KTM forks on a BMW: Garage Night Episode 11 WATCH NOW!!

The KTM axle is too fat to go through the F650 hub.

Not sure how Touratech deal with this - whether they use a new hub as
well, or somehow adapt the F650 hub, or the axle carriers on the forks
are different ... but our chosen route is straightforward: use a KTM
hub.

T'tech's complete rallye conversion kit for an F650 costs in excess of
thirteen grand last time I checked - it is a very extensive kit-out
with big tanks, rear shock etc. But we are going a somewhat cheaper
route!

Waz
http://www.garagenight.tv

 

This I just do not understand. Aren't all Harley's low enough to
begin with?

 

Maybe - but is any of it particularly "Harley-unique"?

I'll avoid the obvious cheap shots (for one thing, it looks like
those have already been done! ;-)).

Bob M.

 

My first thought would have been to look for a bearing with
an ID to fit the KTM axle and an OD to fit the BMW wheel.

Don't know if it's doable in this particular case, but I've
done that before in a wheel swap.

 

Last time I checked, they have the lowest seat height on average,
yes.

But there's still lots of people for whom even that low height is too
high, so it's a very common modification.

Perhaps some of it is due to the easy availability of kits for it.
With Harleys, changes are minimal from year to year (even model to
model) so that translates into a big enough market for companies to
justify manufacturing special items for it. And, with all those
tempting choices out there, it tends to encourage the owners to make
modifications, so it's kinda self-perpetuating.

 

That made me curious, so a little digging turned up this:

http://motorcycleviews.com/general/seatheights.htm

Looks to be about 3 years old, but I suspect it's still pretty
close to reality.

H-Ds on this list range from the Sportster at the high end
(28.1 inches) to the Softtail Deluxe at the very bottom of the
list (24.5 inches). And except for the little Buell Blast, which
is just a small bike all around, it IS almost all Harleys once
you get under 26 inches (with a couple of Victorys and
the Honda Shadow VLX thrown in for good measure).

At which point, the first thought that came to
my mind was - you're wanting to lower it from THAT?
Migawd, what do you need to be able to do? Put your
feet flat on the asphalt while keeping your knees bent?

For comparison, note that the top end of the list, at least at
the time (2006) was the Suzuki DR-Z400S, at 36.8 inches.
If you run down the list until you come to something that isn't
at least somewhat dual-sportish, you find the Yamaha YZF-R6
at 33.5 inches, and for more of a sport-tourer I note the
BMW K1200 at 32.3.

Personally, I just can't imagine riding a bike with the seat
8 inches lower than that, let alone wanting to drop it even
more. Just my preference, of course.

Bob M.

 

Wooooosssshhhhhhhh!

A whole bloody squadron of the bastards!

 

Certainly more common to find H-D's that have
the air-fuel remapped... this is almost de riguer.
Ditto for exhaust... you almost never find one
with factory pipes. Both of these are usually
improvements... not to say you can't screw them
up. I'm not aware of other manufacturers that
allow (even encourage) remapping of their
engine controller's flash memory... seems like
there's a lot of PowerCommanders, etc. used
for this in other makes, but nowhere near the
penetration of the Stage 1 modification for H-D.
It's commonly referred to as the 'Harley Tax'...
costs about $300 for the filter change and remap.

I've got the H-D SuperTuner device... a little dongle
that goes between laptop and ECU. I can set
it to record for about 20min... the software is
really cool, gives three-dimensional graphs of
what's going on. I haven't changed my map
from straight Stage 1 yet... too many decisions
to make about exhaust. It gives me a ridiculous
amount of control over air-fuel, volumetric
efficiency, injector timing, etc. Bewildering.

I guess that's the big lesson... you see an H-D,
chances are it's not stock in the controller dept.
You do see folks lowering, etc... I put a higher
('Tall Boy') seat, expensive shocks (stock height),
RaceTech Gold Valves... going the other way, I
guess. Changed the mini-apes for low bars on
day one. The only Harley I've ever seen with
a tank bag on it.
__
Steve
'06 FXDI
KI5YG
DoD 627
..

 

<fx: points at Aprilia in .sig>

 

ECU remapping? This all seems rather over-the-top for asthmatic old
pushrod two-valvers!

(Says the two-valve Ducati rider)

Waz
http://www.garagenight.tv