curious how long it'll last, I have a 3-days camping trip planned in April, we'll see how it hold up.

Bye for now 👊

Motoz Rallz after 4500km

Motoz rallz after 4500km

First ride of 2023!

 Cloudy and grey skies, time to get going!

The weather gods are kind to us this time of the year. Time to set the beast loose for the first time this year! 

Some impressions about my sunday ride.  Drove about 200km mixed on and offroad but mostly tarmac. Not the most beautifull ride I ever did but I got to ride and thats the most important.

Those wind turbines are popping up everywhere, I never saw one up close, they are huge!

Bye for now ✌

KTM 1290 SAR Outback Motortek ultimate protection combo review

Welcome to my review of the outback motortek ultimate protection combo for the KTM 1290 super adventure R.

👉Why did I buy this Kit?

First of, I bought the ultimate protection combo which consists of  the following items:

• the skidplate and bracket
• lower crashbars
• upper crashbars

• 

Outback Motortek performs crash tests on all of their newly develloped equipment and they put

all those test video's online here: Outback motortek youtube page

I bought this kit  because they are one of the only companies that make protection kits that actually work in real offroad circumstances.

👉Where did I buy the kit?

Outback Motortek works with a dedicated dealer network. For my location that's allroadmoto .

The kit costs 765 euros. This might differ depending on where you live. It's quite a bit of money, but if your bike crashes it will cost you more in repairs.

👉 Installation

You don't get any printed instructions with the gear. However, on the plastic packaging you'll find a QR code, when you scan it, it brings you to the installation video on their YouTube chanel

I'm not going to cover all this since that is done by Outback Motortek, it is pretty straight forward when you follow the instructional video's.

👉 Overall quality and Issues

The cons 👇

• I've noticed that the videos aren't always consistent with what you receive. By that I mean they will talk about what screws and bolts to use in certain locations, but I found myself not having the same type of bolts or screws in the kit. For example longer bolts than mentioned.
• Also some bolts were too short to work. I had to repurpose some KTM bolts to get the lower crash bars to attach to the support bracket.
• The paintwork is not the best quality,not to say it is bad but I received the bars with slightly damaged paint but it was not clearly visible when mounted. I will say they do a good job of packaging everything to avoid this.
• I also think they could provide better quality bolts with the kit, I'm afraid the bolt heads will get round very easily.
• You should also keep in mind that this kit adds significant weight to an already heavy bike, it certainly isn't light.
• To my surprise, I found that the fuel pump high pressure line was exposed on the left side due to the skid plate design and that's a really big minus for me. See the picture below. The original KTM protection is higher and does provide more protection in that area.

The pros 👇

• Once everything is assembled, the bars feel very sturdy.
• The skid plate provides better than stock protection for the engine cases and exhaust. It can also be easily removed for maintenance.
• The lower crash bars are firmer than stock and offer better protection.The cross braces are well thought out and provide the stiffness that was missing from the stock bars.
• The uppers provide extra protection for the side panels and are very rigid. they also allow the mounting of small panniers for inner tubes or other small items.
• The looks, the kit looks really good on the bike, it's not just functional, it also works aesthetically.
• The kit fits just right, no need to bend things to make it fit, everything fits really well.

👉 End result

👉 Conclusions

I have no doubt that this kit will protect the engine better than the gear supplied by KTM. After all, we all want to protect our investment. 

You might think that the list of negatives is quite long, but those are in all honesty minor things. none of those things should be a deal breaker. 

If you look critically at a product, you will always find room for improvement, but that does not make it a bad product.

So in conclusion there is always a bit of a trade-off, it is a very well thought out product that does exactly what it is supposed to do. The thorough product testing by outback Motortek speaks volumes about their dedication. 

So in resume the biggest drawbacks for me:

• The added weight
• A little more hassle when working on the bike
• Unprotected high pressure fuel line

👉 If the above mentioned stuff doesn't bother you, I'd say this is the perfect kit for you.

Bye for now ✌

New toys for the 1290!

 Finally my chrashbars have arrived!

I bought a set of upper and lower crashbars+ engine skidplate from @outback motortek. I ordered them from @allroadmoto who send over last week. Thanks for the goodies!

I also have a set of Motoz Rallz waiting to be installed. 

Getting ready for the new season!

Outback Motortek and Motoz Rallz

Outback Motortek skidplate and crash bars uppers and lower