Having owned over 20 bikes over the years I will give you an unbiased review of how I found it.
A couple of years ago i was on the lookout for another bike to get me to work and back in the summer months. I had and still have a Honda Fireblade but i was finding myself getting a bit out of control on the ride to work as I like to ride pretty fast and on the roads I take to work this was not a good thing.
I live in the Scottish Borders and have to travel about 15 miles to and from work mainly on B roads.
As it is a very rural area there is hardly any traffic and I am lucky to see 3 or 4 cars in the 15 miles that I travel. Having lived and worked in London a few years ago i still find it amazing that in this day and age there are places that have so little traffic. Not complaining though!
Anyway, like I said I started to think about getting another bike to get me to work that didn't have the temptation to go mad like the fireblade but would be just as much fun.
Now I have always fancied a supermoto but never really got round to looking into it so I thought this would be a good time to start looking for one.
I had owned a Suzuki DR650 a few years ago and to begin with did not like it that much but as I got used to it it sort of won me over as it never failed to start and was actually good fun and you had a great view over the hedges as you sat so far up. I used to think if only it had a few more horses and was a bit lighter it would be almost perfect for a fun commute to work.(And some sticky tyres!)
I did all the usual stuff that you do when looking for a new bike like checking out the supermoto forums and seeing what was going on Ebay etc and i came to the conclusion that it either had to be a KTM or a Suzuki DRZ Supermoto. After checking out a few review site I made up my mind that it would have to be a KTM as the Suzuki just was not mad enough. Everyone said that it was a good bike but it just needed a few more horses and sort of ran out of steam around 80mph. After probably averaging 80mph on my trip to work on the Fireblade this put me off a bit and anyway if I was going to buy a Supermoto i might as well get a mad one!
So in the November I had made my mind up that it had to be a KTM LC4 650 Supermoto that I needed.
I did look at getting the 650 Duke 2 but I didn't like the low front mudguard and it didn't look like a proper Supermoto.
I set about looking for my new bike and eventually the perfect example popped up on Ebay at the beginning of December. The price was good and the bike looked mint and it had only covered 12,000 miles.
The only thing was that it was in Hull which is a bit of a trek from me to get down to see it.
I checked out the guys feed back as he was a part time trader and he had sold lots of cars & bikes over the last few months and his feedback was 100% with everyone saying how happy they were with the vehicles that they had purchased from him. Also, he was offering to have the bike delivered free if the asking price was paid.
So I gave him a ring and had a chat about the bike and he said that it was very good condition and ran just fine and he had all the paperwork etc and was willing to get the bike delivered if i paid the asking price.
I told him i would sleep on it and had a good think about it the next day and had a good look at the pictures on Ebay.
I decided to go for it as the bike looked so good and with the good feedback off his previous customers I thought I could not go wrong.
So the deal was done and I paid for the bike and a week later it was delivered to my house by a white van man with all the paperwork.
As you can see it looked the business and was in great condition.
Being the middle od December I wheeled it into the garage as it was too cold and dark to take it for a run and anyway i hadn't insured it. It was going to be my summer transport and I wasn't going to ride it until March at the earliest as to roads round here are much too dodgy in the winter. I was just happy to have it sitting in the garage. Job done I thought.
I checked over the bike and everything seemed OK. It started up OK and sounded fantastic as it had a nearly new Akrapovic tailpipe on.
I couldn't believe how light it was and it felt just like a 125 to push around. The seat height was way high and it looked about 1 foot higher than the fireblades seat height which I guess it was. All the controls were also very light and the front brake looked and felt great with its huge wavey disc on. The front forks looked like a couple of girders as they are so thick. I couldn't wait for the good weather to come and take it out for a run.
Over the next couple of months I just started it up a few times and let it warm up and polished it like you do.
One thing I did notice was that it was getting harder to start on the electric starter. Sometimes it would start straight away and sometimes the stater would not turn over the engine. Also it had a very small battery which seemed to drain if you turned the bike over too much. I bought a new battery in February but this did not seem to make any difference. I just thought that the bike needed a good run and that would sort the problem out. This model also has a kick start and I started to practise my technique but even this was a bit hit and miss.
The problem is that the kick start is on the left hand side of the bike and you have to stand next to the bike and kick it over with your right leg which is a bit awkward to say the least.
When kicking the bike over it either started within a couple of kicks or you would then have to kick it over about 50 times playing with the choke which was knackering.
Anyway, the day finally came in the March to take it out for the first time. It was dry but a bit windy but I could wait no longer. I had got insured a few days earlier and it was a Sunday so was a bit quieter than usual, not that it is very busy where I live anyway.
