Jealousy

[leroysch]

I knew it was bad form, but after discovering a KTM dealer only 50 miles away with an in-stock 1290 Super Duke decked out for sport tourer duty I figured why not combine a V11 ride with window shopping? I barely got underway before the rear brake expressed its discontent with my intentions by refusing to obey foot commands. Since this was just a leisurely ride and not corner carving, NBD. Made it to the dealer and ogled the bike (surpisingly erect seating position, hoses going to all sorts of unusual places for that push-button suspension adjustment stuff I read about, looks like it has an servomotor controlled valve in the exhaust after the cat converter for euro noise compliance, single-sided swingarm...and the bags looked ginormous). It does have a..distinctive..look, something like a streetfighter grudgingly accepts the audacity of hard luggage while its sibling dirt bike heritage is still there somehow. 

 

The ride home was uneventful but enjoyable, of course. The recently added GPS and voltmeter were working and the speedometer bezel (which has come off twice) was secure. The bike was running strong and the previous uncertainty in the front end I had felt in previous outings apparently been solved by adding a few psi to the front tire. It hadn't been outrageously low, so I was surprised at what a difference it made. Pulling into the garage, taking off my helmet, shutting the garage door, and heading into the house I stopped, hearing this loud hissing. Well....I hadn't spun up the air compressor recently soooo....sure enough, I was able to witness the V11's rear tire giving me the equivalent of..the bird....as its opinion of the outing.

 

Total round trip was ~100miles. Glad it wasn't 110......

[footgoose]

bad girl. no ktm test ride?

[docc]

One must tread lightly around these matters of ogling lest the animism of one's V11 become irked . . .

[LowRyter]

good one Leroy.  

[stewgnu]

god damn it’s a design classic i say!

Fatted with luggáge, dumped in a brown, brown location, yet un miss takable. Yum

[leroysch]

bad girl. no ktm test ride?

Lordie no, at the rate the day that verrry bad girl would've never let me get out of the dealer's parking lot if I dared put the KTM between my legs!

 

Seriously, short of a major fail which I trust would have already been mentioned in the various bike-specific forums or magazine road tests, it takes me a few hundred miles...at least...to make a final judgement as to the efficacy of any future addition to the stable. Usually do without.....

[docc]

"There is no greater satisfaction

 

than to desire

 

that which one

 

already possesses."

[gstallons]

Mmmmmmm. is this an original ?

[docc]

 

"There is no greater satisfaction

 

than to desire

 

that which one

 

already possesses."

 

 

 

Mmmmmmm. is this an original ?

It is, Sir. Something I coined, perhaps, to console my restless spirit that I never get rid of anything, and soldier on with my trusted and known elements ad infinitum.

 

Five days ago, August first, I have owned the Sport eighteen years. Twenty-six with the GB500 Honda . . .

[RedMog]

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. ” 
― Epictetus

 

Though I don't quite understand how some ancient Greek philosopher understood what owning a V11 LeMans feels like 

[LowRyter]

 

 

"There is no greater satisfaction

 

than to desire

 

that which one

 

already possesses."

 

 

 

Mmmmmmm. is this an original ?

It is, Sir. Something I coined, perhaps, to console my restless spirit that I never get rid of anything, and soldier on with my trusted and known elements ad infinitum.

 

Five days ago, August first, I have owned the Sport eighteen years. Twenty-six with the GB500 Honda . . .

 

good deal Docc.  I like to hold on to vehicles too.  It's hard for me to purchase or replace.  In your case it looks like a much longer commitment.  

[docc]

"Commitment" is such charitable term . . .

 

 

Affliction may be more diagnostic.

[LowRyter]

yeah,,,,, and the Honda, like your Sport, Beemer and Jeep, look like showroom. 

[docc]

yeah,,,,, and the Honda, like your Sport, Beemer and Jeep, look like showroom. 

That's kind, man.

 

The little Honda is delicious and the V11 "passable."

 

On a quiet night here, on this Tennessee hilltop, you can hear that Jeep scaling off corroded metals . . .

 

"One-of-a-Kind Hampton Salt Marsh Edition"

[docc]

I want to know if lerysch's V11 has yet forgiven him his transgressions . . .