Bought a few weeks back, thought I'd put the ongoing stuff in here.
Well the debut/test ride has been taken... I decided that looking at the weather, the forecast and the conditions this would be about as good an opportunity as it gets.
I have to admit I only did about 10 miles, but the conditions were not great, the roads are horrible and it's insanely windy out there to top it all off.
The good news is, the bike goes, runs, rides and changes gear exactly how it should... Power is great, performance great, slipper clutch does exactly what it's supposed to.
It's hard not to draw comparisions directly to the 390Duke, but makes perfect sense to do so as that's what it replaced along with being a KTM and a basis on the same theme of bike.
It's obviously a lot larger than the 390, which is a good thing of course, what this means for me is less moving about on the seat than on the 390, less moving of the feet on the pegs for cornering too, you sit in 1 position really. The overall bike vibrates a LOT more than the 390, but I guess it's one of them things you know before you buy it, but you can feel it through the seat of your pants way more than on the 390, that said, the standard seat seems more comfy than the Ergo seat on the 390, along with the lower footrest position it means you're more comfy on the bike.
Clutch is light as a feather, very impressed. Brakes are excellent although arguably I could do with the lever being a bit closer for my personal preference, but that's being slightly picky, it's got 4 levels of adjustment... I'd just prefer position 5 (which doesn't exist).
Handling, well it's almost impossible to say of course due to dampness and leaves, but it feels more Superduke than 390... The Superduke to me felt like the wheel on the front almost turns too early, more so than you want at times... the 390 didn't... the 690 is somewhere in the middle.
Noise, well it's quiet as it's a standard exhaust... but it's noisy enough that I'm not desperate to change it.
Fuelling... is all good, happy there.. I don't get any perceived KTM fuel injection issues or the running problems that some have with KTMs. Throttle responds well.. although is a little laboured compared to the on/off switch of a Superduke. You open it and it's not WHAM in your face... but then again it's not 120bhp... So what would you expect.
It's now tucked up again and will get a quick clean this evening, adjusting of the gear lever a bit lower, then I doubt it will come back out until March....
So what did we do/learn today....
Well about a week ago I thought, that stupid bloody sidestand extension/expansion/foot thing is the ugliest thing on the planet. Despite the fact that I'm sure it makes parking your bike in a muddy field a lot easier it really was troubling me. It has 3 bolts that screw onto the footpeg and 4 that hold the lower plate onto the upper plate. So the 3 that hold it onto the sidestand were fine... but the other 4 were a problem and wouldn't move at all. Add to this they were made of something closer to Brie than metal they were soon in trouble... So I soaked them over the course of this week in WD-40 and managed to get 1 out today... leaving 3 which were clearly bolloxed.
As I didn't care about the item, I tried various techniques of drilling the bolt... How bloody hard is that. ! I've got a decent (so I thought) black and decker drill but either I'm doing it all wrong or my drill bits that came with it are crap... It also showed my lack of knowledge. I have 3 sets of bits, 1 is harsh and sharp with a pointy bit, the other is smoother and black.. the last set is smoother and metal look.. I have no idea which does what... but none them were great for drilling the bolts.. OK, so I sort of got some headway, but I realised I wasn't getting too far at all.
Out came the little hacksaw... about 4 months (I think) later and it's off... I've lost about 5 stone of sweat and my arms are deaded ! but a bit of sawing and a bit of smacking with a hammer/brute force and finally got it done.
It's clear I'm missing a large chunk of knowledge... but it's done. Quick sand and some spray paint and it's good as new.
This is how the bolts look pre-destruction. His bolts show quite a lot of being buggered too looking at them
Just ordered a O2 controller from Kevxtx
It has been tried and tested by many before me on many models and the feedback on all the forums is excellent. I also had one on my last XT660X that Pygmys mate owns.
Front mudguard and black number plate fitted
Well the debut/test ride has been taken... I decided that looking at the weather, the forecast and the conditions this would be about as good an opportunity as it gets.
I have to admit I only did about 10 miles, but the conditions were not great, the roads are horrible and it's insanely windy out there to top it all off.
The good news is, the bike goes, runs, rides and changes gear exactly how it should... Power is great, performance great, slipper clutch does exactly what it's supposed to.
It's hard not to draw comparisions directly to the 390Duke, but makes perfect sense to do so as that's what it replaced along with being a KTM and a basis on the same theme of bike.
It's obviously a lot larger than the 390, which is a good thing of course, what this means for me is less moving about on the seat than on the 390, less moving of the feet on the pegs for cornering too, you sit in 1 position really. The overall bike vibrates a LOT more than the 390, but I guess it's one of them things you know before you buy it, but you can feel it through the seat of your pants way more than on the 390, that said, the standard seat seems more comfy than the Ergo seat on the 390, along with the lower footrest position it means you're more comfy on the bike.
Clutch is light as a feather, very impressed. Brakes are excellent although arguably I could do with the lever being a bit closer for my personal preference, but that's being slightly picky, it's got 4 levels of adjustment... I'd just prefer position 5 (which doesn't exist).
Handling, well it's almost impossible to say of course due to dampness and leaves, but it feels more Superduke than 390... The Superduke to me felt like the wheel on the front almost turns too early, more so than you want at times... the 390 didn't... the 690 is somewhere in the middle.
Noise, well it's quiet as it's a standard exhaust... but it's noisy enough that I'm not desperate to change it.
Fuelling... is all good, happy there.. I don't get any perceived KTM fuel injection issues or the running problems that some have with KTMs. Throttle responds well.. although is a little laboured compared to the on/off switch of a Superduke. You open it and it's not WHAM in your face... but then again it's not 120bhp... So what would you expect.
It's now tucked up again and will get a quick clean this evening, adjusting of the gear lever a bit lower, then I doubt it will come back out until March....
So what did we do/learn today....
Well about a week ago I thought, that stupid bloody sidestand extension/expansion/foot thing is the ugliest thing on the planet. Despite the fact that I'm sure it makes parking your bike in a muddy field a lot easier it really was troubling me. It has 3 bolts that screw onto the footpeg and 4 that hold the lower plate onto the upper plate. So the 3 that hold it onto the sidestand were fine... but the other 4 were a problem and wouldn't move at all. Add to this they were made of something closer to Brie than metal they were soon in trouble... So I soaked them over the course of this week in WD-40 and managed to get 1 out today... leaving 3 which were clearly bolloxed.
As I didn't care about the item, I tried various techniques of drilling the bolt... How bloody hard is that. ! I've got a decent (so I thought) black and decker drill but either I'm doing it all wrong or my drill bits that came with it are crap... It also showed my lack of knowledge. I have 3 sets of bits, 1 is harsh and sharp with a pointy bit, the other is smoother and black.. the last set is smoother and metal look.. I have no idea which does what... but none them were great for drilling the bolts.. OK, so I sort of got some headway, but I realised I wasn't getting too far at all.
Out came the little hacksaw... about 4 months (I think) later and it's off... I've lost about 5 stone of sweat and my arms are deaded ! but a bit of sawing and a bit of smacking with a hammer/brute force and finally got it done.
It's clear I'm missing a large chunk of knowledge... but it's done. Quick sand and some spray paint and it's good as new.
This is how the bolts look pre-destruction. His bolts show quite a lot of being buggered too looking at them
Just ordered a O2 controller from Kevxtx
It has been tried and tested by many before me on many models and the feedback on all the forums is excellent. I also had one on my last XT660X that Pygmys mate owns.
Front mudguard and black number plate fitted