Thanks for the link. Nathan also provided a link to his writeup at http://www.adventurebikerider.com/co...18-nathan.html.

Some interesting stuff in there, including that the bike has a 1 liter oil capacity, and that they don't plan on increasing it.
That's what my 125 and 200 have, and those specify 2000 km oil changes, not 5000 miles...

I wonder if they will be sticking with the low front fender on the production model?
One of my bikes has a split high front / lowish rear, and I've had to clear mud and stones from the rear section before.

The other thing I noticed was the projected 15k miles engine strip down.
Maybe that's a good reason to take advantage of the reputed £1500 crate motor: something like shipping tires ahead. Work out where you will be around the 15k mark, and swap in the new motor, shipping the old one back to the factory for maintenance. :-D

This bike looks like it would work well for the riding I bought my Husky 610 for: northern New England off-pavement touring, TAT and the Continental Divide Trail.

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I bought the idiot rag as I had time to kill. Pretty fair test on the CCM but not a lot more detail than the posts above and the video. The engine strip down thing would be a killer for me but I would make the effort to go see one in the flesh and talk about it.

MCN also had a hilarious spread, big vs small adventure bikes. The "little" Triumph 800 is better than their 1200 but the F800 doesn't cut it again the 1200GS for anyone who needs a proper bike :confused1:. I think they loaded the script from a Ewan and Charlie into their Journotron 3000 and let it write what it normally writes in the knee down-wheelie- 3 kg lighter than last year - knee down - wheelie mode. Can't wait for next months 800-1200 cc Adventure bike shoot out at in Valencia

Best bit was a single column that said they might bring the SR400 to the UK. 25 horses in a frame the same shape as Ted Simon used, built without 1930's metallurgy. Suits me Sir

Andy

Maybe they should rename it the "Short Adventure".......

Go forth and conquer the world.... Just rebuild the engine before you get out of Europe...

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

15.000 miles before rebuild is extremely good for an engine of this type, my EXC was more or less toast before 4.000 miles.

It will get you to Cape Town (from Europe), but not back.

From what I hear there is a long skirt piston for the 450 engine available - maybe ccm have chosen to fit this in the final set up - who knows ? has anyone asked that would extend engine life a bit - along with the fact they have dropped 1500 revs from the top end with the limiter, remapped the ignition and advance all of which softens the stress on an engine - one designed to be revved to the limit all out, so i would think those factors alone would extend the bottom end life by a huge amount, if they do fit the long skirt piston that would also make a massive difference to wear on the barrel and piston - still not sure about the 1.25 oil capacity seems small but I am used to bigger bikes air cooled etc - yet with the above softening of the engine the oil is not going to get the same pounding and burning and with high quality modern oil the life span is petty good, but with that quantity I would be changing it every 2 - 3000 miles anyway - top gear featured a car last year that had oil change intervile of 100,000 so maybe 5000 in a detuned 450 is not as bad as they say. The 15000 mile rebuild if thats a reality would be a pain but i assume its only top end - piston valves and guides - which would not be a show stopper in reality a days work - the word is that the bmw g450x was warrantied for 36 month as an enduro machine - thus the reason for the massive maintenance schedule from BMW could it be in place so that they maybe never had to pay out for a warranty claim ?.I also see that there is an aussie lad has done over 30,000 on a 52hp g450x without a strip down - maybe he doesnt ride that till its screaming for mercy - so maybe all the rebuild stuff is just hot air and wind - scaremongering about the unknown !. I dont know till i talk to them in a few weeks time at the factory.

I think if it actually took off then CCM or another company might start knocking out auxiliary oil tanks.. Along with plenty of other 'life extending' goodies such as relaxed cams, pistons and injection mapping.

oil quantity doesn't bother me too much. My DRZ took under 2L and that was fine. I'd just change oil twice as often as they recommend.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

IIRC, the XT225, serow, engine contains 0.9L in the wet sump design.
It's an old tech, air cooled, engine design with soft delivery of power but they seem to work well on this - the rider just has to keep an eye on the oil level.

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Dave

I'm guessing that the dealer network is not going to be huge (based on the manufacturer aim to provide the backup service of shipping a replacement engine anywhere in the world and the small market for specialist bikes).

Seeing it in the flesh may be a case of go & try one out in Bolton (still looking forward to that report!).

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Dave

where can I get me one of those...

Good point by Ali B too.

Surely the whole engine wont be shagged in 15k, they never are, that's what's so annoying.
But if it's an exchange deal like a car alternator, sounds like good recycling practice to me.
I've come back from 5000-mile desert trips with a Tenere motor in poor shape and have heard of a typical air-cooled 250 being rooted after an AK to TdF.

Best outcome (for us) might be if the Japs take up the 450 adv concept.

Ch

Like a long life, large oil volume WR450 that looks like this?

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Yes, or the KTM 390 Allrad I just noticed in another HU post. Looks a bit heavy.

Ch

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Adventure Motorcycling Handbook 8 • Morocco Overland 3 • Overlanders Handbook 2 • Twit

Yes ... looks a bit heavy in that pic, cause they used a pic of an 1190 Adventure with the 390 Allroad article :confused1:

There's nothing like quality journalism ... and that indeed was nothing like quality journalism

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My wife's Mini has an oil change interval of 20,000 miles. What in God's name are we considering with this go anywhere bike - I buy one and change the engine at the same time as I'm doing an oil change on the car. All I'd be asking the thing to do is propel itself down the road at fairly mediocre speeds. I don't want to ride it to the moon, just to Tesco's. If it can't do that without the core part converting itself to scrap before the car engine is run in then there's something fundamentally wrong with it.

Back at the dawn of time when I started traveling / touring etc we used small air cooled two strokes and we'd get about 25,000+ miles out of them before they needed rebuilding. Forty years later we're considering a service life of half that on an engine twice the size!

Is there really a long life piston available? If there is presumably the long skirt bit means it weighs more. How's that going to affect the engine balance - am I going to get double vision riding it? Do I get an extra 10K miles at the cost of my fillings falling out? My current CCM really did give me double vision from wheel imbalance when I bought it. Good luck with trying to get an engine balance problem sorted out.

You can see why KTM would go for it. An existing range of engines in the baby Dukes, a production plant in India to make the most of, a burgeoning bike market in the sub-continent, a customer base not inculcated to believe that you need big engines to have a better bike and poor roads.

I'm surprised it took them so long.

Incidentally why don't more bike manufacturers follow KTM's lead with the baby Duke range. One bike, three different engine sizes. After all cars have been like that for years.

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I agree with you if the engine does have ridiculous short life then the engine is wrong for the bikes proposed usage as a long travel adventure bike and then it becomes limited to a short distance travel bike crossover with a green laner. ( which i think it is anyway no matter what label we stick on it) What we do not yet know are if any changes have been made to the engine prior to production and how engine life is expected to pan out after those changes have been done, I am told that Mr Clews said that some top end changes had or were being made. As for the long skirt piston I have looked and can't find it anywhere but it is referred to in the g450x forums as well as a 480 big bore racing kit and not topical for this bike really. I simply do not know and think it unlikely that the design has been changed but know one knows at this time. If it was it does not mean it needs to vibrate or upset engine balance - I have fitted different pistons (bigger bore) in engines before - but they have weighed less than the originals - so sorting out balance / weight etc is for the piston manufacturer and would make a none starter of an argument I think.
I also wonder why everyone seems to think this or every bike on this forum has to be good and able to go round the world ? to be honest most modern bikes in my opinion are worse than useless for this task as they are too complex. More so I have always said that some peoples idea of an adventure may be very different to another persons maybe a trip to Scotland, to France or to Russia and beyond we are all different with different time, money and targets. So the bike we choose or not choose will meet our different needs. I have changed direction on the bikes i have always favoured - I now want a small lightweight bike with enough power to use on the roads around the UK, to travel a few thousand mile here abroad on back roads and light trails and maybe go around Iceland or into the fringes of Northern Russia, I do not need or require the bigger bikes i used to ride as I wont travel too far nor will i ever have a passenger as i always did before - so if I can sort out the life of the engine as being reasonable and affordable in return giving really good power then this bike may well fit my needs. Then again it may not I will know in a few weeks time.