bikes

i am a huge ktm fan, but let’s give credit where credit is due: it was yamaha, not ktm, who revolutionized the dirt bike world. the yzf 400 was the first ‘modern’ dirt bike, with an engine that was a lot lighter, faster revving than anything that had been around previously. with the exception of…

one of the first ‘orange’ ktms. now orange is of course the brand’s standard color, but this really only started about the time i got this bike. it sounded like an incremental improvement over the lc4 600 at the time, but boy this thing was a handful. the extra 70 cc (the 600 really only…

my first ktm! while called a 600 the engine displacement was actually 550ccm. i had been admiring ktms for many years. i mean, being an austrian and having seen heinz kinigardner take two moto cross world championships on ktms you have to love them. when i then started riding in the austrian- hungarian enduro championship i found…

this is the only picture of my bike i could find. it is also significant in another way: this was the last race where i was wearing this helmet. the reason is not that i did not like it; i rather fancied the silver & orange. even more sad then that the helmet did actually…

it’s all andi’s fault. he had a yamaha xt 500 – the one with the silver tank, do you remember? it even featured in a bond movie! – and i really fancied that bike. well, at least until i tried it out once. i recall standing by the roadside kicking the thing for … well…

my first bike … well i guess that depends on the way you look at it. coming from something with a real frame, real brakes and, let’s face it, a real engine, this thing is scary. on the upside you got a lot of storage space, your legs will never get dirty, only your upper…