Western Plains meets Newnes/Ben Bullen

[AlexMember]

I took some pics so thought I’d post them up for the benefit of those locals that couldn’t attend, har har…

Sat: Packed and left for the 3.5hr drive to the mountains. Awesome weather. Unloaded at the Pines camping ground near Zig Zag and met up with some locals, ekipS and Dave. Unfortunately, Grant’s 300 went for about 10min and stopped, dead. No spark. Bike in bits. No joy. Ran out of time for a ride and drove to the camp ground in Newnes to set up camp. Not a breath of wind all night, clear skies. -2.6C when we hit the hay.

Sun: A few midnight and 2:30am visitors from other drunk campers in their 4WDs and bikes (!) hooning around the fire trails :angry: broke up the quiet night/sleep.
Grant opted to go through his wiring and pack up camp whilst I head for the airstrip to meet up with some Sydney folk. Heard of but never met this bunch before (readers might recognise them maybe): Terry (lead), Marc, Gavan and Jack. Great bunch of guys. Our group spanned 4 decades 30s, 40s, 50s and Jack 62. Moved along at a good pace and was a little surprised I must say. I’m still getting used to the new bike but enjoyed it thoroughly. A few bingles and drops witnessed mainly on the slipper climbs but otherwise incident free. Terry’s Husky popped a fuse and then dropped the spare into the airbox which took a while to retrieve :laugh:
Most of the trails were new to me which was great, trying to remember them will be fun. GPS for birthday I recon. Looking forward to the next trip. Pics on the way.

[ChrisMember]

Great Axel looking forward to the pics.

Chris.

[AlexMember]

Here are the pics, didn’t realise that I could upload pics directly. They are from Picasaweb.

[img size=300]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/SmzxNzr110I/AAAAAAAAAOc/IS1dwEm_ySg/s144/100_1694.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/SmzxM_WeZVI/AAAAAAAAAOY/bXMkCWVrN1w/s144/100_1697.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/SmzxIYmoDWI/AAAAAAAAAOM/x3PleFS4F5Y/s144/100_1700.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/SmzxGlEQ-iI/AAAAAAAAAOI/KprEq0b4mx8/s144/100_1701.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/SmzxL93N-HI/AAAAAAAAAOU/3bH78V8ASv0/s144/100_1698.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/SmzxE7DGd7I/AAAAAAAAAOE/aLnCLVdUmgM/s144/100_1702.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/SmzxDA4NUrI/AAAAAAAAAOA/bjCeKQ_-65Y/s144/100_1703.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/SmzxBIQUB6I/AAAAAAAAAN8/n6DrNwNXql4/s144/100_1704.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/Smzw_GqcnyI/AAAAAAAAAN4/zMyKXG7b2x4/s144/100_1705.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/Smzw9f6W_cI/AAAAAAAAAN0/QjXImgW7W7g/s144/100_1706.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/Smzw7QMe1DI/AAAAAAAAANs/zR3jkt_ytGw/s144/100_1707.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/Smzw5UQmjfI/AAAAAAAAANo/JcfWpJb9VtE/s144/100_1708.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/Smzw3iCsGlI/AAAAAAAAANk/sqA9ofzr9JI/s144/100_1710.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/Smzw171_FfI/AAAAAAAAANg/L0UzSyciAho/s144/100_1712.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/Smzwz4Gxa7I/AAAAAAAAANc/eJnbDdcJIZQ/s144/100_1713.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/SmzwxQlQQBI/AAAAAAAAANY/rkhC5A7ubXY/s144/100_1714.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/SmzwviyRjCI/AAAAAAAAANU/WW2bZbmwluw/s144/100_1715.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/SmzwtilKRgI/AAAAAAAAANQ/cxToUjLk0c8/s144/100_1716.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/SmzwrDk09MI/AAAAAAAAANM/JJyyzuHj0gU/s144/100_1717.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/Smzwo4M0VTI/AAAAAAAAANI/yodepirfiCs/s144/100_1718.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/SmzwnIZyZOI/AAAAAAAAANE/ywJnAAcuqek/s144/100_1719.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/Smzwk2JZF4I/AAAAAAAAANA/tikrnCq762I/s144/100_1720.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/SmzwjUIpknI/AAAAAAAAAM8/vG3RMTkbIJI/s144/100_1721.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/Smzwhdo6FyI/AAAAAAAAAM4/Z4EDBNxd1SQ/s144/100_1722.JPG[/img][img size=300]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-A-rRhg_Yco/Smzwfl_E9EI/AAAAAAAAAM0/8y4cDXhxsCE/s144/100_1723.JPG[/img]

[Graeme PattersonMember]

aha , so it was the old kill switch issue with grants bike.
good to hear the ride went well on Sunday, I bet you was cold on sat night.
me and dave both nearly drowned our bikes in different locations on the way
home sat but at least i stayed on whereas dave got turfed off and into the water.

[AlexMember]

Bugger! I bet he was frozen for the rest of the way home. Saw an ’09 exc de-drowning in the huge puddles that Aaron found at high speed that time …. those airboxes unmodified let water in like nothing else. Yes, the dreaded black/yellow wires on the Katos! Real hard to trace faults without a wiring diagram in the bush! What can you do.

[Eric SmithMember]

Not a bad report for a first effort Axel, I’ll give you a 6/10 – needs more effort! Your pics have come through awfully blocky – are they uploaded direct to this site?

KTM wiring, not their strongest point! Bet Grant was unimpressed about it!

[AlexMember]

Didn’t realise I could upload direct. Linking to a photo website is not easy from here. Very tedious. The originals are good quality. Your the only one that has complained
I tried to keep the text as simple as possible, no-one wants to read a novel. It seems the wiring problem may have been just water/moisture in the handlebar kill switch.

[murph the surfMember]

Hey axel
We had a fella come out for a ride on a new 300. Only made it a few hunred metres into the bush before it failed. Read below. I hope it is some assistance.
murf/morgo
finally got my bike sorted
dont disppear murf it was nothing mechanical the ktm motor is still strong and reliable. after pulling the bike to pieces over the last 2 days i finally tracked the problem down (with some assistance thanks matt)to a faulty e-starter/kill switch.if i’d known all i had to do was disconnect 1 black/yellow wire going to the e-starter button and all would be ok!! but then again from the sounds of things i got let off lightly.thanks again morgo for your help i honestly thought i’d fouled a plug or had a blocked pilot jet any way its been a long tedious process for a simple solution. id beter start training if i want to complete
one of murf/morgo’s rides??

300jack

Cheers
Murph

[AlexMember]

Thanks for that Murf. Let me tell you that it looks like the ‘Bumble Bee’ kill wire struck old mate’s 300 too! I’ve followed 2stroke forums for a long time and have rarely seen it an issue which is weird. Like 300jack we thought it was all sorts of things other than this little wire. There are 2 connections for it (for other Kato readers and riding buddies), one around the speedo and one under the tank. Black/Yellow wire and connector. It’s such a PITA because we disconnected what we thought was everything but missed that little b’stard. The cause we think is moisture causing even the slightest resistance in the 2 kill switches (typically the one near the horn as the other one is more obvious when the e-start don’t work).

Coincidentally, we blamed his recent conversion to a ‘wet-stator’ for the e-start. We thought the stator packed it in. Not true, it was fine. Don’t you hate when that happens!!! :S

And finally, cover your switches when you wash yer bike!! I use masking/race tape. It only takes 20 seconds!!!

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