Back on a Bike - Supermoto style.

Well the wife finally relented and said ok to another bike. I sold the old 600RR just after we had our kid. 

I have been toying with the idea of plating my dirt bike, but when you add the costs up, you might as well buy a used one. So looking for a fun light weight commuter. 

FB Marketplace to the recuse, lots of DRZs etc, but stumbled upon a KTM SMR 450, with plates.... This is their supermoto race bike, large bore short stroke RFS motor.  Someone converted it to street duty at some point, with what I assume is an EXC stator.

Well it starts, it shifts, it followed me home. Lots of goodies on this one, but steering stabilizer started to puke on the test ride.... 

The good: its a true SMR, large bore shirt stroke 450, close ratio 6 speed. It was a a shop 9/2020 for headgasket, new liner, new piston and seals.

Bad: kickstand is broken, wiring could use a little cleanup, and I am the 4th owner. And being the track model its gonna need weekly oil changes if I ride it much.....

In the garage next to Bertha.

Now if it would stop snowing I could ride it!

Very nice. I put a Trail Tech kickstand on my 525 EXC to replace the broken stock unit. It is quite a bit more sturdy than the original.

In reply to bgkast :

Good to know. The pawl/stop has just worn away the little notch in the kickstand. I think I can weld it up and it should be good for awhile. 

Kickstand repairs!

First ever aluminum weld..... It wasn't pretty, but I hit it with a hammer and it was stuck. So I ground it to shape ish. 

Nice! Looks like tons of fun! I love me some supermoto, and the race-oriented models are so much fun it helps offset the maintenance hassles and expense. I can't bring myself to part with my Aprilia SXV550 for just this reason. Also +1 on the Trailtech kickstand if you get tired of the repaired stock one. I had one of their KTM ones on a previous bike and it was great...and they are local...in Battle Ground!

In reply to ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) :

Can't wait for the rain to stop!

This is a trail tech stand. Just worn out. I can order a new leg if needed.

All new gear is showing up. Got an airbag, tech has come a long ways! 

Supermoto is best moto. 

In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :

I'm super happy. Been wanting to covert my dirt bike for years. This seems like a great find to me. Oil change intervals are laughable tho! 

Looked at little closer as your pics. Few notes 

Thoes definitely look like relaced/re bearing spacerd drz-sm wheels. 

Shinko 705s are one of my favorite sm tires, I have done track days on them, good on back roads and good in rain. Do everything good beyond mud of course. 

Be prepared to do something with that headlight, it's basically a candle even with a good bulb, my drz came with same one. 

In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :

Yes unfortunately the Behr factory wheels are gone. Tires are new 9/2020. Replaced when in the shop for HG. Well I guess new ish, not many miles on them.

Headlight has a LED drop in of some sort, Battery is toast, so only works when running, and I have not had much seat time yet.  Was noodling on adding some aftermakrte LED's but not sure the stator is up to an added 24W.

Working on wiring clean up, its not the worst or best. And moving the front turn signals out from behind the number plate.... Got some stick on ones to try on the hand guards. 

kickstand is back on and works so far.

Work order from 9/2020

Pulled the seat to replace the battery. More sketchy wiring.... Yay.

New turn signals, the old ones were buried behind the number plate 3/4 of the way....

Stick on ones on the hand guards

Threw a new battery in, headlight works much better now, LED seems decently birght.

Found some cracks in the seat frame. Looks like I need to teach myself to weld aluminum sooner rather than later.

In reply to java230 :

That subframe crack would be pretty easy to zip up. I'd definitely make some practice welds before doing it tho. 

In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :

That is the plan, I literally picked up the tig welder a few weeks back and have only done the one booger on the kickstand plus a few passes on a coupon. 

In reply to java230 :

Im hunting for photos of the ktm subframe I fixed a few weeks back. 

In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :

It seems the new ones (duke?) have a band around that end.

Sweet bike. Supermotos are so cool. We've been more and more sun these days and I'm getting anxious to brap around on my DRZ.

In reply to java230 :

They do! 

In reply to thatsnowinnebago :

I did almost 600 miles this week on mine, been having fun. 

Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to thatsnowinnebago :

I did almost 600 miles this week on mine, been having fun. 

Been keeping it short..... I need to get My endorsement and it's a racket it WA.... 

Loving the progress so far...nice work on the lighting and battery! 
I've got spring fever with the weather of late and rode both supermotos yesterday, the Husky to work and the Aprilia after work, which was awesome!

In reply to ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah spring fever for sure! I went for a quick ride yesterday. A little hesitation mid throttle, but man it's fun. 

Beautiful weather this Sunday, so I went for a ride.

Put the same reflective strips that Keith used on his Tesla on my wheels, rather sloppily.... They were a huge PITA.

Then tore into the leaking steering stabilizer. Pretty simple, and sure appears to have ATF in it, which is exactly what I had in mind to refill with. Standard O rings everywhere except the lower shaft seal. It appears to have a Quad or Xring type seal. I dont have any of those.... Very tempted to try a O ring there as well. Thoughts? It was not activly leaking there it seemed (although its a bit grungy so maybe it was a little) but was coming out the top under the adjuster.

Lots of fiddly machine work on this.

Xring seal goes in those bore on the bottom of the shaft.

An o-ring can replace an x-ring. Single instead of double contact point and lack of fluid storage between the points, but it should seal. Any hydraulic repair shop should have the x-rings in stock.

In reply to hobiercr :

Yeah I figured it probably could. I found a local seal suppler, just need to find time to run down there.