About Me

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Stockport, United Kingdom
Spud is obsessed with all things wheeled, both with an without engine's. 2006 Open class uk champion at Boardercross racing mountain boards, his knee's have since given up and he spends more time on his bikes both with and without engines.

Saturday 28 June 2014

New ride a comin

Now I know any of the 3 people who actually read this probably wont care too much for this, but here goes anyway.

Following the recent trials and tribulations I've been having with the Bandit, now all I can hear when I ride it is knocks and rattles and I'm basically am waiting for it to die. As I still don't have anywhere to resurect it if that happens' combined with the cost of fixing it, the loss of my only working bike and my daily ride, I decided to part ex it in against a new bike.

This not a decision I've taken likely and have spent a good while thinking about it. About 3 weeks ago I went and test rode a KTM Duke 390, at 78 mpg I was curious to see if I could live with a much smaller capacity bike. As its a 390 engine in the 125 Duke frame, the whole thing was small, too small for me, it felt like riding my monkey, I didn't like the position of the pegs and my arse was in agony after only 40 minutes, and that was with the comfort seat fitted. Needless to say it was not for me, but what a killer little engine. So after a 2 hr ride I took it back and told em why it wasn't for me.

The sales man then say's "well I'm not doing my job properly f I dont let you take the 690 Duke out" as its still a sunny Friday afternoon  and it was another free ride on another new bike I thought fuck it why not. Straight away I knew I liked it. Great riding position,  brilliant engine and superb handling. I had it for an hour and loved every minute of it, but it was a bit vibey and not great in stop start traffic.

But I still couldn't get it out my head, and with 0% finance available over 2 years I've gone and bought one, possibly the last one thats coming into the UK this year as they're not making any more this year.


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