The afternoon before I mounted - with the help of my brother and Bandit-Paul (photo) - my secondhand new 20 litres fueltank on my LC4. The tank was well rinsed and the taps were put in place with new (liquid) gaskets. Every KTM seems to be unique because the extra mountings for the tank didn't fit at all. Workmate and vice were put on the street and bending the metal plates started...
After bending the fuel hoses were mounted. The whole lot was well put away in such a manner that the extra fuel filter runned dry when opening full throttle for a longer period of time. At the end of the next day the long hoses seemed to be very unpractical. The roadbook rader was mounted swiftly and my 400 was ready for battle.

Sunday morning the alarm went off at 6:30. I prefer taking some extra time and riding very much awake. Seven thirty I left the slurbs we live heading for the meeting point near Fleringen. The 'liaison' of 150 kilometres motorway are not to be repeated - you sure make a lot of clicks per hour but it is absolutely boring. As I passed Hoevelaken my bike began to hold in a strange way. Dirt particles? I rinsed the fueltank well and put an extra fuel filter between reservour and carburettor. Maybe it was a chilled carb - displays alongside the motorway depicted a mere 4 degrees Centigrade. The windchill surely was below zero! Great gloves by the way, my new Scott neoprenes - I kept my hands comfy warm all day.

At a quarter past nine I turned onto the parking of De Morkift - the rendezvous restaurant. As I parked a XR400 arrived with two on. Together with Manfred and his wife (sitting at the back and giving turning signals) I rode the entire tour. Before we entered two HPN arrived - one with starting number 1. The guy really rode to make his number come true... Inside the restaurant eleven pages of roadbook waited to be taped together while enjoying coffee and Twentian raisin bread. Louise already arrived and said hello. I like it every time to meet people realtime that I met online before. After cutting the pages of the roadbook to A5 format and taping them together Mandfred and I rolled the metres on our readers and left the parking.

The roadbook was well made and had a lot of street names in it for orientation. That was very practical because all too soon my bicycle computer depicted different distances that the roadbook gave. I'd better save some money for a real ICO. The roadbook took us over nice curvy roads and a few good stretches of sand. Despite the fact that it had rained the days before I only encountered one mudpool worth to be mentioned. Off course I had to ride through it :-)
After lunch with coffee, a very large home made hamburger and some müeslibars we went on for the second part of the tour. The roadbook of Manfred malfunctioned for a while and I had also to stop to keep it rolling again. Next time I'll put some tape on the back side of the leaves as well...

It hurt to see that the roadbook did not take us through some fine dirtroads we passed. Not much of a complaint to the Flemish-Dutch GS team because one of them already tried to ride very close to a tree. In the morning a brand new Honda TransAlp even took a bath in a roadside ditch. Just all too soon we arrived at the end of our tour. With refreshments in our hands we discussed bikes and tyres in the usual manner. Everybody agreed these tours are to be organized much more.

Heading back home I got my 1:100 000 ordonnance survey map to see what great roads I could ride back home. I foud out that riding parallel to the railroad would take me home. Just one kick and I was off. Wherever possible I took the extra sand and gravelroads I missed in the roadbook tour. Just between Rijssen and Holten I took a few rounds on the MX track I used to ride on my offroad course (photo above). Last time I rode this one was on my old F650 - the LC4 is a different cookie! The curves are ridden like magic and the WP suspension makes no trouble of all those mean bumps. On the long stretches of gravel I rode after the track the bike really likes to run and high road crossings are left flying.
Somewhere near Apeldoorn I encounter two horsemen - one of the animals is obviously frightened by my bike. I park the KTM to a nearby tree and wait for them to pass. The cowboys are pleasantly surprised with my reaction.

At Hoenderloo the engine wants to pour form reserve but before I can turn the taps we come to a halt. Just after a very long push of the magical button the engine starts running again. The almost three quarters of a metre fuel hose and an extra filtre are much easier run dry than started full again... The next thing at home will be shortening all hoses! To check the amount of fuel until reserve I fill up at a nearby gasstation - 13.5 litres exactly gulp inside, not bad after riding nearly 280 kilometres!
Meanwhile it is after six in the evening and I would like to be home. I open throttle and near Veenendaal I take the A12 motorway and let my 400 run. At 150 km/h I quit but my KTM seems to be able to go well beyond that mark. Totally different from my old F650. Thirty fast kilometres later I park my great KTM in the garage - until the next ride.