STORY: Josh Martin
KTM
500
EXC-F
Josh Martin takes us
through his KTM 500
after 10,000km of
adventure riding.
ver the last 10 years I have been
fortunate enough to clock up over
220,000km of amazing rides through
some of the most epic locations the
South Island has to offer. The majority of
these rides were GPS logging trips for the
RemoteMoto website. Up until six months
ago, a Suzuki DRZ400E was my primary bike
for this.
I chose the DRZ because it has a reputation
for being a capable and reliable adventure
bike – and it certainly proved itself to be that.
However, there was one minor downside.
The technical terrain I like to ride meant I
would often be pretty beaten up after a long
day of hard riding. To be fair, the DRZ400 can
be considered a fairly lightweight bike in the
adventure riding scene, however it is a far
cry from a modern lightweight enduro bike
which can effortlessly scamper over technical
terrain.
I never really had indecision about the DRZ,
26 KIWI RIDER
as I think the most important thing about
adventure riding is the adventure itself... not
whether you have the latest and greatest
bike. I’ve always been able to ride the
DRZ400E over challenging Grade 5 terrain,
albeit with a lot of sweat on some of the
really technical sections.
It wasn’t until I was sitting around a campfire
after a seriously tough High Country ride
that something changed. While watching the
campfire’s flickering flames, the idea to buy
a lightweight enduro bike for the tougher
trips unexpectedly spawned in my head.
Unsurprisingly... it only took a few minutes
for this spark of an idea to become a plan of
buying a new bike.
Some of the candidates I shortlisted included
the Husqvarna 501, Beta 480, Sherco SEF450
and the KTM 500EXC. Riders familiar with
these bikes would likely consider all four of
them to be worthy candidates.