My KTM 1190R Adventures - Part 2

Welcome back guys to my KTM 1190R adventures. This is part two, and remember if you like what you're seeing, don't forget to subscribe to Aremen1, my YouTube channel, and you can leave all your comments and feedback in the comments section of this video. This time around I'm going to take you on a bit more of a personal adventure with the bike, get to know it. I'm still getting to know it, so I figured the best way to learn what it does and all the functions it has is to try and show you guys exactly what it does and what it has. Good morning, and a good morning it is. I best be getting some fuel though. A bit early for the cafe caper, so I've just settled for a servo coffee. Not bad, not bad at this hour, and today I'm going to test run a bit of audio equipment. I've got a bluetooth link from the GoPro straight to my comms, so I'll be able to talk rubbish to you guys on the fly. Here we go, into the sea of commuters. Gotta be on your game more than ever in this ----. So good to be off-road, there's just something about it. Bitumen, you just feel part of the system. As soon as it turns to dirt, it's just an element of freedom that comes with it. I don't know what it is, it just is. I'm just going to keep it fairly steady for now. Yep, because of that kangaroos. Right, now I want to have traction control into off-road mode, and I think it should still be there despite turning off the key. Yep, off-road mode is still on. That's pretty cool, but tell me then why, when you go to AVS, it resets it back to road mode whenever you switch the key off. I don't quite get the logic there, but anyway, boom, AVS is now in off-road mode. I really like the standing position on the 1190. Let's just swing around that. When you're on the pegs and leaning forward, I feel like I'm in the exact stance that I would be on the 300, or a 500, or any other KTM EXC for that matter. Look out, they're everywhere, kangaroos. It can be easy to forget that you're on such a big bike, so I guess you've got to just clock up the hours and get a feel for it, you know, so you just start reacting as you should for a bike that weighs over 200 kilos. I feel so comfortable beneath you, it's easy to get up a decent pace, especially when you're in some fairly snotty terrain like this, and you know, the bike will handle it pretty fast, but sooner or later you're going to really, whoa, stint the rims and probably get a flat somewhere out in the middle of nowhere. If I go quiet, it's because I'm concentrating. Ah, here we go, fallen log. It's actually a stick. If I was on the 300 EXC, that'd be nothing, and you know what? It's probably nothing on this bike, but I'm just getting a feel for this stuff. What do you reckon? Let's just hit it. Yeah, 1200cc adventure bike, this is a log. You can't really go at it too gingerly, you've just got to sort of assume the right technique and do it. Let's see what happens. Okay, I'll give it a go. That wasn't too bad, still not giving me the boost I need. What have we got here? Bit of a fallen tree and it's diagonal. All right, size this puffy up. Well, never an ideal run up, but what I can get for the minute, just will have to do. Here we go. Wasn't so scary after all. One thing that's immediately obvious is I need to stiffen the suspension, and how good is it that you can just do it on the fly? I'm just going up four clicks harder on the compression. This is a cool feature right here, this preload adjuster. On the fly as well, no tools needed. Yeah, it feels a bit more active already. Here we go, classic situation where you can come in a bit hot because you just fool yourself into thinking you're still on an enduro bike and you're on a big girl. Well, and you know what? It handles it so well, but every now and you get some decent sized rocks that, well, can be pretty hard on the ribs. Ah, is it beer o'clock yet? I think so. Let's go. Tell you what, it's so hot. What's the temperature? General info, and it is 40.5 degrees. What idiot rides in this heat? So in my infinite motorcycling wisdom, it turns out that I've been denying myself of an extra 50 horsepower. A bit of banter on these forums, if you switch it to sport mode, the engine goes from 100 horsepower to 150. Yep, ABS off, traction control off, 150 horsepower. This is just the master blaster. So good. Try and get down to the beach. Yep, there is no traction control involved there. It's all up to me now. Could be scary. Once you get up a bit of speed, the thing just kind of sails its way around the place. It's got to keep momentum. It can be pretty stressful trying to get a feel for a bike this big in the sand, you know, because it's like a boat on water. It doesn't do anything unless it's got a bit of momentum. It's got to keep momentum. It's got to keep momentum. Unless there's power driving it, and that includes turning. Well, that's it for part two of my KTM 1190R adventures. Hang out for part three, which is going to be a behind-the-scenes look at the very first KTM Australia Adventure Rally in the snowy mountains. See you next time.