Learning to ride the KTM

Although I am Boris´s flight engineer on this trip - ok, others call it pillion rider - I thought it would be pretty handy if at least I knew a little bit how to ride his KTM safely. That´s no easy undertaking, because (a) if Boris is in town, we want to go on big rides and head out together, (b) try out how it feels together on the bike and plan for bike adjustments. Finally, and most importantly (c) it is in fact quite a risky undertaking for me to grab the KTM and learn how to ride it, while at the same time we want to avoid any kind of damage to the bike with our big ride coming up and knowing the limited possibilities of getting it fixed in Vientiane.

Well, I did it all the same and together with Lisa, who was riding a Vanvan for the first time in her life, I headed out of town to Ban Pako. Very exciting, and yes, very, very nervous with regard to (c) above. But Lisa and I are probably natural talents - or maybe just riding incredibly slow? In any case, we enjoyed the outing. The bike feels great. Once I picked up some speed it was so much fun. Only stopping at red lights must be planned a bit in advance. As the bike is so high I generally have to balance it out on my toes when stopping.feels like a 10-year old kid taking dad's bicycle for a spin.

We made it to Ban Pako with me only dropping the bike twice. The KTM is very heavy compared to the scooter which I am normally riding around town. So it happened twice that I wanted to take a turn slightly too tight and too slow. As a result I could not hold the bike anymore and it just fell to the ground, while I jumped off landing on my feet. No material damage, neither to the bike, nor to my body. But a new challenge. Pick up the KTM by myself again? Impossible, too heavy! Lisa had to help me every time and only together we managed to get the bike up again. The rest of the ride was just awesome.

However I am facing in-depth psychological damages now. There is this constant small fear of dropping the bike again when taking another tight corner. Especially when I ride by myself through town. The U-turns on Tha Deua road are still a nightmare. So is the turn off from the main road into my little dirt road: Low speed, turn off to the right while of course exactly in this very second a big truck or Toyota-Hilux will block the way, and finally the vicious German Shepherd dog of my neighbors who aims to attack my calf this very moment. Perfect set-up for a little drop.