KTM or Chinese enduro, what to choose? Overview of the KTM 250 EXC-F
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What did I ride? Ideal motorcycle path
Perhaps, I went through an ideal motorcycle path, in terms of understanding technology and its capabilities. Back in 2013, like many, I started with road bikes. But in our city, it turned out to be irrelevant, from the word at all. There was literally nowhere to go. The rides looked something like this: you arrive at the railway station, drink coffee with the same brothers as you. Then you go to the observation deck, drink coffee there. Then you move to the place of Lermontov’s duel (a popular place in Pyatigorsk), and there is coffee again. Fuck, I hated coffee!
But for off-road vehicles, we have incredible space. And already in 2014, after an accident on my sports tourist, I bought my first off-road motorcycle. Well, like a motorcycle … it was a kayo 140 pitun. And immediately I went on a rather long motorcycle trip with almost no experience. Without taking any tools, not even spare cameras. But by some miracle, I survived, and it was incredibly cool! VIDEO HERE
You understand, a small pit bike, such a choice for motorcycle tourism. And a few months later Kayo T2 was bought. It’s not a full-size bike, but it’s already a motorcycle. Exactly the same as Pete, only bigger.
At that time, the issue of choice was especially acute, because then the Japanese were still on horseback, and quite relevant to themselves. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to compare chinese and purebred japanese, and after kayo, my choice fell on a suzuki ts200r two-stroke freshly brought in from japan. Looking ahead, this was a great bike for a reasonable price. It was with him that I learned what Japanese quality is. But also, with him, I learned what it’s like to wait for spare parts for a couple of months, after a long search on ebay and studying mountains of information on forums and thematic groups.
And just on the TS200R, I opened the veil of hard enduro. And I, in general, liked it.
The TS was a good and reliable enduro bike. But besides reliability and a fairly powerful engine, there was nothing else in it. No suspension, no brakes, no modern geometry. About the lack of an electric starter, I don’t even stutter. But the two-stroke Japanese still don’t have them – they lost a floppy disk with electric starter technologies. And just at that time, a wast appeared that had all this, in my opinion, of course. This is a two-stroke Chinese GR7, which, let me remind you, has a Yamaha Lanza engine.
And as they say, Ostap suffered. Since testing Chinese motorcycles, you need to try everything. Therefore, after GR, ZUUM K7 was bought on the 177th engine, and then the more current ZUUM K8. And between them, Motoland WRX on the 170th dropsy engine, which is the closest relative of the now fashionable 174th engine, still wormed its way.
In short, as you noticed, I rode a whole bunch of Chinese and Japanese in different price categories. And by the way, all reviews and comparisons can be viewed ON THE CHANNEL. So, I still didn’t have a real hard enduro motorcycle. But in general, I was not going to change my last ZUUM so soon. He suited me with everything, except, perhaps, a fat … well, in the sense of a heavy, asshole.
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Why KTMs are so much lighter than Chinese enduros
How did they do it? Why are the Chinese as much as 20 kg heavier? To understand, 20 kg for a sports bike is like hanging a bunch of firewood behind your back. You can go, but somehow more difficult than without it. So, KTM engineers fought for every gram. I won’t go into details, but they would cut riders’ legs off to make it easier if it was legal. Most of all weight savings, of course, on the engine and suspension. Manufacturability and materials rule. Even the volume of oil was reduced to a liter. Not so much for convenience, but to save weight. The same thing happened with battery. The smallest battery was put into this motorcycle, which at least somehow could start the motorcycle. But in tight places, I really like to fiddle with the starter, and more than once, including at that very race in Gelendzhik, I had a battery drain. Replacing with a new one did not help. The decision, as always, is the most collective farm – I took out the battery mounting bracket and stuffed another battery with a larger capacity from my foot. Got up great and no more problems!