KTM500 EXC ADVENTURE BIKE BUILD - Motorcycle Adventure

Motorcycle Adventure Dirtbike TV supported proudly by Adventure Spec in the UK, Rally Raid Products, Giant Loop in the United States, Adventure Moto in Australia, Pirelli Tyres, Motul Oils, RK Chains and Australian Adventure Bike Magazine. We've spent a lot of time recently focusing on the build of our little red rooster, the mighty Honda CRF300L Rally and it's attracted a heap of attention and the build is going pretty well. There's more to do but it's getting there. There are a number of reasons why this bike is getting so much attention. It's relatively cheap, it's got a reliable engine, it looks the goods and as evidenced by our build so far it doesn't take too much to make it an adventure dragon slayer. But there are other key factors to its appeal. It's light and it's one of the only smaller capacity bikes out there that's capable of fulfilling the role of adventure. It's abundantly clear from your feedback that you'd love the little red rooster but you'd like it to have significantly larger capacity say around 400 to 500cc's with the same long service interval of 8 000 kilometers. But just hold that thought because there is an alternative. I have the great pleasure of riding with a loose group of mates, and loose in a whole range of different ways, who love motorcycle adventure and like taking on the tough stuff. We're certainly not a group that all like the same model or brand although some would say we have a tendency to pervert KTMs or Huskies. In this bunch there are a couple of us that have adventurized the mighty KTM 500 EXE. Okay it's got a seat that's as hard as a piece of timber and the service intervals are a couple of thousand k's. It doesn't have a cush drive but i think they've proven that when it comes to the rough stuff the KTM 500 is a bike worthy of consideration as an adventure bike build. There are a number of hugely successful adventures that have been completed on a KTM 500 EXE. My interview with round the world adventurer and Kiwi Aaron Steinman is worth a look for those that don't think the bike is suitable. Now whilst Clemmie and I have been recording in meticulous detail our build of the CRF 300, my mate Mark has been quietly and conscientiously working in the background to complete his KTM 500 EXE adventure. It's now finished and we catch up with him to see what he's created and if he's satisfied with his creation and does it meet his expectations for motorcycle adventure. Wow you finished her! She's done! Yeah so Dave um i've been wanting uh some kind of tower to put a couple of farkles on and some wind resistance um for the lightweight adventure 500 and i found these guys called Adventure Men Cave. They're a fairly new company i believe in Spain um i think they have some rally background the owners and um yeah mate this tower is unbelievable i think it's maybe two kilos or even less um it has a sort of usb in here put your gps here and it's also you can have different angles and all that on that and um i think the beauty for me is it's plug and play they're literally two bolts on the bottom triple clamp and two on the top and i think they've got a new screen now as well which is a little bit bigger um but yeah absolute quality Dave all stainless bolts beautifully powder coated and to be honest i don't the wind's fantastic don't feel the weight on the bars at all. It's got good light i mean after last night we gave it a run. Yeah absolutely last night was yeah i was blown away like not only good light on the road but just illuminates everything around and high up as well so don't need improve the lights at all absolutely fantastic. So we've got a little usb here and when the bike's running it's actually got a volt meter as well and an on off switch as well which is fantastic and you've got your gps mounted here yeah gps mounted here and like i said a couple of different positions um the great thing is if you've got all other accessories etc you there's plenty of mounting points so this is just for my sort of heated grips um they have all the holes and everything for the indicators there's a great safety feature on this that um if you have a crash and you hit this this actually all right see that's good yeah so in a crash hopefully you don't open your face or anything on that so but just yeah have a look at the work it's it's really beautiful made yeah absolutely looks great mark tell me about this bike oh my ultimate lightweight adventure bike um yeah dave i got a ktm 500 2017 model stock standard and i'm going to take you through some of the mods um that i've done first of all obviously adventure bike we've got why why did you pick the ktm 500 exe i mean it's a big it's a big trail bike mate well i've tried a lot of bigger bikes i've actually owned a 690 and i just found a little bit too heavy and get yourselves into certain situations where this will get you out of anything whereas the bigger bikes you're gonna struggle so it's got the power and it's and it's light uh but one of the things with these bikes mark is the uh the oil you've got to change your oil every what 2000ks or something yeah something like that but what i've got is a bigger clutch cover there which holds about 300 mil extra oil so that's fantastic and look for me i'm not going around the world so the oil change is not a big thing so when you're building this so what do you see it as a a couple of day tripper you know or extreme adventurer thing what where do you see this sit i'm gonna say extreme adventure but we've done a week on it and no dramas whatsoever so whether it's highway or you know gnarly tracks it does everything look at your nugget yeah well that's a worry all right um okay i've got your calvinator look at this it's coming what what you've got your eyes oh and that's got the safety feature too that if you go ass over it it goes straight on with you yeah shoots you in the face yeah mate yeah she's pretty good the old dolphin torch 12 volt battery $9.99 from bunnings my ear you are set so that's your adventure right it's done yeah that's about it hopefully i'm not you can't see through all the smoke wouldn't be the first time we've been stuck out there so what do you what do you think nugget of mark's build here he's trying your photo bombed him so you might as well continue now so what do you think of his build he's 500 lightweight adventure there's no two ways about it the crf 300 has proven that that everyone's jumping on them like they're a block of chocolate everybody loves them so i love the 500 yeah you've got one stashed away somewhere yeah i do i do hidden away yeah right don't tell rosie because we're going to the husky trek next week with the 701s oh great i love the husky nearly as much as i love rosie all righty so mark get back onto this this talk and so what else you've got on the bike so you've increased the oil range yeah so increase oil range um bigger tank as well 17 liters which gets me 400 plus k's yeah so i'm more than happy with that yeah and i want to keep it really lightweight so i actually built my own sort of luggage rack here yeah because the frame the rear of the bike is a little bit um yeah they they think i don't have to do a crap here's two oh i keep going the um now the the rear of the 500s i don't believe can take much weight it's all plastic they've shortened the subframe so i've come up with my own yeah this is just sort of day tripping giant loop luggage yeah so what's that it's a giant loop which one's that uh small one mojave isn't it that's a mojave yeah yeah and then you got this other giant loop one yeah again just just small like i don't like it i don't like a big tank bag just pretty much minimalistic yeah you don't need a lot of stuff there um and to be honest that's about it um suspension got redone obviously for the weight so how did who did your suspension for motorcycle biz oh clive see i got the plug in oh yeah look there's motorcycle biz and how have you found that oh yeah absolutely spot on yeah absolutely love it so um on that point on that point yeah we've got an adjuster here oh so you've got an x-trig have you yes yeah oh yeah look have a look under there see that's an x-trig adjuster which is brilliant because you can change your weight if you're carrying a bit more weight you can just up your yeah anything else on this bike no just just sort of standard mirrors i can see something mark god you got to know your own bike there's a steering damper oh okay damper yeah it's not gonna bring in some cows on it oh yeah dave um the other thing is steering dampener i don't know i've always liked them this is a fairly significant piece of work too oh yeah so these handlebars and that are uh this company called highway dirt bikes they're in the u.s and they make sort of different faces where you can put switches and all that stuff on and very very sturdy i actually really like these handguards they designed they just like a bridge yeah well they keep the wind off your hands so especially in those cold mornings they're all fantastic and they actually have flip out mirrors as well okay but i prefer the ram mount you're looking at cows what are they got a name yeah they're on the table inside we'll take them there i'm seeing some more stuff mate you don't know your bike mate have a look at this look at the radiator guards oh yeah okay yeah they've got these lovely force radiator guards um everyone needs a carbon pipe guard i was gonna say you didn't talk about the carbon pipe guard i think those are all just the fancy bits i'm not sure if you need them on an adventure bike but um yeah yeah it's really about just being as light as possible there's another thing there that you've that you could have talked about but i'll talk about and see look at the weight on the back wheels there that's the balance that the wheel out because there's nothing worse than riding an adventure bike with unbalanced wheels at 100 and 110 100ks it just drives you nuts yeah so dirt bikes they don't necessarily balance wheels but if you're gonna have an adventure bike you balance the wheels mate you've done a great job there yeah thank you no i'm absolutely wrapped and i don't think there's anything left to do to be honest oh look here we go here's some more so here he's got a counter shaft sprocket protector you forgot about that mark what else i'll keep looking oh look he's got a is that that's not that's not a ktm part no it's not but the truth is if my wife watches this video and sees all the money i've spent on the accessories i'll i'll be in trouble nugget how's those cows going over there mate they look like wombats they're so fat someone wants something you know oh look there's another thing nugget there's another thing you didn't talk about this is the toe strap when i've got to tow him with the husky yeah we get over 120 yeah so what speed can you sit on mark i can sit on about 110 easily obviously after that it gets a bit more but you can change the gearing which i've tried but for most of my riding i'm happy with what i got yeah what gearing do you run on yeah that's another question i don't actually know because i know when i venture rode my 500 i had a 45 on the front and on the rear sorry yeah 45 on the rear i had and i had a 14 on the front and i think you can get like that was the thing and that's 160 kilometers an hour but i find it better if you have a 15 on the front and you keep if your bike's going to be used for both 15 on the front and leave the 50 on the back because then you've only got to change the sprocket you don't have to change the chain so you change the front sprocket around yeah and you can still sit comfortably on 110 all day that's what we're talking about doing with the crf 300 i mean we're in a different power league but the same thing you just change that counter shaft sprocket they get you yeah that's right you start changing the rear to that yeah no i'm currently running 15 on the front and 50 on the rear and like if i was going on a real wide open you know fast ride i'd just throw a 48 on the back snugget and i talking about the desert again he's got his special desert headlight here yeah we need to get out in the desert all right mark well thanks for for taking us around the bike i've just noticed another modification that you forgot to tell us about oh actually i have as well oh have you well i'll do mine first see this so he's got just to protect the mojave he's got a giant heat protector there giant loop harold giant loop heat protector harold giant loop it's upside down yeah that that's pretty much the way i spend most of my time maybe we could just turn the camera around hang on hang on oh yeah no no it's right now it's right now they've probably um actually one of the first mods any adventure rider should do yeah is a seat so on the seat concept seat extra wide and if you're australian you just you gotta ride a sheep it's just the way it is oh look kiwis rode sheep oh i found this odd like a seat i've got a seat concept seat on my 690 it's as comfortable as anything it's like you're being to be sure to be sure so you got a a hairy bit as well yeah but i just touched where your nutsack went quick i've got to wash my hands god nugget you're tempting me i could see this as bike build fire for me you too you're influencing me yeah that's the trouble as i'm getting older i've got a groin injury sonja was throwing me around the bedroom too that's what you told her she didn't appreciate that yeah so anyway no that's a good that's a good bill but what i found is the older i get the more bikes i have and the less i ride them there is something wrong yeah i'll finish that filming are they ims footpegs you've got on there oh yeah dave they're beautiful oh nugget we got he needs to do an apprenticeship with you about describing stuff what do you reckon like i'm surprised you forgot oh he's got a burly tire on the front nothing like a punch of the sponsor like i said motos on the back like i said if my wife knew about all the accessories i'll be in trouble do you know how much these ims pegs cost i mean they're really good oh i think i was sponsored dave all right i don't think i paid for those oh good all right that's all right he's saying come on dad you got to go you forgot another part there's your there's your mirrors oh yeah not the bedpan but the mirrors those are the mirrors that go on the bike yeah thanks mate yeah god he knows his bike well oh that's a different bike that rattling you can hear in the background is nugget we won't be able to see mark's lights with that smoke all right are your are your missions so tell me tell me what we got on here on the front of this bike what's this thing called oh yeah it's uh it's a group of guys from uh spain and just stopped there because i can't actually remember that's all i'll just keep rolling until you do um adventure man cave the adventure man cave these guys adventure man cave and they uh they make this great tower for the uh 500 and it's pretty much just plug and play yeah it's got a great little screen and um we'll see it in the daylight but at the moment we're drinking beer eating meat and uh testing headlights and here we go holy what's that low wow that is serious mark what they call man cave adventure man cave adventure man cave it's a light looking little unit there too yeah no absolutely sensational mate what do you reckon nugget that's a pass isn't it beautiful white light as well bit posh for me oh god it's gone out black yeah i'd have to start the bike this is a bit of a rebel against all the twins being thrown out there this year i mean there's there's been about four different twins around the 800 to 900 capacity what's going on here you rebels you like well i'm a rebel because mine's done up i actually find a twin bike is great if you're going to do long legs if you're going around australia or you're going across the world a twin is great but 90 of people who want to venture out live in the city and you're only really going away for two or three days on the eastern seaboard where we live in sydney and you don't need a big bike that can carry 150 kilos you just need something small you at least need three to four hundred i reckon kilometers in fuel range and that's all you need carry a little bit on the back absolutely and and hey like the speed limit is 110 so this puppy can do it and like nugget said it's cruising around the eastern seaboard most of it's probably going to be you know 90 80 k's maybe another thing i don't understand i mean if you're a motorcycle manufacturer and you're hearing if i put up a video on the crf 300 a million people watch it not quite but a lot right so there's this real push for little bikes for smaller bikes the most popular size for my audience is 500 cc so this is the bike that they want so why don't they make an adventure 500 i don't know because you've made the ultimate one in it it's not that radical is it you just want a bit of wind protection as nugget says yeah it does everything that's that's the best thing about it but what it doesn't do is it doesn't cart your missus down to the eastern suburbs of sydney on a sunday morning to have a latte that's what it doesn't do no it doesn't do no pillion pegs on this one and that that's what a lot of people like these adventure bikes for is because they go with their their friends up the blue mountains but they also they want to cart them around the city i'm trying to get away on an adventure by myself yeah they look very i don't know what you've trained them to do but they want it you know we have to say about the eastern seaboard like because the great dividing range i don't know where it starts is it starting melbourne or does it start in sydney does it run for a thousand kilometers or three thousand oh it's three thousand great divide three thousand would it but does it go from milk mate we've ridden all over australia we don't even know our geography what's going on here i reckon we must be in the middle of it then yeah that's the great divide just behind us yeah nugget's great divide so for our friends we've got this range that stretches the whole length of the east coast of australia and it appears a few blokes have forgotten about its length well i didn't want to say in case i was wrong because i know a thousand k's is two thousand short i used to be in short well harold there's a this is a old mojave look how well how long have you had this just talking about giant loop honestly i think probably 10 years 10 years it looks bloody fine there's nothing wrong with it actually dave the first time i had that is when we did a trip up up up to up the cape oh yeah oh the cape probably eight years ago when teddy was driving the truck eight years ago yeah yeah at least eight years so wow zips and everything still work that's a good testament giant loop absolutely