Folks,
I promised to give an update on my UK imported SDR a while ago, but had been cut from the outside world by my internet provider, and a broken leg and things...
In April I finally picked up my new 08 SDR from a dealer in the UK. This also was the start for a road trip through 6 different countries in europe with the aim to get the machine to Berlin and registered in germany.
As you can see a lot of luggage had been on board. Actually, this was quite an exciting part of the trip because I had no possibility to try out all the fixings and bags before. So I arrived at the dealer with all this bags and packs, not knowing where exactly to attach them yet. Some of the pictures posted in this forum had actually been a great help to check possibilities beforehand!!! Thanks a lot to those chaps!!
I planned with approx a week to get the bike home, including visits to my lady in Switzerland and my parents in the middle of germany. I also had to plan in first inspection after 1000km somewhere between. So, in the end this is how far I got -->>
After 1 1/2 days (400km from UK to France, and 800km to get to Switzerland the second day) and my back looking like a baboon's ass, I had the baby at a Swiss KTM dealer to get its first service done. Though this is not a mandatory service on the SDR the dealer also recommended to check the valves, which resulted in a good gain in low rev performance. Don't know why, but although he did little changes to the shimming only, the bike ran a lot smoother on slow roads after it. Will see if it also turns out to give good oil consumption numbers.
It took the dealer one day only to complete the service and after this day off I hit the road to ride some of the windy roads in south germany's black forrest, and also a fast 2 hour Autobahn passage for some serious milage to get closer to Frankfurt. I had enjoyed the easter weekend with family and then on monday took off to Berlin. However, after only half an hour riding I missed a lefthand curve and ended up in the ditch. Ouch..
It was a pure riding mistake and maybe me not knowing the bike too well yet. I hit the front brake too hard and so the lean angle shrinked rapidly, leaving me running straight. I got dropped off over the front and landed on soft grounds. But unfortunately, the bike turned by 180 degrees in the ditch and the back tyre somehow landed on my leg. This resulted in a broken fibula and almost all ligaments in my ankle ruptured - but I was not to find this out until about 16 hours later. Still thought I just twisted the ankle a bit But thanks god there was no abyss or crash barrier, which hadn't been unusual in that area...
Have a look at where I left the road - the navigation system tracked everything Here my trip back ended after almost 2000km, but 500km before reaching the final destination. The last miles to Berlin were done in the back of a transporter...
Now, the bike got quite a lot of scratches on the righthand side. The rear frame with the Akras got slightly pulled to the left as well, but ultimately I thought of replacing the rear with the std SD one at some point in time anyway. The handlebar broke on the right and of course the brake lever also needs to be replaced. But to sum up I was lucky that the bike didn't scratch on the road but just in the ditch, and no severe damage to frame or engine occured. In the end I'll live well with a lot of the slide marks and repair one thing after the other - starting with the tank needing a repaint
To shortly report about the import issue, it was in the end quite an easy job to get the german registration sorted. All you need is the the reg certificate and of course an EU valid CoC, which allows german reg office to print the local paperwork. Unfortunately, I had to hand my english plate over to them, so I can't keep it as a souvenir. As common practice EU wide I now have to pay german VAT as this is treated a new car/bike, hence tax rules of goods destination apply. By declaring export to another EU country to UK customs, using form 411, I didn't pay UK VAT.
Last week I got permission by the doctor to finally start walking again. Hope it won't take much longer until I can get back on the bike Cheers!
I promised to give an update on my UK imported SDR a while ago, but had been cut from the outside world by my internet provider, and a broken leg and things...
In April I finally picked up my new 08 SDR from a dealer in the UK. This also was the start for a road trip through 6 different countries in europe with the aim to get the machine to Berlin and registered in germany.
As you can see a lot of luggage had been on board. Actually, this was quite an exciting part of the trip because I had no possibility to try out all the fixings and bags before. So I arrived at the dealer with all this bags and packs, not knowing where exactly to attach them yet. Some of the pictures posted in this forum had actually been a great help to check possibilities beforehand!!! Thanks a lot to those chaps!!
I planned with approx a week to get the bike home, including visits to my lady in Switzerland and my parents in the middle of germany. I also had to plan in first inspection after 1000km somewhere between. So, in the end this is how far I got -->>
After 1 1/2 days (400km from UK to France, and 800km to get to Switzerland the second day) and my back looking like a baboon's ass, I had the baby at a Swiss KTM dealer to get its first service done. Though this is not a mandatory service on the SDR the dealer also recommended to check the valves, which resulted in a good gain in low rev performance. Don't know why, but although he did little changes to the shimming only, the bike ran a lot smoother on slow roads after it. Will see if it also turns out to give good oil consumption numbers.
It took the dealer one day only to complete the service and after this day off I hit the road to ride some of the windy roads in south germany's black forrest, and also a fast 2 hour Autobahn passage for some serious milage to get closer to Frankfurt. I had enjoyed the easter weekend with family and then on monday took off to Berlin. However, after only half an hour riding I missed a lefthand curve and ended up in the ditch. Ouch..
It was a pure riding mistake and maybe me not knowing the bike too well yet. I hit the front brake too hard and so the lean angle shrinked rapidly, leaving me running straight. I got dropped off over the front and landed on soft grounds. But unfortunately, the bike turned by 180 degrees in the ditch and the back tyre somehow landed on my leg. This resulted in a broken fibula and almost all ligaments in my ankle ruptured - but I was not to find this out until about 16 hours later. Still thought I just twisted the ankle a bit But thanks god there was no abyss or crash barrier, which hadn't been unusual in that area...
Have a look at where I left the road - the navigation system tracked everything Here my trip back ended after almost 2000km, but 500km before reaching the final destination. The last miles to Berlin were done in the back of a transporter...
Now, the bike got quite a lot of scratches on the righthand side. The rear frame with the Akras got slightly pulled to the left as well, but ultimately I thought of replacing the rear with the std SD one at some point in time anyway. The handlebar broke on the right and of course the brake lever also needs to be replaced. But to sum up I was lucky that the bike didn't scratch on the road but just in the ditch, and no severe damage to frame or engine occured. In the end I'll live well with a lot of the slide marks and repair one thing after the other - starting with the tank needing a repaint
To shortly report about the import issue, it was in the end quite an easy job to get the german registration sorted. All you need is the the reg certificate and of course an EU valid CoC, which allows german reg office to print the local paperwork. Unfortunately, I had to hand my english plate over to them, so I can't keep it as a souvenir. As common practice EU wide I now have to pay german VAT as this is treated a new car/bike, hence tax rules of goods destination apply. By declaring export to another EU country to UK customs, using form 411, I didn't pay UK VAT.
Last week I got permission by the doctor to finally start walking again. Hope it won't take much longer until I can get back on the bike Cheers!