The next chapter...KTM Super Adventure S

bmac

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Interesting. I was looking at these Cool Covers this very morning. Have a couple of very long (for me) tours coming up over the next couple of years and really struggle on the Super Tenere after a few hours in the saddle. Didn’t want to go down the new seat route, so considered the AirHawk and similar route, then started seeing a few bikes with the cool covers. Do they help with the numb bum situation?
Most definitely. Getting some air movement in the saddle is a huge advantage on longer rides. I tried AirHawk and hated it. This is completely different.
 
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ballisticexchris

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Most definitely. Getting some air movement in the saddle is a huge advantage on longer rides. I tried AirHawk and hated it. This is completely different.
I currently have the AirHawk/Beadrider combination and love it. Seats are very subjective from rider to rider. I could not put on 500+ mile days without an Airhawk. Guys that ride day in day out all the time normally don't need anything. I can go without riding for a year and install my Airhawk then pull off a 500 mile day with no drama.
 

Dirt_Dad

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It takes a a minute or two to put on as it is tightly fitted. Not quite as easy as seat beads but easy enough. It comes off in seconds.
Thanks for the info. I've known about these for a while, but didn't know how removable it was after install. Now that I know I suspect I can finally help DM know what she can get me. She tells me I'm hard to buy for...some nonsense about me always just buying what I want...blah, blah, blah.

The Puig screen with the spoiler you installed was perfect for me at 6'. It was one of those things where after the fact was when I realized I had been getting no turbulence and the top of the screen was not up in my face.
Ah yes, wind management and seating comfort...I don't think you could find two more individual personal preference items than those.

That spoiler comes included with the Puig screen. The spoiler is nearly identical to the MRA spoiler/screen I ran for the last 9 years. Each manufacturer has their pluses and minuses. While both hold their spoiler in place perfectly, the movement mechanism is far superior in the MRA. The overall wind management of the Puig is better than the MRA, but I never had any complaints about the MRA/Madstad setup I used. No Madstad necessary with the Puig.

As you rode the bike, the screen and the spoiler were both set to their lowest position. The KTM OEM mount allows up to 2" of 'on the fly' adjustment up. Add the adjustment up on the spoiler and you could easily be set to block everything and be looking through the screen. Never something I want to do, plus moving the KTM adjuster up makes the GPS bounce a distracting amount. Might look for a different solution for that, although also being 6' tall I find the low, low setting is ideal for me as well.
 

Dirt_Dad

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Almost a month since the last tire check. Here is 4065.
Rear


Front
20201009_174108.jpg

I know I've slowed my rate of mileage accumulation rate, but in my defense I've also put over 1100 miles on the 690 in the last 30 days.
 

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Dirt_Dad

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So at over 4K on these OEM tires, I don't think I'm concerned about the bike being a tire eater. Madhatter's buddy and I are clearly not riding the SAS in the same way.

I believe I was premature in my assessment below.

The is one thing it's really bad at...it won't win any camouflage competitions.
Up on Highland Scenic Highway the bike was pretty well camouflaged.



Put the cases on the bike and went for the first fully loaded multi-day trip .



Our history of packing too much has remained consistent. Along with a heavy duffel bag on the back seat (not pictured), had to set the bike to 2 passenger with luggage to get the best handling out of it. That is exactly the same setting I used with the Tenere with a similar load. After getting my brain adjusted to the extra weight I was able to fully enjoy the twistiest of WV roads. It is different from an unloaded SAS, but still able to appreciate the handling and power of the bike in travel configuration.











Left for home from the top of Snow Shoe Mountain in WV. Pouring rain, heavy fog. Rain lasted on and off for over 4 hours of the ride home. The more years I ride, the more respect I have for wet roads. It is impossible to get away from Snow Shoe without encountering seriously twisty roads. A true joy on dry pavement, a cause for enhanced vigilance while riding a fully loaded bike on rain soaked roads covered in slippery leaves. The SAS gives as much confidence as a Tenere in these conditions.

Set to Rain mode the whole ride home, rebound at 2 passenger with luggage, and load set to Comfort, resulted the smoothest ride I've ever experienced on any motorcycle...ever. Looking at every imperfection and bridge transition on the mostly empty West Virginia 4-lane had me amazed at the ride of the weighted down bike.

Hopefully when 2020 is over I'll get to enjoy the bike on a true long distance ride. This mini-trip was enough to make me want more...and I do.

For you chain haters (including me), this was tolerable. Chain lubed before the trip, after 400 miles, bikes up on the stands, wife kicked the wheel around as I sprayed the chain. Definitely not as carefree as a shaft, but it's not completely miserable. Still don't know if I'll get a chain oiler. Wife is happier now that I've disabled her Scott Oiler, she hated the mess on her hands whenever she touched her cases. So I'll have to lube at least one bike on a trip. That ball is still up in the air regarding installing an oiler for the SAS.
 

Dirt_Dad

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Tires, tires, tires...it's not a tire eater, and I do really appreciate the performance of the stock tires on the pavement, but today I visited a favorite fall road and the 95% street tire on a faily steep twisty gravel road did have me quite cautious.





Of course the pictures don't do the road justice. It's not extreme, but definitely had it parked in gear to keep it on the kickstand here.

Has me wondering about next tires. 95% road is pretty limited. I'm not interested in going back to the 50/50 setup of E07 I appreciated so much on the Tenere, it's just too sketchy for wet performance, and I still look at the SAS as primarily a street bike, but I probably want to go to a 80/20 setup. No reason to feel this uneasy on a road like this, but still want solid wet/dry street performance. I see research in my future.

 

Checkswrecks

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When you rode my bike it had the Avon AV53/54 Trail Riders which are a bit more dirt oriented than what you have and have been great on the street. Definitely NOT mud tires but they do great on wet roads and fine on our usual gravel. Let me know if you want to head off on some gravel with it.

 

Dirt_Dad

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When you rode my bike it had the Avon AV53/54 Trail Riders which are a bit more dirt oriented than what you have and have been great on the street. Definitely NOT mud tires but they do great on wet roads and fine on our usual gravel. Let me know if you want to head off on some gravel with it.
Wow, that's a company with a lot of range. I was probably 15 years old when I last bought an Avon product. Some calogne that was supposed to help with the girls. Didn't work, hope their tires are better.

The photo of your tire looks like a decent candidate. My first consideration is my next tire will need to put up with the best my aging body and brain can throw at a 160hp bike in the paved twisties. Rain performance is also a big one for me. I don't ever want to relive the Kansas City experience from last year. With those two considerations satisfied, I'm open to throwing the remaining capability at off pavement excursions.

I do see this as my road bike that is capable of light off pavement dalliances. I'm intentionally keeping the skid plate off it to reduce temptation. I don't consider Swinging Bridge Road (Boyds Gap) to be beyond the light off pavement designation. But it did feel to be pushing my comfort level on those Perelli Scorpion Trail II tires. Honestly they might as well have been slicks. I relied on all the bike's electronics to reduce wheel spin (yes, I just wrote that). I can't see the benefit of riding like me, spinning up the rear tire, not getting anywhere, but killing tire life just the same. I remain happy to prematurely kill back tires, but I want entertainment out of their early demise. In the dirt, those Scorpions just will not entertain, however on the pavement I have absolutely no criticism to offer. Very solid tire wet and dry.
 

Ron_Luning

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Checking in on this thread for the first time a few months. Ditto all that is written about the SAS vs. S10. Mine is just over 4k miles now after 11 months of ownership (kids and work keep me from doing the high miles that many can). I'm on the 2nd rear tire as the first one was squared of and more or less down to the wear bars at 3k miles. The handling suffers when the shape goes square, as you all hopefully realize too, but there were few miles left in it. Opening up the throttle everywhere possible on backroads is the reason mine wore out faster, not because of massive highway riding. I keep the TC on, so if I turned it off my expectation would be no more than 2500 miles out of a stock rear tire. If you want tires that last 12k miles, you can always ride a CB500.
 

Dirt_Dad

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I don't think I'm babying the thing, but at 4500 miles I see tons of tire life left on the OEM rubber. I do ride with TCS off a fair amount, while in sport/sport. Makes the front end come up at more easily that way. But at this rate, I do think I might be able to get a larger tire life than I'm accustom to getting on the Tenere.

To be fair, I never knew how much tire life I got out of the Tenere. The rear always traveled a hell of a lot father than the front tire, or at least it got a lot more revolutions.
 

Dirt_Dad

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It was a 2020 SAS.
I an tell you I have no regrets. It has changed my riding style and expectations of a bike. My desire to ride has exploded off the charts.

May I ask why you picked the S version over the R?
I started off wanting the R. But my reason for making the change was I recognized I was done riding rough stuff on a huge bike. I've done my share of rock crawling and it's my least favorite way to ride off pavement. Mud slogging on a big bike is just not what I want to be doing. I have a small bike for any of that. Dirt_Mom had heard me say all that, so when we stopped at a dealer to look at the R, DM ask me why I wasn't looking at this nice S model. That planted a seed.

I did some test riding. A number of 21" wheel bikes and didn't find the slower steering to be satisfying on a big bike (it's never bothered me on a small bike). My local KTM dealer only had the S available for a test ride. It was interesting, checked all the boxes for still dirt capable, but not going to tempt me into places I don't want to go...but often find myself...regretting it. When that dealer came up with a crazy low price...within $400 of what I paid 5 years earlier for my Romney discounted S10, I said what the heck. Even if it's the worst mistake I could make, that price made it worth the risk.

If you asked my during the first 3 hours of riding after purchase I would have told you I made a huge mistake. Regret building. After lunch I decided to stop being "careful" about the 160 hp beast, and get more aggressive. That's when the regret started to diminish. The more I learned the bike, the more impressed and I became. 3 months in and 4500+ miles and I look forward to every next ride.

Every bike has to meet the riders expectations and attitude about riding. The Tenere matched me well for nearly 10 years. The SAS exceeds expectations, matches and even improves my attitude, and is the most entertaining bike I've ever owned.
 
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ballisticexchris

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I started off wanting the R. But my reason for making the change was I recognized I was done riding rough stuff on a huge bike. I've done my share of rock crawling and it's my least favorite way to ride off pavement. Mud slogging on a big bike is just not what I want to be doing. I have a small bike for any of that. Dirt_Mom had heard me say all that, so when we stopped at a dealer to look at the R, DM ask me why I wasn't looking at this nice S model. That planted a seed.

I'm with you on not doing the stupid stuff on a beast. IMO the KTM you rode on the MABDR is still a bit too heavy for my taste. But man what a heck of a bike. The suspension on that bike is amazing.
 

Dirt_Dad

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I'm with you on not doing the stupid stuff on a beast. IMO the KTM you rode on the MABDR is still a bit too heavy for my taste. But man what a heck of a bike. The suspension on that bike is amazing.
Like many here i also once had a WR250. Far superior bike for true rock crawling. But I'm not entertained by rock crawling. Just not my thing. The 690 is ideal for the type of dirt I do enjoy.
 

BaldKnob

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I used those Pirelli Trail tires once and really enjoyed them. Got a solid 8K miles out of the rear and front looked good for 10-12K. Exceptional handling, quiet and reasonably long lived. I do wish they cost less but...
 
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