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Hey all, Lurking on the forums for a bit, haven't had the chance to join any rides yet. Riding a KTM 690 enduro. I swap my street and dirt setup myself, and I'm looking to ride more dirt. Mostly weekend trips. Riding about 10 years. 90% street. 35. SD native.

I recently had my KTM's top-end rebuilt by Dave Hopkins. I had the works done, new kibblewhite valves, new cam chain, re-plated cylinder, new piston, and of course all the gaskets. Dave did a great job, but upon rebuilding the bike the fuel mixture was totally off. I couldn't get the bike fueling correct with the stock jetting and thus began my efforts to get the bike running well again. I first installed a JD Jet Kit, but was unsuccessful in dialing in the carb myself. I suck with carbs, so I figured I'd take it in to GP to see what they could do. I provided them the original needle and jets, and the full JD jet kit. Well, $180 dollars later and the bike still runs like crap. GP states: GP didn't mention what they installed, or what position they changed the needle to. So now I'm out $180 bucks, the bike runs terrible, and apparently I bought a JD kit that is also crap. Any experience or advice from the forum with similar issues or what my next step should be? Return the JD kit and go complain to GP? I was thinking of cutting my losses with GP and taking the bike to Lee's Cycle. I have heard a lot of great stuff about the JD kits, so I'm surprised the kit is being blamed. To be fair, the bike ran poorly before I installed the kit, and I'm annoyed that GP didn't do whatever was necessary with the parts I proved them and just get the damn thing running well. I just want to go for a ride, haha.

Perry (on the XR) and I had breakfast at Kountry Kitchen in Ramona, and rode around and had a bit of a locked gate tour, so we made a command decision to push out to Lost Valley, and ran that to the DQ in Anza. Great day for a ride 👍

Hey all, Name's Nick - former track junkie type, found the big goofy ADV bikes a few years back and fell in love with getting tires dirty... which has subsequently lead to my newest addition - 2018 KTM 690 Enduro R (my daily is my trusty BMW F800GSA) I've probably seen you out on the roads or trails over the years, looking to be more involved with the forum etc. Look forward to meeting & riding with more local folks, I frequent the trails all around us and have met some really cool folks through the sdar fb group thus far. Rubber side down. Pic of newest baby attached...

Alright, so which one of you from Ramona is it that I see riding a BMW adventure bike, on my way to and from work on Wildcat, 67 and then 8 in the mornings and in reverse in the afternoons?

Just saying "Hey"... I'm a noob from the Clairemont area riding a 2015 KTM 500exc. Currently do like 90% of my DualSport Riding in Baja. Love riding down in Mexico and have really wanted to do more dual sport stuff. Looking forward to meeting folks on here and joining up some of the community rides. Here's a pic of the "Once New" 500 and the beach outside Todos Santos

Pancho and Lefty Play the hits of Charley and Ewan: The Dans take the Leisurely Way Eastbound ”Man, I gotta get away. This job has been sucking lately.” “I hear ya, brother. Where to?” “I’ll think of something. Be at my place at noon tomorrow.” And so on Saturday I headed to DanRider’s place for a mystery ride, thinking about where we might ride/camp. Big Bear? Idyllwild? The Hillbilly Haven north of Lake Henshaw? My only caveats were: Limited highway and back by noon on Sunday. Pulling up to Dan’s place, I could see he was ready to ride. “Yuma,” he said. “No slab!” said I. He nodded, hit the throttle and we were off. The route was Valley Center, Rincon, the 76 to San Felipe Road, the 78 to Ocotillo Wells (where we stopped for a cold one at the Iron Door), Westmoreland to El Centro via the 111. Then the I-8 to Winterhaven where we stopped for Mexican chow before fueling up and heading to Picacho Road. It was 18 miles of a fun gravel/sand road to the Picacho State Recreation Area. There are quite a few burros in the area and I saw a mother burro and little burrito along the way. At the end of the road was a well-maintained campground right on the pretty Colorado River. There was only one other occupied campsite so we paid the fee and chose a place near the water and the showers (yes, there are HOT solar showers). We set up camp, broke out the stogies and tequila and commenced to relaxin’. We quickly dispatched Dan’s tequila (the last of the Frida Kahlo) and started on my Patron. The sun went down and the full moon came up, lighting up the campground like a streetlamp. We sat and talked about bike stuff and work and retirement and other Very Important Subjects. After solving the world’s problems, we retired to our tents, like Old Guys are prone to do. Neither of us had put up a rain fly and I drifted off looking at the starlight display. On a related side note, I recently bought a compact cot and I’ve used it twice now. (OutAd Ultralight Camp Cot, a Chinese knock-off of the ThermaRest one: See my Amazon review here: http://www.amazon.com/OUTAD-Aluminum-Ultralight-Moisture-proof-Stretcher/dp/B019OFR68K -- yes, it IS that purple) I gotta say, it’s quite an addition to my camping kit. Could I live without it? Sure. But I’m at that age where comfort takes a back seat to minimalist camping. I slept so well that I’ve pretty much made up my mind to keep using it. We were up and having coffee by 6:30. As we sipped on the java, there were some vultures eagerly eying the chubbier rider in our group. Nuff said… A nice park employee stopped by to chat with us as we were enjoying the cool morning and she recommended that we take an alternate route back. Pointing to our bikes, she asked, “Those things have 4-wheel drive, right? Cuz’ you’ll need it to get to the really good places…like Taylor Lake).” That sounded like a fun challenge, but, alas, it was not to be. I had to get home by noon for a family function and couldn’t do any more exploring this weekend. That’s OK, it’ll be our next 2 or 3-day ride… We packed up and headed home riding quite a bit faster on Picacho Road on our way out. We hit the I-8 and slabbed it all the way back through some blowing wind. Good for green energy, not great for ADV bikes… Of note, I waved at a group of bikers coming up fast on my left. They waved back as they passed us and it was only then that I saw it was a 6 pack of Hell’s Angels. Shortly after, a much larger group of them passed us…and they waved, too. Interesting. Maybe I’ll join up. Start a 3-pice patch HA dual sport club. Yeah, I can see it now: SDOMGAR. OMG indeed. Dan peeled off at the 67 and I was home right at noon. Nice, quick camp/ride. Already making plans to head back and see the rest of the area.

can someone explain the differences between these 3 models, the more I read the more confused I get. Please keep it simple cause I went to school in Isleton

I picked up my 990 ADV from All American KTM last week. Basic maintenance and a water pump rebuild. RJ said the coolant came out in globs. They'd seen it twice before, both on ADVs, and weren't sure what caused it but were fairly certain oil had not leaked in (as is common to this model). Said that the 990s run too cool and that may be a factor. Removed the radiator, completely flushed the system, refilled with new coolant and added a new cap. I hadn't noticed any drop in the coolant level and I hadn't added any in 13k miles. No harm, no foul. But it is a concern for the big Katoom riders. Anyone else seen this, KTM or otherwise?

Hi All, I'm deleting everything here since there is already another area for mods to the KTM 500 EXC and I should've posted this over there to benefit the whole group. Before the comments grow too much, I'm deleting it here and will repost over there. Thanks much for the comments so far! http://dualsport-sd.com/forums/index.php?/topic/20328-ktm-exc-500-bestfirst-mods/ See you on the trails, Schweddy **************************************************************** Thought I'd share what I'm doing with the new bike in case anyone wants to leverage any of the ideas or has some good feedback if you've done any of this already. What follows are my build plans for the NEW 2015 500 EXC. Picking up the beast on Friday after work and like a kid at Christmas, Friday is taking forever to get here! Will warn the neighbors, set out the firepit in the driveway for a 24 hour burn, fill up the refrig with choice beverages and grub, turn on the tunes, and tell my family I'll see them in 32 hours. Let Schweddy’s build begin...

The Old Routes Are Open! May 2nd & 3rd, 2015 - Buck Meadows, CA This event is limited to 150 participants!!! To see how many tickets are left click: https://2015yat.eventbrite.com The RIM Fire in 2013 closed off HUGE parts of the forest but now those areas are open again! Come see the ride that started it all! The forest is calling you BACK! Held at the gateway to Yosemite National Park, this two day, GPS based, adventure ride includes all the scenic & historic destinations in and around Yosemite that you would expect. Paved and unpaved roads give you almost 100 miles of fun each day! Lunch, sweep riders, chase truck provided each day. FUN BBQ on Saturday night raises money for charities and over $10,000.00 in prizes ensures that everyone wins something! Event operated under permit from the Stanislaus National Forest. Learn More: http://familyoffroadadventures.com/ Watch a cool 1 min. video: https://youtu.be/TlbnOdMr3oI Get the latest news on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FamilyOffRoad

Perfect weather for riding, a bit dusty. couple of snaps from our braaps MtnMan's new Beta probably best to wheelie this section and this one too Oh GoPro...it's so hard to frame you correctly.

2015 KTM 350 EXCF No Kouba link which i like and just used on wifeys CRF 250L, anyone have any experience with the X Bushing/Z bolt setup. Tired of the tippy toe dance!, this Dane likes to Tango!.... Any info/comments much appreciated. http://www.ktm-parts.com/XBUSHKIT.html

NEW ROUTES! NEW DESTINATIONS! September 27th & 28th, 2014 - Buck Meadows, CA This event is limited to 150 participants!!! To see how many tickets are left click: https://2014ydsa.eventbrite.com Last year this event was cancelled due to the "Rim Fire" in Yosemite. As a result we now have new routes and new destinations! Held at the gateway to Yosemite National Park, this two day, GPS based, dual sport ride includes all the scenic & historic destinations in and around Yosemite that you would expect. Paved and unpaved roads give you almost 100 miles of fun each day! Lunch, sweep riders, chase truck provided each day. FUN BBQ on Saturday night raises money for charities and over $9,000.00 in prizes ensures that everyone wins something! Event operated under permit from the Stanislaus National Forest. Learn More: http://familyoffroadadventures.com/ Watch a cool 1 min. video: Get the latest news on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FamilyOffRoad