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Test Ride My New Ossa Explorer 2012


sunlingkau
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  • 3 weeks later...

Got a quick ride on 1 yesterday, possibly the first person in NZ to do so seeing as the importer had just finished PDIing & couldn't start it with his right leg being the 1 he broke at the start of july.

Very impressed with what Ossa has produced & reckon that this bike is what most newer riders should be using offroad rather than the overly tall & heavy bikes that they generally end up with

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  • 1 month later...

Thought you may be interested in some feedback from someone who has ridden both the Ossa Explorer and KTM Free Ride in extreme terrain. Yes the Explorer has been eagerly awaited by us extreme trailriding fans in NZ. Only one was available in this region and one of our group of riders has it. Our first ride was five hours in the wet and very extreme Coromandel Ranges. The bike was sanitised a bit with some street legal stuff removed, ignition switch moved from the side of the fork (what were they thinking?) and the rubbish steel brake lever replaced by the stock trials item. The Explorer went well in company with a 4RT and GGTXT over the 30 km covered at speeds ranging from top gear (very occasionally) to grovelling and manhandling at speeds as low as 100 metres per hour. It was good to be able to rest the legs occasionally on a ride this long and arduous. These trails have very deep ruts over your head in places and the seat is usefull for getting your feet up off the pegs to clear the rut and even stand on to get some weight onto the tyre in an uphill rut. There was no need to carry fuel as with the other bikes. The Explorer is obviously much more of a trails bike than the KTM Free ride (previously ridden twice in this terrain in the same company). Explorer seat is mid height, wheras the KTM feels almost enduro bike tall, no matter what the brochures say. In really slippery going or on wet tree roots and logs the KTM has way too little flywheel. On the other hand when the trail eases up the regular trails gear ratios of the Ossa are still have frustrating gaps. In truly extreme terrain however the Explorer gets my vote. The Explorer might not yet be the perfect extreme trail bike but in my view its getting closer. It has rained in biblical amounts on our last three rides so no photos unfortunately.

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  • 1 month later...
 
 
  • 2 months later...

I have now made some experience on my explorer, I changed Footpegs and Brake pedal and mount the parts from the Trials bike, remove the passenger grip and footpegs and I love the bike....

For use on trials ( private area ) its better to disassemble the numberplate holder, its not very solid....

img1646j.jpg

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Edited by hendrik
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  • 2 weeks later...
 
  • 4 months later...

I have had my 2012 Explorer for about 7 months and have covered almost 1000 miles of trail riding. Overall I am very pleased with it. I previously had a Serow which, due to my advancing years, I was finding very heavy to pick up on the frequent occasions I dropped it. So the Explorer was wonderfully light in comparison. No electric start of course but I find it very easy to start, hot or cold. It has excellent power and throttle response and in general easy to ride on the rougher trails. It is quite comfortable on rides up to 120 miles but as I am a lightweight, at 11 stone, I am considering a softer set up for the rear suspension. A slight inconvenience is refilling on a run; it has two linked fuel tanks but no continuous mixing so you have to add the oil as you are filling up with petrol, otherwise you could find one tank very lean on oil while the other is very rich in oil. I carry a calibrated bottle of oil under the seat. The Explorer suffers from large gaps in the gearbox ratios, noticeable on the easier trails. Intake noise is a bit tiring. The standard pads work well but I have already had to replace them. I had a problem with 6th gear but Andy Metcalf and Nigel Birkett picked the bike up, fixed the problem and returned the bike to me within a week; excellent service.

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