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THE CHOICE
IS YOURS
Themainrouteis
designed for average
riders. Those with
even minimal off-
road experience
arefine.However,
the breakout routes
vary in difficulty and
some are tough. The
beauty is you can do
asmany–orasfew- breakout routes as
youplease.Theonly
thingisyou’llhaveto
answer to your mates
at the pub as to why
youwenttheeasy
route...
me avoid a log, but decided to take it on any way.
I came in too gingerly and got stuck, again. This
time there was nobody in sight and as I tried hard
to remember all I could from watching Man vs Wild
in preparation for my night in the bush, out of the
woods came a bloke who’d broken down up ahead
and had heard me struggling. The 1190 had dug a
trench BHP would be proud of, so it was a two-man
job skull-dragging it out.
We continued on past Cullen Bullen Lookout and
down to the valley. The Rallye ducked into Sunny
Corner but stayed out of the singletrack. By this
point there were a lot of roos getting about and they
seemed to have an attraction to KTMs.
The final stint was the narrow road down to
Jenolan Caves. This is where we stayed for the night
and a new rule was introduced – if your handlebar
touched the ground it was a $2 fine. That money
went towards the bar tab on the final night. The
fund made a killing, but there was worse to come...DAY 2 JENOLAN CAVES TO DASHVILLE
Day two started with some bitumen that went back
to Bells Line Of Road. It’s hard to avoid bitumen
in the Blue Mountains as most dirt roads are in
national park and off-limits, but I couldn’t care less- the 1190 is unreal on the road.
We left Bells Line Of Road and joined a dirt road
that links Bells to the Putty Road. The trail was
loamy and you could tell by the skids that the KTM
punters were having a ball. I was getting more
comfortable on the 1190 by this point and started to
have more fun – it’s got huge torque but you’ve got
to be careful because it’ll spit you off quickly.
Putty Road offered some more epic riding but it
came with a warning as it’s heavily policed. Most
people stopped at Grey Gum Café for some lunch
and a chinwag. It’s easy to start a convo with a
random because everyone has at least one thing in
common: motorcycles.
I learnt there were lots of riders who had signed
up for the Rallye on their own. It’s not a bad idea
when you think about it. We’ve all tried to organise
a ride only to have everyone pull out the day before.
KTM does all the hard work for you and it doesn’t
matter if you’re on your own because you’ll meet
tons of similar people throughout the week.
The route left Putty Road and moved on to one of
the best sections of the entire Rallye – Howes Trail.
It’s about 30km of f lowing fire road with erosion
mounds, sandy corners, little climbs and fast
sweeping corners. The erosion mounds found the
bottom of the 1190s suspension but the blokes on
690s were going for long-distance record attempts.
The sand catches a lot of people off guard and the
big adventure bikes can’t be manhandled unless
you’re the hulk. You’ve got to lean back and let the
bike do its thing.The trail was loamy
and you could tell
by the skids that the
KTM punters were
having a ball
KTM ADVENTURE RALLYE
Above Steve Pickering
getting some air on
day three
Above right Don’t ride in
the wheel tracks they said,
but Pete didn’t listen