Anyone just ride their bike ?

Lots of accessories seem to be bought (not just by danno king of bling) so why not just buy your bike and ride it ? In 2 months mine has done nearly 3000 miles. It's had nothing except abuse on road and tarck, any money spent has been facilitating more abuse and use, so am I missing something by not buying lots of extras and spending time making sure it looks good and even going as far as polishing it ?

Am I alone in just buying bikes and using them ?

completely agree with you - I've had mine since May and now have over 6K miles on it in additon to 4K on my 690 enduro which I bought in July -

The SD is the best bike I've owned - it runs with most anything and will eat the sport bikes up on any of the twisties - I lose them on the straights when they have to run it up to 130 mph to get ahead of me - I cach them in the twists -

The only thing I've done is a full Akra system and remapping it - and, removed the emissions junk -

Oh yes, I've put a carbon fiber pillion cover which added the most extra power of all - the only down side to all the riding is that I'm now on my 4th rear tyre -

Steve

i buy, ride and abuse all mine, fact is the ktm is the first bike in twenty years that i have changed many things on or maybe its down to the fact that im northern and a bit a bit of a tight arse on the quiet, hope big toby d isnt reading this.

Well, I don't own a SuperDuke (..yet.?!?), but I do like tinkering with my bikes, but I'm not really into bling. It's got to have a purpose (which is usually to make the bike handle better), otherwise it stays on the dealers shelf.
You can decide for yourself if I ride "enough"; GSX-R1000K1, 24,000 miles, R1200GS, 18,000 miles, and my banana'd K1200R at 17,000 miles... (these are just a few of the bikes that I've owned, I've ridden a far few more).

... always annoys me when dealers roll their eyes and complain about the "massive amount of miles"... "Should be 3,000 miles per year according to Glass' guide... ".

On these bikes I feel that switching out the exhaust is neccessary. Other than that I think these bikes are not the customizing darlings that frequent *bucks.

Imo KTM's are for riders. Duc's are too but far too many of the owners are not.

I haven't added any extra bling to mine.
I brought it and now I just ride it! 15,000+kms in 3 months.

2 comments...

Bikes these days come restricted and modified to suit emmissions and noise rules, so they're often under powered, badly fuelled at certain rpm and all the bits in the cat weight a tonne,... plus manufacturers save money on the retail price by having some parts built to a lower standard, especially bits like exhausts, which many buyers see as an acceptabel mod cost.

Also, there are useful things you can buy, like crash mushrooms, or flip up screens, which add to the bike's useability.

Even vanity mods like tail tidies return the bike to the forms and shapes that the original designers had on thier drawing boards before the European equivalent of the DOT stepped in.

Therefore it makes sense to unleash the bikes full potential and return it to the way the designers intended...

...then you can "just ride it."

My second comment is that modding a bike is fun. We're all individuals ("i'm not" LOL) ... and some of us don't want to turn up at a bike meet, KTM dealership or track day just to see clones of our bikes in the car park or on track. I love every minute of tail tidy, mini indie, decal, screen, crash bung and zorst fitting agony.

Agreed, the experience is two-fold for me, riding and mechanical tinkering time in the shop. Time spent over 12 months is probably 50/50.

i've been just riding this season.... i'm not much for 'bling', but i like tinkering with her over winter. most of my mods are performance or comfort related... i try to leave them for winter not to take time away from short riding season up here, but also to have something to do when i cannot ride... looking for/ordering parts, waiting for them to come in, mounting them and waiting to have a chance to test them out somehow makes the winter pass by quicker...

Is this an indictment of riders or are you just curious? too many people in this forum like to pass judgement on others style, etc. absolutlely turns me off. Maybe it's a euro thing to back each other?

if you're so busy riding why do you care what others do to their bikes?

Mostly it is taking the piss out of the ol china. They can do what ever the fak they want with their bike.