Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128103
to stay put - and the wheels to react. If you don 't be lieve it , take a physics class , or if you don 't have the patience , ride a full-suspension mountain bike at high speed through a rock field . Even on the off-chance •that you survive, you'll still agree that "l ight" is sometimes tantamount to " squirrelly ." Suffice it to say that the single trait that most stood out in our minds after the first day was the Katoom's amazing stability . The bike stays in line and doesn't buck around, whethe r roosting over sand, pounding through rocks or carving up fire roads. Grant ed , you can 't exactly knife it through a berm like a motocrosser, but there weren't a lot of berm-kni fi ng op po rtunities on this ride - nor are there on most dual-sport outings. T he b est modus operandi w h en riding t he LC4 is t o pic k out where you generally wan t to go and gently coax it in that direction. Don 't try to force it, and don't fret if i t do esn 't respond right away. It's un nerving at based not around the company's sexy new- school racing thumper motor, but the tried-and-true LC4 mill. This may strike some as a shame, what with the new powerplant having manhandled the 2000 500cc World Championshi p Motocross Series at the hands of Joel Smets, but as it turns out, what's good for MX GPs isn' t necessarily the thing for 250-mile days in the saddle, which is what we rode on day one (child 's play in a real rally, but our longest stage) . For conditions like this, the LC4 is better-suited, thanks to its proven relia bility and increased comfort. Our first day 's route started from Vic torville 's Green Tree Hotel and passed through Newberry Springs , Soda Dry Lake and Baker before a break for lunch and photos at Dumont Dunes. We then headed over the Kingston mountain range , KTM's route, which was navigated primarily via GPS, Included everything from the blazing-hot giant Dumont sand dunes to wet and chilly stream crossings. The author Is pictured above and below, with Mark Kariya and at right are Thor' s Bob Maynard, Moose's Dick Burleson and Do ug Johns. through Sandy Valley, over the Clark Mountains and in to Stateline, where we checked in to Buffalo Bill's. The course i n c l u d e d everything from high-speed rock washes to mountain fire roads to the rolling sand dunes made famous by Seth Enslow and his Crusty friends and , for such condit ions , the LC4 is close to ideal. There's no arguing that the bike is big , heavy and imprecise - especially when compared to its sexier, lighter, racing sibling - but these attributes are actually marks in the plus column over the long haul and on the types of trails we encountered . People don 't want to believe that extra weight can be beneficial , but when you're negotiating rocks and other obstacles that cause the suspension to quickly compress, a bit of poundage absolutely helps the bike cue ' EO first to note that the big steed isn't always going exactly where you'd like it to , but after a while you get used to the fact that no matter where it does decide to go - even if it's through a collection of rocks - the bike's so stable that it will most likely get through just fine. In fact, we overshot a number of turns while over-riding our visibility in the dust on high-speed sections of the first day, and the LC4 never even flinched as it was re directed back on-course. Of course there's always at least one exception , and in the case of the LC4 , it's big rocks (or b ig bu m ps) anything over six inches or so. That's when the Katoom stops its magic carpet impersonation and in stead begins acting like a bucking bronco. The main reason for the bike's aversion to big bumps is that it is woefully n EO _ 50 • MAY 9 . 2001 27