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Photo by Daniel Rintz, Himba children, Namibia

The only impossible journey
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you never begin

Photo by Daniel Rintz,
Himba children, Namibia



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Old 13 Oct 2013
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Motorider/San Salvador

after many weeks of asking and waiting for answers, giving the possibilty to explain themselves, say sorry...no reaction!
Long story short:
some months ago I was in El Salvador, looking for a chain and sprockets. Co-incidences led me to Motorider. First, everything looked fine, people were nice, we talked about an issue that my KTM had, started to look for the cause.
They assumed it was the head gasket, took the engine out, we ordered parts in the States. I told them to order everything that could possibly be needed as it takes very long to get them and I did not want to do that kind of operation again.
After some weeks we could finally work again, of course there was always something else that had to be done first, even though Mario said that ADVers always come first (which I do not take for granted, but if you are told, on this day they will start working on it and then, after some hours, you are told that they will start next monday...). Only good thing was that I could live for free in an abandoned office building that was attached to the shop, like indoor-camping. We replaced most gaskets, the valve seat was obviously done by an external company , put everything back together, (but first they managed to let the engine fall on the ground from about 45cm of hight!!) only to see that the engine was still spitting, but now additionally with blue smoke coming out of the left mufler and a clutch that sounded horrible. They wanted to tell me that it was normal with the sound and that I should ride some hundred kilometers in order to give everything the chance to fall into place.
After some days I returned and the symptoms were still the same. They offered me to either not charge me or do the whole thing again.
As my intention was to have everything working correctly and not to fill oil every hundred km, I said" ok, I hate the idea of losing even more time, but let`s do it".
No need to say that it got even more complicated to get the parts (this time even piston rings), but this is another story about KTM which could fill several pages...
After an eternity the day had come and they said I should take it for a spin. After some hundred meters I lost my battery! After a speedbump it had fallen out, only held by the cables! It was not properly installed!
The symptoms were still the same. What should I do?I had already lost a lot of time, had already booked a plane in order to get back to my sister´s wedding, from San Jose/Costa Rica.
When I came back from Germany after 7 weeks, the battery was dead. Jumped it, went to KTM Costa Rica (Santa Ana)and showed them the problem.
Here they worked in a totally different way, with a system! Step by step they checked the different options. The rear cylinder did not work, only started at a certain idle. The compression of the rear cylinder was very low. The valve seat was very bad, had to be ground. When we changed the oil we found a shim on the magnetic drain plug!
The flap valve in the rear carburetor was bend!

Now the engine backfires a little now but other than that the symptoms are gone.

One should think that this would have happened much earlier, but first Motorider had to take out and apart the engine twice, I lost about 6 weeks in El Salvador, another one in Costa Rica.
Now in Panama the battery did not work. The one pole was lose inside of the battery. Guess how this happened! Motorider blames everything on others, says that the valve seat has been done by professionals! that the shim must have been there from before, that they have only cleaned the carbs, that the problem is that others have worked on the bike before (what should KTM Costa Rica say then?!)...they did not even react to the battery issue.

I do not like to talk in a negative way about others and there were times when I thought I had been in good hands, the people were nice and helpful...but the result was just not satisfying, not at all. Waste of money and time and very disappointing: the total lack of reaction and of taking responsibilty!

Last edited by norschweger; 13 Oct 2013 at 03:07.
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Old 14 Oct 2013
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Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Colfax , illinois
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i'm sorry that happend to you in el salvador Toby. send me a mail if you can.

Taz
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Old 15 Oct 2013
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Thanks Taz! ( if you do not know yet: Motomundo Antigua Guatemala, mc shop run by a crazy and great guy : ), has some parts and oil for many models!!

And here is another important info:

KTM Costa Rica (BMS motors) in Santa Ana, close to Cruz Roja (not far from Alajuela) did a very good job! Nice people and good coffee! : )
Fair pricing!!

www.bms.cr
Tel 506 25822001
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Old 16 Oct 2013
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Location: Colfax , illinois
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yes, i have oilfilters for all KTM models now as well.!!!!!!
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