Forty degrees Celcius in the sun, and I realized that I was probably not going to make it to the next gas station if I kept going to the latest gorge.
So I turned around and headed for Derby, on the west of the Gibb River Road.
Slowing right down, and with pumped up hard tires, I crept along, eyeing the rapidly falling levels in the translucent 45 litre tanks.
Finally I made it – and promptly deposited 46.5 litres in those 45l tanks. I even had a litre or two to spare.
Sadly though that 46.5 litres got me just 600km, a pretty appalling economy rate, even on the sand and dirt roads.
I will check the air filters, most likely a bit more air will help things a bit, but that’s a huge issue for the longer trips on the KTM.
7.75 litres per 100kms? That’s no better than many cars these days. You can see why Hendrik von Kuenheim at BMW thinks it’s time to reinvent the motorcycle.