That crazy KTM that changed the adventure bike game forever!

I gave the abrieviated account of my trans-sahara travels, and I have said my piece about the greatest overland adventure bike of all time, the Yamaha XT600 Tenere here:
https://www.expeditionportal.com/fo...-the-original-overland-adventure-bike.192069/

Here then follows the abreviated account of the game changer to the above!

We were about to see the end of an era and the start of whole new one. An era where you could buy a "ready to race" large capacity V-twin engined motorcycle with a Paris-to-Dakar look to go an explore the world on. They even named it the Adventure! It was very clear what this machine was built for.

And so in 2004 when this game changer was still hot off the press, and the fire of adventure burned strong in my loins, I purchased one of the first KTM 950 Aventure bikes around and instantly started wowing the crowds! I had never seen one of these bikes on the road myself either. In fact the first one I had ever seen stood on the local KTM dealer showroom floor, and it became mine.

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Not long after that in 2005 my newly wed wife and I decided to take on Europe and 13x of its finest countries for a 1x month long trip on the back of this beast for our honeymoon. I mean for our honeymoon, how lucky can a guy be!

After purchasing some hot looking aluminum side boxes (they even had hot looking KTM stickers in orange on them) we hit the road and met a friendly biker on the Eurotunnel travelling underneath the sea from Folkestone to the culture continent. And they said this tunnel would never work!

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Earlier on I stated how we wowed the crowds with this orange brute and so it was not long before we were pulled over in Paris by two French traffic police officers on motorbikes. Not sure what we had done wrong but it soon became apparent that they just wanted to have a look at the first KTM 950cc they had ever seen, and talk to the hero who tamed this beast.

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From here on we headed north to taste some chocolate in Belgium and eat cheese in Holland. It was all as good as they said it would be but as this forum allows a maximum of 10x photos per post only you will just have to take my word for it.

In northern Germany we found some really miserable people and a big black gothic cathedral. Figures.

So dreadful was this place that we changed our route and instead of riding south through Germany we traveled back to Vive Le'France via Luxembourg and what a fresh breath of air they were!

After some lovely French countryside we felt refreshed and decided to try Germany one last time. We found southern Germany to be completely different from the north and the Romantic Route with some camping around the Bodensee is recommended. Our faith in the Auto Builders was restored.

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Lichtenstein was remarkably small and so very clean!

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From here it was onto the most most magical land of them all.... Switzerland! Where fairies still live and if there were lions they would only eat juicy grass and visit Heidi every afternoon to play. What a country it was!

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To be continued .........
 
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Continued from above....

Before we could fall under its spell, and forever loose ourselves in this fairytale land, we left Switzerland for Austria. In Austria our UK purchased KTM 950 had the pleasure of getting its first service interval done by a KTM dealership in Salzburg and the land of its birth!

Seriously though, at that stage of a long line of motorbikes in my life I had never seen anyone tighten up wheel spindle nuts with a torque wrench! I mean who really takes that much care? I was in awe.

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But as lovely as a few days spent in Austria was the road beckoned us once more and the KTM eagerly responded.

Riding over the Alpes into Italy we truly felt on top of the world.

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Italy did not dissapoint either with its usual highlights of a water bound city, a leaning tower and eventually Rome.

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From here we rode the Cote d'Azur with its yachts, sports cars and bare breast bearing beaches! Try to say that fast.

The wife and I stopped for a quick gawk and then moved on before being labelled perverts.

Whilst in Monaco we made a stop to check on our investment:

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Satisfied that we had made a good choice it was onward to Narbonne, a lovely beach side town for a couple of days time out, before crossing the Spanish border towards Barcelona.

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From the Spanish side we rode over the Pyrenees via Andorra, my second time around here. The first time being 7 years earlier on the XT600 heading for Morocco and West Africa.

One of our favorite cities in France apart from the usual romantic ones was Bordeaux.

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Eventually all good things come to an end and we were heading back to Calais for the Eurotunnel to the UK, our temporary home at that stage.

We never got around to finding ALL the stickies but the memories will be with us forever.


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