Camel Spirit

This was the replacement bike for Camel, which was written off by a car driver in Salzburg. Apart from everyday use, I used Camel Spirit 640 for trips to Italy, Wales, Scotland, France, Spain and Portugal and all over England and Austria. It was a great off road bike like no other, you could actually get to far away offroad areas without having to use a blinkin' car and trailer! The range was superb, a mindblowing 350 miles on one 28 liter tank and it had amazing presence with its 94 cm seat height, which was often critisized, because individuals would find it hard to get on the bike. Placing one foot on a footpeg and standing up on that leg, and swinging the other leg over is an easy way on, and is a techique successfully adopted by horse riders, without them screaming out for lower horses! The KTM 640 Adventure has amazing presence, and was a head turner not just among motorcyclists. Considering how much I used it for all sorts of activities, it proved reliable, with the only breakdowns being a starter clutch fault after nearly two years, and two spokes fracturing, all immediately fixed under warranty. The fork seals were very vulnerable when the bike was taken off-road, but KTMs neopreme fork gators solved that problem. Another concern was the unlockable fuel tank cap, and finding a leak proof lockable cap. As of the 2004 models, all tanks were fitted with lockable caps.

An excellent off-roader with touring capabilities, I look back at it with many fond memories. The bike was unfortunately written off by a car driver in February 2005 after serving me well for 2 years and 27,000 miles (43,000kms).

The original fuel tank cap was not lockable, so I bought the best fitting aftermarket cap from the KTM dealer, but this was also not leakproof when the motorcycle ended up un its side, and the fuel would eat away at the paintwork and the sticker would come off. So I got an unpainted tank, which I tried to protect from falls by putting gaffer tape on the vulnerable parts, as tank bars were not available. This proved fruitless, so I accepted the idea that only a KTM with off-road battle scars is a proper KTM. I also replaced the grey front mud guard with a more exiting looking yellow one.

Servicing the KTM was quite easy,as everthing was very easily accessible. Removing filters was simple and when changing the oil it was drained out of the sump and the frame, and refilled in these as well. The air filter was intelligently placed in a position where dirt could hardly get to it during off-roading, and was reuseable after maintainance.