Having followed your journey I would believe the difference being you operated your machine without abusing it.

Great to see you guys again! Thank you for the update! Looking forward to more about gear, how it worked/didn't work and what you'd do different next time. Hope all is well.

We are getting 50-70 hour changes on our bikes w the taco moto static magnetic filter and a high spec PAO ester based oil like Motul 7100 or maxima pro plus

KTM Recommendations are for Enduro racing and training. Trail riding is much kinder to everything in the engine! You'll be just fine.

Great video guys glad to see all is well and hope to see some new riding adventures from the wheeled gezzers

I met a guy from Austria in the Flinders Ranges South Australia) a couple of weeks ago who’s at the end of a round the world ride on a Honda crf450L and he has 70,000km on it. The recommended service intervals are 1000km and he only changes his oil about every 7000km! He’s still on the original piston. It’s still running fine. Obviously he doesn’t race it but he still rides it like it’s supposed to be. It is a Honda though, not a ktm😂 I told him to sell it to a Honda museum when he gets home.

Thanks brother... I have 2011 Beta 520... I have found similar findings... Enjoy the Ride...

2018 500 with 110 hrs and 7000 km. Bike is trailered to rides and oil changes usually 1700-2500 km. Checked valves 6000 km ago so time for another check.

Thanks for the follow up!

I don’t think this will have a immediate effect on your engine but it might shorten its life. Getting an oil sample test done would help gauge how it’s going from trip to trip

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for this.

Indeed.. my 501 has had extended changes from 10 hours.. I vary the service by the use. When I ride it hard I change it early, 12 to 1500 on lighter use. Still going strong ...

Ktm 500 excf 2021.i use it for trail riding. Oil changes every 3000-5000 km, depending on the terrain and abuse. Currently at 34k km and 600+ hours with no issues what so ever.

By far THE BEST TAT series I have ever watched. Thank You!!! I would love to know more about jack's bike as I have the Rally version and am planning on doing the same trip. Also would love to know what riding pants jack was wearing as they looked very comfortable.

Interesting. Would love to hear about Jack’s observations on the CRF. Mods, performance, handling, comfort, things you’d do differently, etc.

The recommendations that are in the manual are for when you’re racing or practising for a race you’re usually always in those higher. RPMs bouncing off the rev limit engine is usually taking a lot harder abuse you’re just riding your bike normal 30 to 60 km an hour sitting in the middle of the Reve you should be able to go three times the amount of the recommendations to racing. I have a Yamaha WR 250 F 2023 and as well I’m not hard on my bike. I keep it in the mid lower RPM range, I’m never bouncing off the or even up past 14,000 RPM. My bike goes to 16,000 RPM. My first inspection I did everything was inspect I wasn’t expecting it not to be that was about 50 hours now I’m at 150 and due for an inspection on the valves, I’ll probably do them in the next week or two got a couple of rides coming up that I want to go with my buddies again I’m expecting the valves to be good. Kind of worried about the timing chain will deal with that when it comes.

I have about 300 hours on my '15 FE350s. I change the oil every 20 to 25 hours and have checked the valve clearance 4 times. At 9 years old it has good compression, always starts, no smoking, and the valves are in spec. I have only used Motorex just because I don't put a lot of hours on it. I'm thinking the lower stressed, dual sport versions of this motor can handle stretching the intervals a little but I'm in no way recommending it.

I checked my 21 500 valves at 120 hours. They have not moved since I checked them at 34 hours. I do oil changes about every 35 hours. Keep the air filter clean and don't run it like a race bike and it does not need any more maintenance than any other dual sport. I also average 55 mpg running a vortex ecu. I rode a 19 350 a couple of times back to back with my 500.I really like they way the 350s run. 500/350s are awesome bikes. There are some running long over 2000 miles oil changes interval on the Honda 450RLs with no issues and racking up high trouble free miles.

Interesting you did that , we know all about how far you can get touring on ktms here in Australia, we use full synthetic oil , do like 2500kms touring drain the oil get it tested by an independent company catapilla, and the oil came back still with very high marks after 2500kms, but thats touring.

Good to see you guys. I am curious about the Honda. I just bought one. 300L. W abs. Also I have a Royal enfield himalayan. It might be for sale. Still breaking in the Honda.

Very interesting. Especially considering stories I’ve heard from others. It sounds like you got yourself one solid KTM. But I wonder if results would had been any different with a different operator. What I mean is, I’m wondering if the valves would had been out of adjustment if you would had pushed the bike harder, not just further, with the same amount of service... This machine was designed to withstand a certain amount of abuse, so therefore I’m wondering if that’s what the engineers based their service intervals on? Either way, I’m happy to hear your outcome. That’s fantastic!

often my 500 hits +1kmiles per oil change - it is a 19 and is now 9kmiles old and is fine - valves do not need doing nor anything else

I'm a noob, but I read these stories often. It seems the recommended intervals involves racing-for legal reasons. Not casual trail or road riding.

i can't tell you how happy i am to hear your results... i'm a, not fast, 64 yr old with a sxf450 factory edition with 100 hrs, 2, back tires, 5 oil changes, air filter and nothing else. i never use the rev-limiter. to say i don't push it is an understatement. i think i'll be ok. thanks

I feel that the service interval hours compared to total miles driven is probably not the best. Unless you are going excessively fast (high rpm) distance is a factor of your final drive. You can drive at 4500rpm in 4th gear and also in 6th gear. Your distance will be far greater in 6th gear with the same engine wear. Toco Moto and a lot of other long term owners are just doubling the hours to 60-70 for adventure style riding.

Glad to hear that. I presume you cleaned the air filter as needed.

ISA. My 2024 model says 15 hour oil change and 45 hours for valves.

Oil changes at 465 mile intervals is crazy! Is the oil capacity 1/4 of one quart or something crazy like that?

change the oil every couple thousand miles, when is convenient and the tanks off the bike and your towards the valves check them, otherwise quit sweating the small stuff. these bikes are built so much better than bikes of the past, they are made to handle incredible abuse. I have a friend that has a CRF 450 L he has 16,000 miles when I last checked, he changes the oil about every 2000 miles, not sure if he has checked the valves yet or not. He's never had any unusual problems with the bike. Last I heard it ran better than when it was new. He also does oil analysis via Blackstone labs every now and then and nothing unusual has popped up in the oil analysis. Personally, I believe these short service intervals are to cover the factories tail in the event of warranty work, considering many of these bikes are in competition and being run maxed out for extended periods of time. By the way my friend is an adventure writer/regular commuter as he rides his bike to work whenever he can 12 miles each direction when possible. All this talk about meeting manufactured requirements for oil change is overkill unless you are in competition at the track. just talked with an engine builder that builds bikes for Baja about a week ago. He talked about the durability of these motors, specifically we talked about my 450 L, he knew of someone that has 29,000 miles online, he commutes almost every day to work, he sold the bike to someone else that has I forget, something like 250 hours on it, and that has been full on competition racing. He talks about being ready to rebuild the motor, but doesn't see a reason why yet, as it is running fine. That was good enough for me. This conversation started because I called him about rebuilding mine because I have a cracked engine case and wanted to know if it was worth rebuilding or not. he convinced me. Also, the JB weld covered with Loctite urethane PL glue has been holding without any leaks so not touching it until necessary (I should have it welded). These things are pretty tough man that's the bottom line.

1200-1500 miles per OCI is not an issue if the bike is being used for trail riding and dual sport use which is what the large majority of owners use them for. Those much shorter factory/manual recommendations are for hard MX use. You got ahold of a dealer looking for a sucker they could trick into a larger service bill out of fear. It has been well documented on the forums for many years that these 4-strokes can handle far more than what the manual is recommending.

Did you guys upgrade the CRF300L suspension

KTM 350exc are premium high compression off road race bikes that can be tagged, there not cheap, it not what guys doing the TAT will choose, guys normally choose a Japanese dual sport for this type of adventure, they're a better tool for the job to rack up many miles and carry heavy weights on the subframe like a crf300l rally, there lower, more comfortable, smoother running, better highway speeds and half the price and it is not uncommon to see 70,000mi on them, you will not have to change the oil or check the valves, it like buying a Ferrari, driving 55mph cross the country you can do it but do you really want to waste a machine like that on that adventure,

I'd suggest getting a Honda or Suzuki, maybe a Kawasaki, Ktm, Husqvarna, and BMW, are too finicky. I've seen guys take a Honda and Suzuki all the way through one year or more of riding.

Shifting quality goes to hell after like... 8 hours.

9 minutes for two minutes of information.