The first day of wrenching this year started in a blizzard. My garage in Berlin is essentially a glorified sea container with electricity and no heating, but at least it keeps the rain and snow on the outside so I can’t complain. Walking in the bike looked pretty miserable; it was still muddy from the last ride in Poland, but there was no easy way to wash it in the blizzard. So I proceeded to put on the squeaky clean forks and rear shock that had just come back from service. It made quite a contrast with the dirty bike. By the way the tech from KTM Berlin told me that after 120 hours the rear shock was still okay, but the oil in the forks was dirty, as expected. It seems like pretty good news with long range travel in mind.

As the frosty day progressed, new gear found its way on the bike; lovely Excel Takasago A60 rims on Haan Wheels hubs with a damped rear, Maxxis tyres, Bulletproof Designs radiator guards, Midwest Mountain Engineering’s Clever levers and finally a KTM Powerparts Galfer rally rear brake disk.

There’s still a bunch of stuff to do, as I have not yet test fitted my new XCountry Hobo edition tail bag, or fitted the TPS Tool backup capacitor among other things. Either way it feels like progress, and despite the blizzard the summer is yet another day closer.