January 2002 saw me get back into riding the trails again. I guess it happens when your son gets old enough to ride and you have something of a mid-life crisis at 40. So I decided to get back into it in a big way. At 199cms (6ft6ins) and well and truly a centurion (100kgs plus) the bike needed to be big. So it was the XR 650 for me, mostly based on the Honda track record and bullet proof reliability. Once it was derestricted and a new exhaust tip installed it went really well, actually too well as the standard gearing is good for something like 180 clicks and the last time I looked there's not too many trails where that sort of speed is much use. After investing in all the new gear necessary to look the part I proceeded to learn how to ride again after about a 10 year layoff. joining up with AMTRA was a good start and a few camping trips started to get me into it again.
It was often hard work riding the big 650 around. At 130 kg's or so it's not really made for throwing around. The standard tyres they put on them should be dumped before it leaves the shop. They really are very ordinary, although I didn't realise how ordinary until I changed to a decent set of Pirelli's. After changing the front sprocket (up one) the gearing was pretty reasonable. The XR had the grunt to go anywhere I was prepared to try. The suspension was plush and the seat quite comfortable. The standard bars are a bit low for my height but I never got around to changing them. I always found the front end pretty nervous wanting to wash out a lot. Probably my lack of skill as much as anything nevertheless it was disconcerting. Get a straight line though and it was excellent. Plenty of low end power then just grunt all the way through the gears. The ratios were pretty good for most circumstances. Tight single track was never much fun though.
Sand riding, the Flinders Ranges and the Victorian High Country with various others thrown in saw the XR perform reliably, in fact more reliably than the rider on most occasions. The XR 650 is a big bike that is happiest on the open trails with plenty of room to move. No doubt it would be a great desert racer.
By January 2004 my right hip was pretty much stuffed. Osteoarthritis had set in and from the look of the x-ray the hip joint was pretty much bone-on-bone. It got to the point that I couldn't walk without a limp and constant pain. Obviously kicking over a 650 became a bit of a problem as well. So I booked in for a Hip Surface Replacement. The operation is similar to a Hip Replacement except they don't cut the top of the femur and put a whole new joint in. Instead they cut about a 10 inch gash in your butt, dislocate your hip, ream out the socket and install a chrome alloy cup and they clean up the ball at the top of the hip and install a chrome alloy cap and then put it back together. So now I have a chrome ball joint instead of a pretty rough hip joint.
Having great faith in the surgeon I traded the XR 650 on a Husaberg FE550 about a month before the operation. I picked up an EXC 250 for the young fella at the same time. Nothing like going all out - the bank must love me. Why the Berger? Good question really. Most of the club were either blue or orange so I thought I'd try them all out. I headed down to Keith (about 2.5 hours from Adelaide) because that's the only Berger dealer in SA and they sell KTM's as well. On top of that they do test rides. First up I rode a Berger FE450. It was actually quite an awesome bike with plenty of power and very very light. But because I was there I thought I'd keep testing. Next was the KTM 525. There wasn't a current model on hand so I had to ride an older one. I really didn't like the feel of the steering but apart from that it was pretty good to ride. Next up was the Berger FE550. The one I rode had an aftermarket pipe which was probably good but way too loud. Definitely headache material after about 30 minutes let alone a day on the trails. Apart from the noise though the bike was just awesome. It just felt powerful, light and stable and especially important it had a button.
Even better the kick start is on the left so I can use my good hip if I have to. I could have tried the 650 but I decided enough was enough. The 550 has more than enough to scare the hell out of me and I'll never use it to it's full capability anyway.
So after clocking only a couple of hundred k's it was into hospital for the operation. All went well and with physio and the like I had my first ride about 8 weeks after the op. By the way the hip is now great. Next to no pain at all, just a bit stiff. My first decent ride after about 10 weeks was 220 k's in the sand at Meningie. The next day I had no pain in the hip, only plenty of sore muscles, mainly thighs from lack of riding.
So how does the Berger compare to the XR? There is no comparison really. I should say though that I paid a bit more attention to setup this time around. I had the BFB (Big Fat Bastard) springs installed front and rear, spacers to lift the hangers, bark busters and a very neat extra fuel tank that fit's in around the rear shock and plumbs straight into the main fuel system. An extra 2.9 litres of fuel means a lot less to be carried in the backpack.
Back to the comparison. The Berger feels a far more stable bike than the XR. Tracking over pine cones and small rocks really well where the XR would try to throw me off all the time. I'm not sure what the technical terms are but the Berger seems to have a good mix of torque and power. It has plenty off the bottom and just keeps winding on until you suddenly realise how quick you're going. Six gears means good ratios and no reaching for another gear at the top. The XR probably has more sheer torque but the Berger just feels great. Steering is very good and the Michelin tyres that come standard have been very useable so far. The seat if anything is worse than a KTM seat so I can see some serious cases of monkey butt coming up but it will be worth it. The suspension works well, what a difference it makes to get the right springs on there from the beginning. I thought it was pretty hard which is probably is. However at a recent ride in the Little Desert just about everyone else had a ride and they all liked the setup and feel of the bike despite all being lighter and shorter than me. The good part was that I got to ride a WR450F - very nice once I worked out that you have to keep winding the throttle on for ever, an XR400 - well setup and good to ride despite the fact that it is now a quite old design, an EXC525 - good to ride but a bit slow off the bottom with a more sudden power hit than the Berger and a KTM620 which just had heaps of sheer grunt.
The Berger shares a lot of parts with KTM. The suspension, carby, wheels, hangers are all the same as a KTM. The motor and frame are still the Swedish design though. The Berger has only one oil filter which is the same as the long KTM filter so I can buy in bulk given 2 bikes that use at least one filter the same. It only holds 1 litre of oil and 1 litre of coolant so maintenance is critical but that seems to be the way more and more these days. Even the Jap bikes are heading more in that direction. The pipe is also the same as a KTM just with a different name stamped in the outer cover. It seems to be quite a good pipe so no need for an aftermarket product.
So why did I really choose the Berger? Apart from being awesome to ride I just wanted to be a bit different. With all that orange and blue around these days it gets a bit boring.
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I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where there is
no path and leave a trail.