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My Life With A 990 Adventure R, Or Drinking The Orange Kool-Aid

Richard

Active member
Joined
Jan 7, 2023
Member Number
1614
Posts
38
Location
San Clemente, CA
I bought my 2010 KTM 990R Adventure used with just a bit shy of 2,000 miles on the clock, back in September of 2013. I'd sold my 2004 BMW 1150 GS Adventure after just over 200,000 miles, though the clock showed a thousand or so less thanks to a broken speedometer cabe for two months. It was on back order, but when the package arrived there were two cables. I sent an email to the retailer who said their records showed only one shipped and as my records agreed with only being charged for one and their records showed no missing stock, we both scratched our heads. They said keep it as a spare.
I never needed it so it went away with the bike or to some other bike. I can't remember anymore.

Anyway, this is a thread that mostly just points to a series of blog posts I do annually reflecting what each year of owning and riding this 990R has been like. Maintenance, repair, and riding.

The posts all live on a Wordpress site: renowels.com
There is a bunch of stuff there that probably nobody else other than me is interested in, so I'll post up each year's summary below as linked to each year.

2013 - The first few months, learning how to ride a motorcycle without ABS again
2014 - Bling! Dry lake beds, Sand, Death Valley and Big Bear Riding
2015 - Fuel spills, Dry lake beds, Riding in the sand, broken switch repairs and sticky latches and Lyndon Poskitt Races 2 Places.
2016 - Bling! Pahrump Adventure Riders Rally and Death Valley
2017 - Springfield Mile, retirement and downsizing, and ugly bearings
2018 Part I - 3 Step Hideaway, some of the COBDR, getting lost and yes it was hot.
2018 Part II - The middle of that month on the road, Vintage motorcycle Racing, Sidecars and high mountain passes
2018 Part III - A bit more than a month on a motorcycle, Westfest, a new grandson and almost the end of the line
2019 - The aftermath of a dirtbike shop repair and the KTM Rally in Colorado
2020 - Spending money and time on motorcycling and never going anywhere.
2021 - Well as long as I've ridden this far... That first Heat Dome
2022 - Only one short, hot ride this year 116°F in Needles. Why yes it is hot and uncomfortable.

New to me, 09/2013, 1923 miles,
2013_09_18_KTM%20990%20Adventure%20R-X2.jpg


Today, 01/2023, 88,000-ish miles,
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This post will be updated each year, until I can't or stop riding.
 
As I sit here this morning I'm about a month out on this planned trip. I do have a plan to take a shakedown weekend camping trip ride out to the desert the end of the month. Likely a hot ride, but the plan is a dry lakebed for practice and messing with the suspension settings and camp overnight then back to town.
I'll have to push the bike outside and check stuff out, then find where my stuff is. There has been some rearrangement in the shed I was not involved in. Always nice to remove clutter, just not so great when it involves riding my gear.
 
Last edited:
The planned trip came and went.

Trip report here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Busied myself with repairs and maintenance since returning home, but mostly cycling and fighting off colds now we're into that season. About to set off for the Pahrump Advriders rally next week. I'll likely cut that short to be home for other duties and cycling. Fall into winter gets busy with family and such.
 
The planned trip came and went.

Trip report here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Busied myself with repairs and maintenance since returning home, but mostly cycling and fighting off colds now we're into that season. About to set off for the Pahrump Advriders rally next week. I'll likely cut that short to be home for other duties and cycling. Fall into winter gets busy with family and such.
Great ride report !
 
I was checking out your blog. That's very impressive work! I'm definitely going to spend more time reading through it. :thumb

How "persistent" is the blog? Do you pay anually or can you pre-pay way into the future or something? Some manner to keep your story around for many years into the future. Thanks. I have a few grainy photographs and family tree remaining from my great-grandparents. It'd be neat to have something more meaningful to be remembered by without having a burdensome old trunk full of journals and photos (though I'd love to have even that from my grand and great-grandparents!).

Again, great job on your blog! :-)
 
I was checking out your blog. That's very impressive work! I'm definitely going to spend more time reading through it. :thumb

How "persistent" is the blog? Do you pay anually or can you pre-pay way into the future or something? Some manner to keep your story around for many years into the future. Thanks. I have a few grainy photographs and family tree remaining from my great-grandparents. It'd be neat to have something more meaningful to be remembered by without having a burdensome old trunk full of journals and photos (though I'd love to have even that from my grand and great-grandparents!).

Again, great job on your blog! :-)
Thank you.
Wordpress is an annual subscription. I had to check, $96/year. There is a $19/year domain registration as well. Seems silly, but makes a place to put stuff.
Which reminds me it is the first of the month, I need to go finish up the monthly cycling piece.
 
Planning for the trip here: Summer Loops 2023
Planning can be fun and you proved it with this blog post! I really enjoyed reading through your thorough approach. 👍 I love the bluetooth keyboard. :D

Any idea what the full package weighs? I started reading the RR from your summer ride, it's awesome so far!

Also, thanks for the info about the WP pricing. I looked into it a little bit and found that they offer a "100-Year Plan". For a low, low price of only $38,000! :twitch As temping as that is I'm going to look around a little more.
 
Yeah, I am not planning on being around 100 years for sure.

The Android tablet is quite heavy.

IMG_5017-X2.jpg



IMG_5018-X2.jpg


IMG_5019-X2.jpg


A bit over a kilogram or around 2.2 pounds.

An Aple iPad mini with WiFi and cellular, (to have GPS) is 297grams without the case. The Otterbox case for the iPad weighs 264grams.
 
Yeah, I am not planning on being around 100 years for sure.
lol, me neither but I like the thought of people being able to read back on well composed adventures like you’ve documented. When I started riding in ‘21 I went back and read a lot of ride reports from 15 years ago and really enjoyed getting a glimpse of what those riders had experienced. I’ve only done one real adventure so far but it was such a big deal to me that I’d love for my great grandkids to be able to read about it.

A bit over a kilogram or around 2.2 pounds.
Thanks.

I read 2/3 of your adventure from this summer so far. Nice work on getting the next generation involved. :thumb
 
These last several rides have not been that much fun thanks to the extreme heat I had to traverse to get from coastal California to Colorado or Utah. And once in those places I was faced with 100°F heat for far too much of the time.

The next planned trip will likely be another loops ride in Colorado, but based somewhere around Steamboat or Kremmling. The idea being to hit a couple of easy legs of the COBDR and maybe a WYBDR slice. Some Shadow of the Rockies riding too.

Some good old threads to read on Advrider.com are:
"Took a Little Ride"
"Mike O's Inspection of the Colonies"
"VIOLA-TING AMERICA - Chasing the dream of music and motos"

Then the BigDog and Gaspipe threads.
And the rest.
There should be enough there to keep you off the bike for the winter. Hahaha
 
Yeah I hear you about the heat. I don’t handle the extreme heat very well. On one of my rides last year I stopped for a break and thought my bike was leaking but it turned out it was just my sweat dripping down onto my bike.

Thanks for taking the time to put together those links! 👍
 
So what was your one adventure?
It was the Michigan Cross Country Cycle Trail (MCCCT). I first heard about it not long after I got my bike in’21 and set my sights on it. I planned and trained and prepared. My wife dropped me off on Saturday and picked me up the following Saturday. It was really tough on me but I made it. It’s corny but it really changed my perspective on life and so many other things. :-)

I started typing out my first real ride report here but progress has stalled. :uhoh

It’s not easy for me to put it all down “on paper” which makes me appreciate even more reading other people’s RRs.

Thanks for asking! I’ll tell anyone who will listen. :lol2
 
You're doing a great job. I'm enjoying reading it, but I sure wouldn't want to be riding that sand all day every day.
 
You're doing a great job. I'm enjoying reading it, but I sure wouldn't want to be riding that sand all day every day.
Thank you very much. :-)

It’s taking me a while because I keep getting lost and distracted in the pictures and GPS tracks and the memories. It’s fun to look through all the pictures and then find the time stamp on the GPS track and see where it was. I’ve been adding way points with the file name for the picture to visualize where the pictures were taken at.
 
That's a good recomendation and one that I've seen a few others suggest also. I wish that I would have done it, along with a lot of other things. I wrote notes on the handle bars but that was more for nav info that I had in my head and knew I wouldn't remember.
 
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