Dirt and Trail June 2020-2

THE RADDEST
MOTARD!
The guys from RAD KTM
down in Rivonia have not
been sitting on idle during
lockdown. They have been
busy with a few projects that
they had in mind but could
not complete during normal
hours coz they were busy
servicing their customers….
Words: Glenn Foley
Pics: Beam Productions
And the beauty of this build is
that fact that it’s pretty simple
to pop it all back into dirt trim –
and go and do what the bike is
actually made for…
The 500 is a great choice for a
bike like this, simply because it
produces great big gobs of torque
and very user friendly power
without revving itself stukkend.
Ultimately, this means that
service intervals are reasonable
– and that the bike should have a
good long life in road trim.
What they did:
They found a very cool set of
17” BST wheels lurking in the
workshop. These were sent id
for a bit of CNC machine work to
fit the wheel, sprocket and front
brake disc. The standard dirt fare
has been stashed lovingly away
for future use.
While the wheels were being
sorted, the guys grabbed some
Powerparts from the KTM
catalogue - a motard front fender,
LED headlight cluster and
Powerpart brushguards.
A bigger volume 15RCS front
superbike reservoir was procured
and fitted to the standard
brake lines and caliper. This
was probably one of the most
important upgrades – increased
fluid volume means the the
brakes run a bit cooler…. More
on this shortly.
Out back, the brakes also got
a little bit of attention with a
KTM Powerpart master cylinder
extension kit.
They pimped the bike a bit with
a selection of Powerpart anodized
covers, caps and levers – man it
looks trick. Rounding things off, the
crew selected Acerbis covers for the
engine, and KTM swingarm guards.
They took a ride – and felt that
something was missing…. Yup! A
pipe, so that gorgeous Akarapovic
slip on was mounted – complete
with an R&G Silencer slider.
The finished look is really really
cool. If you get a gap head to the
store – it’s up front and centre on
the display.
You will have seen the 500 rally Adventure that they
built and we rode a couple of issues ago? Well they
decided that the EXC-F is such a cool platform to
work with (If you have ridden one, you know), that
they would use some bits that they had in stock to
build a sweet, street motard.
When we were let out of level 5, we went to
kuier at the shop and there stood the project in
all its glory just waiting to be ridden.
Mike, the man who built the bike is very
quick to point out that, although they certainly
can, they have not gone all out to build a
competitive race machine, but rather a fun
to ride play bike that can be roadworthied
for use on the road (what a cool way to get
to work and back!) - and then – taken out
to the track for a few social laps on the
weekends.
50 DIRT & TRAIL MAGAZINE JUNE 2020 DIRT & TRAIL MAGAZINE JUNE 2020 51