SuperBike Magazine September 2020

SPEEDING UP THE
KTM MOTOGP BIKE
Hi Clint,
Just my thoughts on Danni Pedrosa,
I reckon this little bugger deserves a
special mention today...apparently made
a huge difference to the development in
the KTM MotoGP program. I salute you
#26.
KTM been plugging away, year on
year making their bike better, have had
a long term team plan and strategy with
a goal in mind. Snapped up Pedrosa
when he became available. The team
principle has a sharp eye for talent. Like
Pedrosa says, it’s like being welcomed
into a family, who are keen to learn and
listen, versus the HRC dictatorship style
they seem to love so much. I reckon the
next two years that the KTM is going to
be the absolute best all round balanced
MotoGP bike on the grid.
Cheers
Dave Gunning
Hi Dave,
I think you are 100% right, even talking
to Trevor Binder (please go listen to the
full interview I had with him on the pod
cast on our website) he also reckoned
that Danni had a huge influence. Brad
said to his Dad that he actually can’t
fault the new bike. It’s good everywhere.
You know, what you saying about
factories not listening to their riders,
Honda and Ducati have been quite publicly
accused of this in the past by their
various riders. I just cannot believe how
quickly things change. In my opinion
Yamaha had the best depth in rider pedigree,
followed by Suzuki/KTM/Ducati
and lastly Honda and then Aprilia. But
all of a sudden the young team of KTM
with their new bike actually seems to
be the best collective team. Strange
how Honda have been caught with all
their eggs in the Marques basket?
Cheers
Clinton Pienaar
WHAT WE USED TO
RIDE
Hi Clint,
I was watching a video of a 4x4 riding
up the side of a dune or minedump,
which reminded me of our scrambling
days. My friend Derek and I started at
the same company 5 days apart. We
were bike mad. The biggest street legal
scrambler at the time was the Honda
XL350S. National service
intervened and then the
biggest scramblers were the
Suzy 400 and the Yammy
DT400. Derek got a brand
new DT400 and my identical
one was 10 months old. I
remember standing at the
dealers window drooling at
those gorgeous Yammies!
We used to ride at
Wemmer Pan which had
awesome dumps. We even
took our girlfriends there
and let them ride our bikes
on said dumps.
The DT400 used to pull
awesome clutchless 2nd
gear wheelies. It didnt like freeways as
the finning on the barrel was not big
enough, and sustained open throttle
cruising would cause pinking. No matter,
If one shattered a piston ( which I
did)- take the head and barrel off, shake
the bits of piston out with paraffin, have
a rebore, fit a new piston and rings and
off you go!
We used to also ride at Mindalore
which had a huge steep minedump. We
would hit the minedump at 80km/h and
not make it to the top.
One time a 125 2 stroke motocrosser
fitted with knobbies came along and
we were gobsmacked at how easy it
ramped several feet in the air over the
top. Fitting a rear knobby did the trick.
Good memories, good friends,
awesome simple bikes and great timesno
cellphones, no social media, a simple
bikers life-I miss it!
PS: I even ran the 400 down Rainbow
dragstrip. Flatout after 50 meters, it
did a 16 something!
Cheers,
Greg Baxter
23
Hi Greg,
You giving our ages away here, DT400,
what a thing that was. Absolutely
bonkers for the day. I came in a little
after that with the water cooled CR500
Honda. I still to this day want to take my
eldest son Daniel and put him on one
and let him have a rip. I can promise
you, and yes, he is faster that what I am
now on a 450 Husky Motard and they
think this bikes are everything. But I bet
when he stops after giving it a proper
burn, he will have a wild look in his
eyes like some one who has just come
across a wild lion per door in the park.
Thos things were wild, Honda has since
s then calmed done tremendously.
Glad you still riding, my Dad is 83
and still rides his bikes BMW R90S and a
BMW F800GT.
Cheers
Clinton Pienaar
I’M DOING IT WRONG?
This is the pic of me being the first rider
in SA to let a brand new Tiger 900 crash,
something that I am not very proud of.
I’ve now had two firsts in SA, the Tiger
900 and the very fast Kawasaki H2R.
I suppose that if you walk in the rain
you are going to get wet at some stage.
We’ve had a few readers come back to
my defence on riding off road standing
up, so thanks for that. To me it’s obvious
that while standing you have a much
lower centre of gravity and the ability to
move your weight around easier.
Reason for my crash, Kodak Courage,
Road tyres at road pressures and I
should know better. Sorry Bruce, I was
trying to get the perfect shot for the
opener of the Triumph launch story.