RTW with Noah on a KTM 690

Yes! "The Endless Summer"! Thanks for the correction

If I stay in Japan for a winter, it will be to snowboard.. so any work would be at a ski resort like driving snow cat or teaching snowboarding. Both I have done in the past. One of the reasons I quit my engineering job is I never had enough time to ride.

There is a Wind farm going in about 80 KM north of me towards the top end of Vanisle... That might be an option when you get tired of riding, sightseeing, snowboarding and the other general fun stuff your doing...

Heya mate, thanks for your kind words.

Probably the Stalhratte, we want to do Cuba for a small break so nothing set in concrete yet, hopefully back on the road next few days, Monday things should all come together ... hopefully all good now.

Taking Maya out tomorrow for a reasonable ride to shake her down.

Yup. A buddy of mine went south to north with him and had an amazing time.

great pics and good to see the countries are still improving after many years of war(was in kosovo in 2000)......and yes your right about the women

Noah,
I had a 14 hour layover in Istanbul on the 2nd and never even realized you were there until just now. Coming back to work in the middle-east from a break at home in the US and just catching up on the ADV forum.
There are a few of us here that have been following your RR from the beginning and have nothing but praise and admiration for you and wish you the best.
Will follow closer in the future as I travel ALOT.
Jeff

Small world. Thanks for following. It seems since I am always at least a week behind.. I miss people a lot. We had a great moto tour of the city on the 2nd. Istanbul is fun to ride if you get it in your head that no one will use their blinker, let you in, or watch out for you. If you ride with the flow of traffic you will get hurt so you have to ride like an A-hole and split lanes. A couple times I heard car alarms from my Leo Vance on going up some of the hills on the side streets.

Since then I got some sort of stomach bug and on the 4th I couldn't get more then 20 feet from a toilet. I did about 400 km yesterday but I'm still "loose". Hopefully today I will be regular again. Of course the next 5 days look amazing for me. That is sarcasm. :eek1

Any pics Noah of the strip down etc?...

By the by I received your Xmas card...thanks for the kind words....did you get the last video I sent you ?(of you off road on a trail taken with my helmet cam?)If not I can send it again.

I got that video. Thanks

And here are a few photos. The bike has 50,000 km on it now.


My sweet workshop.. err... parking garage.


Removing the valve cover..


Old ones...


Here I have removed the Exhaust valve. I put a ziptie on the cam chain to keep it in the right spot when i am removing the cam to do the valve clearance. You might also notice the automatic decompression on the cam lobe. It has some wear and i suspect this is what made the roller loose its hardening. I will be replacing the cam and decomp in georgia to be sure this doesn't happen again.


New ones in and valve clearance done! ready to go get stuck in a snow storm...


This was taken about 1/2 hour ago. I was hoping the black sea would keep the snow away. I had snow and/or rain all day. If it keeps up over night I probably won't be going anywhere tomorrow.

You must carry a pretty comprehensive tool kit to be doing all this work. Torque wrench or just estimate?

I'd be interested to know what you are taking with you tool wise - I'm trying to decide what not to take on an extended tour this year - it all takes up room and it's heavy.

Strap the board to the front wheel and drive it thru

If I only brought 1000 Kold Kutters...

OK Noah...

Good to see the pics.......

I'll send more video when I get more time.....


Keep at it!!!

:)

.

Would be rude not too

Looks like you could use some Tucano Urbano products..
Ever seen them?

I was thinking the same thing!

Inmate Corrado113 sells these

with these on and my grip heaters, I was fine with my summer weight gloves in 26*F weather, rain or shine, for my 2 hour commute before sunrise!
Here is the thread:
http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=487221

Don't think I missed you... Needed to get a pic. I recently added some more stuff. I hope you can see the pic ok.


I'll talk about the ones that are different from the KTM ones.
-Computer and TuneECU W/cable to connect to KTM. I have to thank Beany for this one. I want to be able to troubleshoot everything.
-Calipers. A recent addition. Very nice when doing valve clearances if you can't read the shim. Also, this winter I have a feeling I will be checking the whole bike.
-Multimeter. I'm and electrical engineer. I felt lonely with out one. How do you track down an electrical problem with no tools? I also like checking voltage in the wall sockets where I stay.. to see how close it actually is to being "ok" power
-Craftsman 6 in 1 screw driver. The KTM screwdriver sucked. And the larger nut driver works on an 8 mm hex.
-Allen keys and Torx keys. I didn't like the t-handel/loos allen keys. you can loose them. (i lost them before my trip started)
-Bluepoint 1/4 inch drive socket set. 6-14 mm. Bluepoint is made by snapon and I got so used to working on the bike at home with it.. I decided to take it with. The 19mm socket I made with a spare 1/4 inch drive socket and a 19mm 1/2in drive. I use this for locking down the manual cam chain tensioner.
-Punches and hook. When I was at RallyRaid, John said I could have some tool steel. They make great punches. I heated the end of one up and made a hook. It works great for pulling the stainless fuel filters.
-Extendable magnet. Easiest way to remove and replace shims in your valves. If you are clumsy like me, you need all the help you can get not loosing stuff in the motor.
-Klein Tools Electrician scissors. I first used these at work. They are great for zipties, wire, cloth.. they can even cut plastic. If you had to cut a jacket or boot off someone, these would work.
-Forceps. Great for closing off fuel lines or holding something in place. Also when you cant reach with your fat fingers.
-Round file, Flat file, hack saw blades. You never know. be prepared. Maybe the spare chain you carry will fit on someone else's bike.. but you need to file and pound out the pin? Or you are dumb like me and you forgot to cut it to length before your chain broke in the Yukon.

I don't have a torque wrench. But I do have a decent feel lots of locktite.

I'm not sure that's going to help me over the next few days. I was thinking cardboard and ducktape would work. I'm also considering wearing the snowboard boots instead of the moto boots. They are just way warmer. I'm hoping the keeps melting over night. it looks like it stopped for the most part now.

Thanks for the pic. +1 on the KTM screwdriver mine just turns in the handle.

Winter gloves, bar muffs and heated grips on full blast worked well on a scooter I used to own, during the winter.

The heated grips and the Klim gloves work well for a while. But when they get soaked through its over. They are leather. I had my feet in wool socks in plastic bags today but once the boots got wet they got to cold. I need to find some SnowSeal or something to keep the water from soaking in.

The main thing that kept me going was the Gerbings heated jacket. When my core is toasty.. my feet and hands stay warmer.