It's pumpkin time

[MacWildcat]

Ok all you folks that eat orange, bleed orange, and leave tiny orange poopies. I made a leap of faith and brought home a KTM 400 EXC today. I was impressed by the strong, fluid power of the 400 on the short test ride I took.
Don't let me down. What kinds of peculiarities do I need to watch out for?
My new toy is currently not dual-sported so my first challenge will be getting ready for DMV.

[Hank Moody]

I'm not a pumkin but go over to KTMtalk.com and everything you want to know about a 400 EXC should be there. Congrats on your new purchase and welcome to the 'you R peeing' club!

[BGG]

Hey sufiri you out there....... He is the resident expert on Dual sporting a KTM EXC!!!!!! oh and buy the way, big time congrats!! You will love that EXC, the masses flying aroung on pumkins will back me up on that one!!

[safiri]

Congrats Mac! The 400 EXC will feel lots better in the tight stuff ... and that same comment would have applied if you had bought a 450 Husky! No bleeding Orange here, just a fan of less weight!

Check out the page I created for the mods I did to my bike:
http://home.everestkc.net/malsin/Motorcycle/mxc400.htm

For turn signals I switched over to the cheapest I could find from Rusty at MC Closeouts. I run everything except the horn off of AC. That way the battery cannot be drained by leaving on the turn signals, light, etc. Note that the ground is the frame (common) for both the AC and DC sides of the system. I mounted the horn between the fender and the headlight mask. There is a bolt hole in the bottom triple that works great. The bike came with the rear brake/tail light, with a banjo bolt on the rear brake providing the signal for the brake light.

If you have a problem with the Highway Patrol (if they do the inspection in Manhattan) send me a PM with your phone number and a time. We can talk. That was my major hurdle, but I live in KC where the HP is a PITA. Or PM me if you want to go over what I did to the bike.

I made mine completely street-legal. If you can get the VIN inspection (not sure if you have to do this if the bike was bought in KS) done by a local PoPo, you may be able to get by with no equipment. BGG runs with no turn signals or horn.

[Savage]

What year is it? Is it orange, silver or white? Has it ever been street titled in KS?

[MacWildcat]

2002 - Orange, silver, white, black.
The bike has not been street titled in Kansas, but has a Kansas title.

I'll have to give a you a call Mike, thanks for the work you put into the process you used for your bike. From your photo, my bike looks almost identical. The AC/DC circuits are a mystery to me. I'm thinking the EXC has a limited DS wiring bundle already on it?

I'm game for a piece-meal dual-sport setup. The cost of a kit is expensive, especially for a 6 year old bike.

[MoRidin]

Congrats Mac! I loved the '02 era KTMs...uber reliable bikes and a blast in the woods.

Safari has ALL the knowhow for a conversion and ultimate plating. His bike SHOULD have been easy (as in any other state int he US) as I sold it to him with an IL street title...but KS wasnt having none of that. He eventually prevailed.

Buy him a beer or 12 and I bet you will have that sucker plated in no time.

By the way Mike..how is the old girl running?

[Hayden]

Boy theres a loaded question..........only becuase I know the answer I wont spoil it for mike though


Hayden

[safiri]

Boy theres a loaded question..........only becuase I know the answer I wont spoil it for mike though


Hayden

The ole girl is running quite well. Tracy is referring to me swapping out transmissions from the close-ratio MXC to the wide-ratio (and much lower first gear) EXC. The engine and bike are back together and have 6 street miles of test riding. No problems except a leaky carb ... I must have disturbed some sediment or something while the carb was flopping around by the cables when off of the engine. All looked good inside the engine, although I did not have the head off so I can't comment on combustion chamber or valves.

I will post up a page when I get one authored that shows pics of what I did and the guts of the engine.

[Stu]

Leaky carb? Check your float level.

You guys with 4 strokes should not have difficulty getting titles for your bikes if they were titled in KS. That just goes through. You will have more difficulty if you try to register a new bike. I had the local (Lawrence) county office give me all kinds of grief. "The state says that this '09 300 KTM XC-W is for closed course competition use only." My response, "I race my Nissan pickup. What interest is it of the states whether I race or not?" When this settled into her brain she asked me if it had a highbeamlowbeamturnsignalsmirrorhornbrakelighttaillight to which I answered "Yes." So it is tagged in Kansas! Persist. You can get a tag.

Stu

[Savage]

TAGGED 300 2 SMOKER? Hell ya!

[Stu]

Tagging Woes.

The DIFFICULTY comes with a used bike. If it has been registered off-road anywhere you will encounter overwhelming resistance in KS. If it has been tagged in another state but KS says it is off-road you will again encounter obstinate officiousness. However, if it has been registered elsewhere AND it has the head race sticker that says "For Closed Course Competition Use Only" you will have to PhotoShop yourself a street sticker and glue it over the off-road one, which is, of course, illegal, so I certainly would not suggest anything so rash. The KTM EXCs for '07-'09 have just such a sticker.

If the MSO does not say "For Off Road Use Only" you should ("should") be able to tag your new bike. I have been told that some manufacturers place that wording on the very edge of the MSO that would allow the sneaky (not one of us) to trim it off. Lawrence and Kansas City are really difficult to deal with and being thoughtful, acting concerned but insisting on the street worthiness of your race bike will go a long way.

Arbitrary rules are established by bureaucrats and enforcement is rigid with most government attempts at behavioral control. Clumsy comes to mind. We want to play around off-road. They reduce our riding areas. We need to connect to remaining patches of over-used land on, guess what, roads where tags are required. They severely restrict tags. One could ask what next but it seems pretty obvious to me. "Bikers belong in the dumpster of history." I was told by one cheerful soul behind one counter. My reply was that between budget cuts and $400 computers her position was on the blocks so she could join us for a merry time in that dumpster.

Stu

[Hayden]

Stu. I really like the way you set up your old 450 that I have now. If you every decide to sell the 300 I want first dibs!!!!!

I need a 5 miles of hell bike


Hayden