The 2004 KTM 525EXC comes
with the 18mm offset triple clamps straight from the factory. KTM must be on to
something because the ?04 525EXC we rode turned better than the 2002 520 or
our 2003 525. Lucky for us - Greg Burns of DirtTricks supplied us with a set of
adjustab Greg is a mechanical engineer and has raced off road since 1973. He has owned a production CNC shop for 20 years (Burns Machinery Inc) with a primary business of producing racecar suspension components for another company, as well as numerous space shuttle components (but no O-rings or fuel tank foam). DirtTricks sells a variety of items, but their largest selling components are Ironman Sprockets, DirtTricks damper mounting hardware, and the new DirtTricks composite hand guards. Installing the
DirtTricks clamps requires the use of a press but the installation is much
quicker than I expected. First you must remove the After removing the stock
stem and bearing, support the DirtTricks lower clamp and press the stem back in.
This sounds much more difficult than it is, it really only took less than 10
minutes to do the entire thing. After you have the stem pressed int The next step is to
install the triple clamps back on the bike and remove the play from the
bearings. Since the clamps are new it required a bit of tapping with the rubber
mallet to get everything in place. Once everything is snugged up, you choose
which offset you want to run. The inserts are oval and each one has two settings
depending on As mentioned, we first put in the stock 20mm offset to allow an unbiased test of the suspension. Later I changed the offsets to 14mm - right at camp, in about 15 minutes, by myself. The change requires you put the bike on a stand and loosen the fork clamp bolts. Once the front tire and forks drop, you can remove the lower inserts. On the top clamp we removed the handlebars, popped out the insert and turned it to the 14mm position. We just used our foot to raise the front wheel off the ground and guide the forks back into the clamps. Back on the trails,
the bike carved corners like it was on rails with the 14mm inserts. I really
noticed the difference when coming into turns a little hot and trying to hit the
brakes to recover. With the stock 20mm, the bike wanted to continue sliding off
the trail; but with the 14mm offset the bike recovered very quickly. For the
tight and twisty trails without rocks and big obstacles, the 14s were great.
When we hit the higher speed
rocky jeep roads, the bike started to wander a little too much compared to
stock. Coming around one flat turn I got on the gas a little early and bike
almost did a 180 it turned so sharp! Luckily a little tap on the brakes and
quick burst of the throttle, and I was back on track - narrowly avoiding a high
side. Since I like to ride more than work on bikes I haven?t had a chance to try out the 16mm/18mm insert. A pretty good guess would be to run the 14mm offset when the conditions are really tight and fairly smooth. For Kennedy Meadows I think I would run the 16mm next time due to all the rocks that try and send the bike off course. For desert the 18mm will probably be the way to go, since I like a quick turning bike but still want some stability. Stay tuned for the future review of the 16mm and 18mm inserts in different riding conditions. Overall I really like the ability to quickly change the handling of the motorcycle, and the quality of the DirtTricks clamps is top notch. It has been a few months now since our initial install and review of the Dirt Tricks adjustable offset triple clamps. The clamps have been holding up beautifully on the 525 and we get a lot of questions and comments about them when out riding. People usually spot the inserts because they are a different color from the clamps. Once we explain that you can pop the inserts out and insert different offsets they are amazed at how simple and effective the idea is. From our original test we initially ran the stock 20mm inserts for a baseline and then installed the 14mm inserts to ride the single tracks of Southern California. After running the 14mm inserts for a few rides we realized it is great for those smooth twisty trails but tends to steer too quick and cause the bike to deflect when the trail roughens up. Since that last review desert season has arrived and we have put in a number of days just play riding. For the desert the 18mm inserts seem to be the best all-around insert for our casual to semi-fast pace. The 18mm inserts result in less deflection of the bike in the whoops over the 14mm inserts. They also increase the quickness and the ability to recover from a nearly blown corner over the 20mm inserts. When the weather starts to warm-up a bit and we head back into the mountains the 16mm inserts are going in. From our experience with running the 14s and 18s the 16mm inserts should be a great choice for the tight, but still rough and rocky, single-track trails we normally ride. Until then we are happy with the 18mm inserts and look forward to more complements and questions out on the trail about the Dirt Tricks adjustable offset triple clamps.
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