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Ride Report: BikeHedonia rides the world (one way or another)


Grace (BikeHedonia)

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13 minutes ago, Grace (BikeHedonia) said:

But I digress. 

In Cambodia there were magnificent abandoned ruins, with no-one around. I didn't go to Angkor Wat, I just rode alone along the King's Road... temple ruins to temple ruins. Highly recommend. 

This is my favourite video from my whole month in Cambodia. I just wanted to show you this place. It was incredible. 

I did, however, receive a complaint that the dirt roads featured were too good, and thus the videos were boring. 

Next time I'll make sure I only film the quicksand sections 😉  Quicksand temple quicksand temple!

Grace

Marvellous stuff. I can’t ever see temples without thinking of Indiana Jones or Baloo 😂

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1 hour ago, Grace (BikeHedonia) said:

But I digress. 

In Cambodia there were magnificent abandoned ruins, with no-one around. I didn't go to Angkor Wat, I just rode alone along the King's Road... temple ruins to temple ruins. Highly recommend. 

This is my favourite video from my whole month in Cambodia. I just wanted to show you this place. It was incredible. 

I did, however, receive a complaint that the dirt roads featured were too good, and thus the videos were boring. 

Next time I'll make sure I only film the quicksand sections 😉  Quicksand temple quicksand temple!

Grace

Tell them only boring people get bored. You;re a rockstar! :littleguy:

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2 hours ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

Marvellous stuff. I can’t ever see temples without thinking of Indiana Jones or Baloo 😂

I knooooooow, me too! I was thinking about Indiana Jones the whole time and trying so hard not to reference tomb raiding, which is obviously bad and not what I want to reference! But if only I could get it out of my head!

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12 minutes ago, Grace (BikeHedonia) said:

I knooooooow, me too! I was thinking about Indiana Jones the whole time and trying so hard not to reference tomb raiding, which is obviously bad and not what I want to reference! But if only I could get it out of my head!

I had the Indiana Jones music going around in my head while I was watching it 😂

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Anyway, I made it back from Cambo safe and sound... just two days before Laos reopened its land border, which is what I'd been waiting for the whole time! Nevermind. I'm now planning the next foray back into Cambodia from Thailand and this time, I'm going to have a crew. My Thai friends were all jealous when they heard about all the fun I'd had without them, so now I've convinced one friend to drive with me - with our enduro bikes on his truck - all the way down to Kampot where there's a big enduro race on 10, 11, 12 June. It should be fun!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, I'm traveling solo again, no friends and no enduro bikes. Old mate couldn't get his passport back from the UK embassy in time to drive down so I ended up flying back into Cambo on my own.

Yep, I'm back in Phnom Penh, this is KTM Rescue Mission Mk II. (The first rescue mission went nowhere because I was still waiting for the Laotian border to reopen by the time I had to skip back to run a tour in Thailand). So, here we are again. This time I expected smooth sailing - the bike had only beeing sitting for four weeks, not two years - but I get out of the shop and the temp light comes on, there's no water in the radiator.

I pour water in, it comes out again. So off I limp towards my favourite mechanical magician, leaving a trail of droplets on the hot Cambodian road...

But it's all good, because we make it to the workshop without any further red lights. I settle in to wait for the head mechanic to reappear, and hopefully solve all my problems...

Well, some of them. Can I just say, the Thai baht to USD exchange rate is murder.
 

285748632_1409094332846259_5585745653699463824_n.jpg

286275324_1409055586183467_3979274695656171845_n.jpg

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52 minutes ago, boboneleg said:

Bad luck Grace, my money is on the water pump impeller shaft seal has shit itself .

Yeh....I think so too! :classic_unsure:

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2 hours ago, boboneleg said:

Bad luck Grace, my money is on the water pump impeller shaft seal has shit itself .

Thats quite common isn't it? Along with others on KTMs:classic_laugh:

Still smiling, good girl.

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On 07/06/2022 at 16:43, boboneleg said:

Bad luck Grace, my money is on the water pump impeller shaft seal has shit itself .

Happy to report that you are all wrong, my water shaft impeller seal is fine! 😄 That's the good news. It was just a little hole in the radiator and they welded it up.

The bad news is that my clutch is borked. Slave cylinder seal failed (again) and the master cylinder has been leaking for months. Ugh. My bike is a 2012 so still running the Magura system which is plagued with problems. 

Clutchless shifted 150km to get out of Phnom Penh yesterday. That city is a headache, hard to find somewhere safe to park your bike and everyone always trying to snatch your phone. I am in Kampot. I have a race to ride, then options to reassess. Some days... weeks... months are smoother sailing than others. I also need a new set of rocker arms, I can hear the bearings are on their way out.

Poor old girl is pushing 100,000km, a fair bit for the big single, bits are starting to wear out.

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100,000 kms on a 690 ans so far only one set of rocker arm bearings is pretty impressive.

My mate had to have his engine fully rebuilt after only 13,000 miles because the bearings seized .

Good on you Grace, keep going 👍

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/06/2022 at 14:23, boboneleg said:

100,000 kms on a 690 ans so far only one set of rocker arm bearings is pretty impressive.

My mate had to have his engine fully rebuilt after only 13,000 miles because the bearings seized .

Good on you Grace, keep going 👍

Sadly i must disabuse you of this apparently success story... this is set number 4 lol. I've never had an engine seize because I watch those rocker arm bearings like a hawk (still, touch wood), but they wear out faster the older the engine gets. The first set lasted 45,000km, the most recent set only has about 15,000 km on them.

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On 10/06/2022 at 13:47, Catteeclan said:

I've never thought of a KTM being a long term bike as we know they're a bit fragile but you've got this one a lot further than most.

 

Yeah, it's a high performance engine under a lot of stress and everything's made out of aluminium and plastic... not really a recipe for longevity. But we get along thus far. I've never rebuilt the engine yet, it's nearly 100,000km, so I can't complain too much.

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So instead of being miserable about my clutch I decided to do something completely deranged instead (as one does). The Hanuman Enduro Competition was so far out of my comfort zone, I really thought I must have lost my mind when I signed up for it. But it also turned out to be one of the destroying and affirming experiences I've put myself through in years (and I have a bit of a record of putting myself in out-there situations). It was just... wow.  

I wrote up the full story on my blog bikehedonia.com 

IMG_20220615_074136_356.jpg

 

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On 25/06/2022 at 00:20, Six30 said:

Can we see your knee ?

You're welcome to see it but there's nothing to see. There was a small haematoma on the inside of the knee which is gone now, but the damage is internal. It's still not right but it's getting there...

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On 24/06/2022 at 17:04, XTreme said:

Good luck with the KTM Grace!

Thank you, I may need it. I wonder at what point it reaches the age where Keep Throwing Money becomes both true and unsustainable.

In other news I heard rumours of a 400cc rally style adv bike coming from Gas Gas in 2024. All I need to do is win the lottery and I'll be sweet.

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