I decided to try out the KTM 690 Enduro as the bike for my big trip plans and after owning one for just over two years, I've now got to the stage where I'm happy with it for the most part...
I already had the ideas in my head as to what I wanted my travel bike to become when I bought it, so the 690 has had a bit of a make over, something which constantly seems to happen to these bikes.
The finished bike needs to have a navigation tower and a taller screen for both practical reasons, and in my head, aesthetic reasons. I like the look of the rally bikes! It also needed a much bigger fuel range than stock.
I chose the 2014 model for two reasons,
1. This was the time KTM did a load of upgrades to the original bike which solved many of the issues of the earlier bikes and 2. Price, the 2016/17 versions were almost £1000 dearer in 2019.
My budget was a maximum of £5000, I found this one for £4200 with 19k miles on the clock. It rode well and the owner seemed to have looked after the bike, so I bought it.
1. This was the time KTM did a load of upgrades to the original bike which solved many of the issues of the earlier bikes and 2. Price, the 2016/17 versions were almost £1000 dearer in 2019.
My budget was a maximum of £5000, I found this one for £4200 with 19k miles on the clock. It rode well and the owner seemed to have looked after the bike, so I bought it.
I took it home and on the first ride out, managed to drop it and break a handguard. Once I picked it back up, I realised just how heavy it is and decided to look at how to save weight on it if I were to keep it and use it.
After a lot of research into parts and various mods done by other folk, I settled on the following upgrades.
1. Rade Garage front fuel tank & air filter - Bought second hand for £150
2. Re upholster the saddle - added gel pad £160
3. Change the stock exhaust to a Wings one £400
4. Add a navigation tower and KTM rally screen £450
5. Add comfort things like heated grips, chargers, GPS etc.
6. Changed headlights £400
7. Add a rear rack, rally footpegs and heel plates- £240
8. Improve fuel filtering
Wheels & Tyres
I want to change the stock wheels as they are the DID Dirt Stars that KTM fit to their six days EXC's and the 690. They corrode heavily inside, which isn't that much of an issue if you use mousses and have access to the things we have in the UK, but where I was going, I didn't want the hassle of cracked rims and collapsed wheels in the middle of nowhere because of poorly made products.
The trouble is they start at £650 for replacement wheels and go upto £1500 + if you go for the likes of Haan hubs with Excel A60 rims. Not sure my funds can run to that at the moment, so I'll come back to that one. I've been in touch with Central Wheels in Coleshill, they have quoted £633 for SM Pro rims, stainless steel spokes and nickel steel nipples and the rebuild, so I'll probably go with that when the time is right.
My preference is to use the Motoz range of tyres on the rougher ground, I like the Rall z or Adventure on the rear and the Desert on the front. I'm currently trying the Michelin Karoo 3's for more road use, they ride well, so interested in their longevity. But in reality, I doubt I'll get much of a choice in some countries.
The trouble is they start at £650 for replacement wheels and go upto £1500 + if you go for the likes of Haan hubs with Excel A60 rims. Not sure my funds can run to that at the moment, so I'll come back to that one. I've been in touch with Central Wheels in Coleshill, they have quoted £633 for SM Pro rims, stainless steel spokes and nickel steel nipples and the rebuild, so I'll probably go with that when the time is right.
My preference is to use the Motoz range of tyres on the rougher ground, I like the Rall z or Adventure on the rear and the Desert on the front. I'm currently trying the Michelin Karoo 3's for more road use, they ride well, so interested in their longevity. But in reality, I doubt I'll get much of a choice in some countries.
Gearing
This has been a big area for me to find the right kind of gearing for my bike and a big trip. In England, the trails can be tricky in some places. The stock gearing of 15/45 means the back wheel spins on muddy and steep terrain and I drop the bike, which is knackering after a couple of times. I've tried the 14/46, 14/48 & am currently on 14/50. My preference for tough terrain is the 14/50, but on the tarmac, this makes the bike run at 6000 RPM at 70 mph, which will wear the engine quicker and also make the bike vibrate more. So I'm going to try 16/50. The main reason for this is that a 14 front puts lots of stress on the drive internally, the 16 far less. The 50 allows for 70mph, but is great for the more technical terrain. I'll report back once I have tried it and see what happens.
Update: I've now done around 1600 miles on the 16/50 gearing. I like it. It works well in tough terrain and allows 70+ on tarmac. I think I'll stick with this for everything now.
Update: I've now done around 1600 miles on the 16/50 gearing. I like it. It works well in tough terrain and allows 70+ on tarmac. I think I'll stick with this for everything now.
Navigation Tower
In the meantime, I bought all the parts for the navigation tower and set about building it on plenty of wet rainy dark nights during the Covid lockdowns. I bought some 5mm aluminium sheet, some lexan sheet and lots of various sized stainless steel bolts.
The design was made first using my version of 'CAD' design, (Cardboard Aided Design). Basically I cut up lots of cardboard until I got the idea right from my head to the bike, then once I had a template, I drew on the aluminium and cut it to shape. The final product was then filed, sanded and finished to get the shape just right. I used a jigsaw to cut the plate, but I also burnt out two of these, so if I do this again, I'll look at other methods.
The tower was mounted to a bracket, which I bought from Perfect Fairings, (PF) in Greece. They are really good to deal with and their website is nice to use. I made the carrier plate from 6mm aluminium plate, then added the main 5mm plate and built off these three bits. PF do make a generic adventure tower, but I wanted to learn some new skills, so built my own from scratch.
I bought the screen from Motorcycle Spare Parts, (MSP), which now seem to be available direct in the UK. It is actually the 450 rally screen. There is a newer version now, but not when I bought this one. I made the dust cover bit for the headlights from the Lexan plastic sheet as well as some brackets that weren't load bearing.
UPDATE: On the whole this tower build has worked well enough. It sits a bit high with this screen, so wind deflection isn't great and on tough terrain, the screen can block your view a bit. I think the new lower KTM screen might be a good upgrade, but I'll not so it on this bike. So for now, more adventures!
UPDATE: On the whole this tower build has worked well enough. It sits a bit high with this screen, so wind deflection isn't great and on tough terrain, the screen can block your view a bit. I think the new lower KTM screen might be a good upgrade, but I'll not so it on this bike. So for now, more adventures!
Installed into the tower are all of the electronics and switches needed for the ancillary stuff like heated grips, 5v chargers, GPS, extra lights etc. The wiring fit was tight and all routed through an Rowe Electronics PDM 60 unit that acts as a switching box as well as providing relays.
These are used on lots of rally bikes as they are so reliable, but they aren't cheap at £170! One of the lads at MHB Motorbikes in Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria wired it all up for me as he loves his electronics, weirdo!! ;-)
Update: The PDM60 failed after a wet ride home one early evening. Lights flash upon switching on, but no power to the unit after that, so entire auxiliaries now dead. It's gone back to the supplier for testing. They've confirmed it's dead so we'll see where that goes.
These are used on lots of rally bikes as they are so reliable, but they aren't cheap at £170! One of the lads at MHB Motorbikes in Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria wired it all up for me as he loves his electronics, weirdo!! ;-)
Update: The PDM60 failed after a wet ride home one early evening. Lights flash upon switching on, but no power to the unit after that, so entire auxiliaries now dead. It's gone back to the supplier for testing. They've confirmed it's dead so we'll see where that goes.
Saddle
I sent the saddle to a lady in Carlisle, who was recommended by some friends of mine, she added a gel pad and also reshaped the seat. Now it means I can sit for a couple of hours and not get numb legs, unlike the really poor stock KTM seat which after an hour was really painful. KTM really do need to steal the saddle designer from AJP and learn how to make comfy seats! I've recently also cut a hole in the front of the seat pan to help with refuelling and added a cover to stop crap from collecting in the hole there. This now means I don't have to take all of the luggage off every time I need to fill the front tank. We'll see if this lasts though as the saddle pans are brittle apparently.
UPDATE: After 60k miles, the seat pan had cracked along it's length. The rubber bungs it sits on fell out and this allowed the seat to flex more, which caused the cracking. It's now really awful to sit on. So I've found a KTM comfy seat for £80 on the 690 FB group. Now it needs to be stripped down and rebuilt with the hole and so its comfortable.
Fueling
There are certain places that I'll need extra fuel, such as Mauritania, Mongolia etc, so for that I'm after the 20 litre fuel bladder from Fox, but they don't seem to be available in the UK.
UPDATE: Desert Fox 20 litre bladder is now available in the UK.
Luggage
The tower build cost just under £500. This included some 5mm aluminium plate, several sheets of black HDPE plastic for the side panels and some Lexan plastic for the headlight screen. All the bits were bought from suppliers on the internet. Lots of the bolts and paints etc came from local suppliers as I found I needed them.
Summary
On this bike, the stock headlight + screen weighs 6kg, the tower weights 1.5kg with the new lights and wiring, so total saving of 4.5kg. Taking out the airbox allowed me to improve fuel range and save weight, the stock airbox is 4kg, the fuel tank 1kg. Changing the wheels is a huge saving, roughly 12kg for the stock DID wheels and 8kg for SM Pro's plus they are stronger. The saddle increased in weight as I added a gel pad for comfort but I didn't weigh the seat before having it changed so can't tell you the difference. One of the biggest weight savings was the stock exhaust. If I remember right, this weighs 12kg with the catalytic inside and is so hot it melts everything. The Wings one is 2kg.
I removed/changed lots of little bits and all in all saved around 20kg off the standard bike weight.
This translates to more miles per litre and when I drop it, less sweating to get it back on it's wheels. It's still heavy, there is no two ways about that, but slightly less so!
One of the things that always concerns me with fuel injected bikes is how dependant they are upon having clean fuel. This isn't always an option when you're travelling, so I wanted to add extra filtration to the fuel system. I found the Guglatech fuel filter and sock combination, so stripped the fuel tank down and put in new KTM filters and added the fuel sock that sits around the fuel pump. I've not noticed any difference in the power delivery or found any issues with it so far.
I want to put a fuel sock at both of the fill up points, but I haven't found any nice ones as yet. The front Rade Garage tank sits nicely on the top of the engine and range on the bike has increased to 225 miles, with 18 litres of fuel. That is 12.5 miles to the litre.
Update: This bike has now done 60k miles. I've had no issues with fuelling at all, despite riding in a few countries with dodgy fuel. Time to replace the bag filter for the next trip though.
I want to put a fuel sock at both of the fill up points, but I haven't found any nice ones as yet. The front Rade Garage tank sits nicely on the top of the engine and range on the bike has increased to 225 miles, with 18 litres of fuel. That is 12.5 miles to the litre.
Update: This bike has now done 60k miles. I've had no issues with fuelling at all, despite riding in a few countries with dodgy fuel. Time to replace the bag filter for the next trip though.
There are certain places that I'll need extra fuel, such as Mauritania, Mongolia etc, so for that I'm after the 20 litre fuel bladder from Fox, but they don't seem to be available in the UK.
UPDATE: Desert Fox 20 litre bladder is now available in the UK.
The one issue left is the air filter. The Rade Garage comes with a K&N 1760 angled filter. This is bulky and I can't find the corresponding sand filter for it, so that will be tricky when I get into the deserts. I still need to sort this out as it could wreck the engine.
UPDATE: For the desert stuff I found a RamAir foam filter with a 62mm opening and I mounted the sensor on the top. I bought two and surrounded them with a secondary foam filter to reduce sand dust intake so I could swap them out. This seemed to work really well, but I felt like the fuel range was affected. That could have just been the sand dunes though as they impact the range immensly.
UPDATE: For the desert stuff I found a RamAir foam filter with a 62mm opening and I mounted the sensor on the top. I bought two and surrounded them with a secondary foam filter to reduce sand dust intake so I could swap them out. This seemed to work really well, but I felt like the fuel range was affected. That could have just been the sand dunes though as they impact the range immensly.
Lighting
The stock KTM headlight is on a par with the saddle, so bloody awful. After reading a recommendation from Walter Colebatch about a Russian company that was making some LED lights, I bought a set and mounted them alongside a cheap eBay LED spot light.
The MYK lights were great, until after about 3 months, one of the wires cracked and the lights stopped working. I reported it back to the Zavod, one of the guys who makes them, and he sent me a replacement. Great service. Unfortunately, this only lasted a month and started flickering. So I have removed it and both versions are now sat in the cupboard. I'll try to send them back to him before I go.
The MYK lights were great, until after about 3 months, one of the wires cracked and the lights stopped working. I reported it back to the Zavod, one of the guys who makes them, and he sent me a replacement. Great service. Unfortunately, this only lasted a month and started flickering. So I have removed it and both versions are now sat in the cupboard. I'll try to send them back to him before I go.
I bought some replacement lights from a French company called Motoboxer. The service was great too, the lights are not as good as the Russian ones in terms of beam range, but they do seem more durable. I'll keep using them and see how it goes. They are wired in to provide a back up light system. So for normal use, the bottom one is a standard two level beam, high/low, the upper is high only. The bottom one is my main headlight, but I now have a back up with the upper one as I can just swap the wiring. Dust and rain got into the tower past the headlight set up, so I used some Lexan plastic to cut and shape a protector. To bend it requires heat, this unfortunately distorts in the same place on each version, so I gave up and just mounted one, using KTM rally screen mounts from any KTM dealer. It's not as pretty as I'd like, but it does its job well.
Suspension
The stock 690 suspension was a long time discussion for me, I prefer the EXC-f suspension, but once I had the stock suspension serviced and set up for me and the luggage, the bike was a different beast. It was a revelation to me how much nicer to ride the bike was to ride and so far I haven't found a reason to regret not replacing the stock. The service was £265. Worth every penny!!
Luggage
Luggage is another area I've played around with a lot over the last few years. The Giant Loop Coyote is good on enduro bikes, it's downside on the first generation was the zip and the lower straps which rub through eventually. I found I kept catching my feet on the bag bottom in ruts as well. Kit was well protected though and the inner liners were great.
I tried various friends luggage systems for general bikes and didn't like them for various reasons.
Lately, the Kriega OS system is my current trial. I bought the carrier system first, a second hand version for £50 off eBay. To this I added the 20 litre Lomo drybags, these easily provide enough space for a long trip, two strapped to the Kriega OS and one as a top bag. I'm hearing really good things about the Kriega OS 18 bags, so will try to get hold of them before I actually go.
It was decided early on that I did not want the extra weight of a metal luggage rack or engine bars, the bike is already too heavy! So this places limitations of the types of luggage available.
Lately, the Kriega OS system is my current trial. I bought the carrier system first, a second hand version for £50 off eBay. To this I added the 20 litre Lomo drybags, these easily provide enough space for a long trip, two strapped to the Kriega OS and one as a top bag. I'm hearing really good things about the Kriega OS 18 bags, so will try to get hold of them before I actually go.
It was decided early on that I did not want the extra weight of a metal luggage rack or engine bars, the bike is already too heavy! So this places limitations of the types of luggage available.
Extras
A whole raft of extras have gone onto the bike, KTM rally footpegs, Side stand dongle, ABS dongle, rear rack, rear brake pedal, heel plates and rear tank filler cap. I've also added the Rally Raid rear tank mount bolts, upper and lower and changed the rear brake line so it is bolted to the swing arm, rather than clipped in. Heated grips, 12v & 5v chargers, case protectors, the AS Spec bash plate and the AMPlink PDM 60 switch box and a few more I've forgotten.
Parts Suppliers
Rade Garage - fuel tank - First generation, 6.0 litre tank + K&N air filter
Adventure Spec - AS make plenty of great kit for a range of bikes and general adventure riding. For the 690, I chose their sump guard, Symtec Heated Grips, Side casing protector, Pedal anchor kit, Ironman front and rear sprockets
3D Moto - Borys makes some really good kit for the 690, I bought the rear rack, the heel plates, the rear fuel tank filler cap and the big bertha rear brake pedal.
Perfect Fairings - Head stock mounting bracket,
Motorcycle Spare Parts, (MST) - The KTM 450 rally screen, the pins for the top bracket,
Guglatech - These supplied the in tank filter and a sock filter
KTM - I bought their rally footpegs, a new clutch and several spares for the trip direct from my local dealer.
Perfect Fairings - Head stock mounting bracket,
Motorcycle Spare Parts, (MST) - The KTM 450 rally screen, the pins for the top bracket,
Guglatech - These supplied the in tank filter and a sock filter
KTM - I bought their rally footpegs, a new clutch and several spares for the trip direct from my local dealer.
Wings - exhaust end can
Adventure Warehouse - These supplied the AMPlink PDM 60 switch box
Rally Raid - Upper and lower tank bolts and an Oberon slave cylinder
MHB Motorcycles - The guys there helped me to shape the aluminium, wire up the electronics and just generally gave me someone to bounce ideas off.
Bridget O'Hara Upholstery - Bridget recovered the seat and added a gel pad, this increased my riding time from one to a numb bum to at least 3 hours! If this one dies, I'll look at the more expensive versions available.
Adventure Warehouse - These supplied the AMPlink PDM 60 switch box
Rally Raid - Upper and lower tank bolts and an Oberon slave cylinder
MHB Motorcycles - The guys there helped me to shape the aluminium, wire up the electronics and just generally gave me someone to bounce ideas off.
Bridget O'Hara Upholstery - Bridget recovered the seat and added a gel pad, this increased my riding time from one to a numb bum to at least 3 hours! If this one dies, I'll look at the more expensive versions available.
The tower build cost just under £500. This included some 5mm aluminium plate, several sheets of black HDPE plastic for the side panels and some Lexan plastic for the headlight screen. All the bits were bought from suppliers on the internet. Lots of the bolts and paints etc came from local suppliers as I found I needed them.
Summary
The main aim of removing and changing things on this bike was to lower the weight and give it a longer fuel range. I've done that now, even with the luggage. I'm trying to get it onto some good scales to find out exactly how much has been saved but calcs suggest around 20kg.
On this bike, the stock headlight + screen weighs 6kg, the tower weights 1.5kg with the new lights and wiring, so total saving of 4.5kg. Taking out the airbox allowed me to improve fuel range and save weight, the stock airbox is 4kg, the fuel tank 1kg. Changing the wheels is a huge saving, roughly 12kg for the stock DID wheels and 8kg for SM Pro's plus they are stronger. The saddle increased in weight as I added a gel pad for comfort but I didn't weigh the seat before having it changed so can't tell you the difference. One of the biggest weight savings was the stock exhaust. If I remember right, this weighs 12kg with the catalytic inside and is so hot it melts everything. The Wings one is 2kg.
I removed/changed lots of little bits and all in all saved around 20kg off the standard bike weight.
This translates to more miles per litre and when I drop it, less sweating to get it back on it's wheels. It's still heavy, there is no two ways about that, but slightly less so!
With all the changes made, I have spent £1900 on extra's. So total cost of the build, including buying the bike, is now £6100.00.
Since buying the bike, the mileage has increased to 34,200, so it's done 15,000 miles during its changes over the last 2 years. This has included several multi day trips on both road and trails and also in some pay & play places to find out what it's limits are. I'd like to see it at 100,000 miles as then it'll be my highest mileage bike so far. This bike has been very reliable and proved itself to be more capable than I am as a rider.
Bottom line I guess, I like this bike and can happily see me riding around the world on it, even though I know I will have to avoid some of the more highly technical areas as it does have its limitations and I am just not strong enough to keep picking it up all day long.
I'm always keeping my eye on bikes in the market, the ideal for me would be a KTM 350 EXC-f rolling chassis, with the KTM Duke 390 engine in it and a big front tank. I like the AJP PR7, but can't afford one and I'm waiting to see what KTM brings out with their project 500 that they are currently working on.
I'm always keeping my eye on bikes in the market, the ideal for me would be a KTM 350 EXC-f rolling chassis, with the KTM Duke 390 engine in it and a big front tank. I like the AJP PR7, but can't afford one and I'm waiting to see what KTM brings out with their project 500 that they are currently working on.
UPDATE: The latest Kove 450 Rally has caught my eye, it just needs some proven reliability and easy access to parts. It ticks all the other boxes for a rider with my goals.
Time will tell, but with current homologation regulations, it may well be strangled on emissions or have to be bigger to get the performance. Also, as of this week, Triumph have announced they are looking to build capable, small engine, off road bikes, so maybe they will be the ones to finally answer the call of the overland adventure market.
The time of the huge and heavy adventure bikes is right now, bought by folk who rarely let them see the dry dirt, let alone technical and tough terrain, but they buy into the concept and illusion, whilst not wanting to devalue their machines. Will the small capacity, long range tough as old boots adventure bike come next? Time will tell I guess...
