High country lightweight adventures, camping, exploring tracks and the odd trail ride … all have been rattling around in my head while I’ ve been debating what bike to buy next. I live on the West Coast of the South Island and getting a bike to do everything is … well … almost impossible. Like most, I’ ve spent a long time researching, reading and watching videos. I’ d say I’ ve long ago given up on the‘ unicorn’, but it’ s not true, I’ ve only recently let it go- there was always a little part of me that hoped and wished it was coming. Light enough for enduro, strong enough for luggage, comfy enough for touring and service intervals in thousands of kilometres rather than hours. There isn’ t one … so, there’ ll be no single bike garage in this household. It’ s now a three bike garage. Let me explain. I have an old BMW R80GS that has been most places; from the gravel highways of the Rainbow, Molesworth and Old Dunstan, to the harder tracks like up the Porika with full luggage and the‘ wrong way’ up the steps of Piano Flat. My GasGas ES700 is 60kg lighter and gets dragged out for the harder trips, places like the head of the Hopkins and the Glacier Lake at the top of the Godley. But it does become a bit of a handful, even at 158kg fully fuelled( and the extra 40kg it has over an enduro gets very heavy in that terrain). My local riding is either easy gravel roads and moderate 4WD tracks, which the GS and 700 cover nicely … but after that it gets real hard, real quick. Goat tracks, old mining tracks, abandoned 4WD tracks. It’ s enduro bike territory. This last year I’ ve been looking at a bike for the harder stuff. On the check list were being road-legal, long term reliability and decent service intervals. KTM’ s 500EXC has long been the go-to bike for lightweight, hard adventure riding. The Austrian brand went to a single oil