VOLUME 58 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 5, 2021 P87
Inland Empire freeway confluence, that's exactly
what we did. I asked for a destination or goal or
turnaround point from our Temecula, California,
starting point.
"Big f'ing trees," Cody said.
You may know of Mr. Cody from his recent
exploits in the newly founded "Hooligan" class at
the National Hare & Hound series events, to his
Dakar race attempts, Romaniacs on a KTM 1090
Adventure R, etc., and this list can go on for quite
a while.
Cody has resources to make good/bad ideas
happen. He's KTM's North American leading man
in charge of research and development tasks for
all street bikes. Which, in KTM's case, means a lot
of Adventure models hell-bent for dirt time. From
ABS settings to Rally Mode Traction Control and
suspension specs, Mr. Cody and his team have put
their mark into the final settings on many bikes you
and your friends are now riding.
So, Mr. Cody, in all his good/bad idea wisdom,
thought we should take two of KTM's diminu-
tive 390 adventure machines on a national forest
rip through the heart of the California's Sequoia
National Forest and southern Sierra Nevada range.
It's not a bad idea at all, but why 390s? We're
pretty tough, full-size dudes. Shouldn't we take big-
ger bikes? Especially where we were headed?
The Sierra Nevada is a most impressive moun-
tain range that houses behemoths of American
mountains and some of the most iconic land-
scapes ever photographed. Massive granite
domes, gargantuan trees, abundant roads and
trails and the American West's massive scale. I'll
ask it again, why aren't we taking "full-size" adven-
ture bikes there!?
Cody's faith in the small bike was convincing.
For the KTM 390 Adventure, in particular, his re-
search and development responsibilities centered,
bluntly, on trying to break it by hard riding in silly
The payoff for slogging
up California's freeways
are roads like this
as you head into the
Sierra Nevada range's
southern end.
