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New 690 duke4, ongoing thread

40K views 201 replies 30 participants last post by  weeksy 
#1 ·
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



 
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#5 ·
Well I'd say I'm 90% happy with today's work.

Exhaust was fitted and is happy days. Although it doesn't actually sound as single thumpy as i expected. Video attached is with baffle in, not taken one with it out sorry due to time pressing on.
Speaking of which, damn that was tough to get out! Pulling pulling, spraying in some gt 85, finally it came out. It was then sanded slightly to make sure it's easier next time. I can't say yet if I'll run with baffle in or out as I've only heard it in the garage, but first impressions are, it's not that different either way. So will be based upon which it runs best with.

Then onto the hand guards. All fairly simple really, but pretty tight tolerance on the clutch and brake cables getting in the way slightly. But it's acceptable as it is. You may be asking why no plastics, answer is, it's common to run just the metalwork on track, otherwise you can end up with front end weave issues. So it's just the bars.

If I get a chance on Thurs or Fri and the weather gods play ball giving me a dry road, I'll give it a quick thrash after I do the 15 min reset.








 
#7 ·
I've just picked up a cheap Decat mid-pipe. Reading threads I rekon it's about 70-30 in favour of their bike being fine afterwards fuelling wise.



It weighs in at over 5kg... the decat pipe is <1kg... so it's a decent saving.

Apparently it does make the system noisier... we'll see how much noisier once it arrives... but I've got the baffle for the Leo Vince anyway just in case.

If it balls up my fuelling I paid a decent enough price that I can ship it out quickly for the same money. But on a bike that weighs only 150kg out the box anyway a 5kg saving plus the 1kg I've dropped from the tail section added to the 3kg on the exhaust gives me about 9kg weight drop, which obviously can't be a bad thing.
 
#8 ·
Well apart from me stripping the Cat off and cleaning the bits I can't reach... that may en up being a bit of a waste of time.. but i'll keep a slightly open mind until the de-cat pipe arrives and is installed.

So what I did was mount the can directly only the first part of the header, the de-cat is about 18" long when it goes on the bike roughly. Would that 18" of pipe make a massive difference I guess is the question I'm asking ?

With the can fitted and baffle out... it's INSANELY loud.... with the baffle installed, well, it's just ridiculously loud.

From my own sanity and also from my neighbours persepective, not to mention my trackdays which are obviously noise regulated, it's simply not going to work if the extra 18" doesn't make it a bit quieter.

I never for a second thought a cat could make such a dramatic difference to the noise.
 
#9 ·
Well that could be a complete ****ing nightmare indeedy. The day started off OK, then went rapidly downhill.

Basically there's a bracket that goes from the frame to the exhaust mount.

Yesterday I had to remove the bracket for the exhaust, well, I arguably didn't HAVE to... but if you leave it on it just hangs down and looks ridiculous.

Only I removed it you're then left with a gap where it was... so I used a caliper mount spacer I had lying round which fortunately was the exact size and dimensions to fit in the hole it left.

Sadly.... this now doesn't come out... as it's EXACTLY the right size and dimensions...

I thought, OK, I'll just remove the arm, see if I can get it out with something on the opposing side.... this didn't go to plan either...

To remove said bracket you need to remove the exhaust.... to remove the exhaust you need to remove the radiator. You're then stuck with about 4000 parts all over the floor lol.

Eventually I got the exhaust off, the rad off and then FINALLY the bracket off....



However, can I buggery get the bloody spacer out of there :(
 
#14 ·
I remember taking the header pipe off once, on my previous duke, I think it was to fit the crash bars, don't know why i needed to, but i had similar hardscratch moments on how to get that lower bolt out n in again, but i think i used a flexible drive socket, anyway, i didn't want to remove the radiator and didn't need to in the end, a most painful bolt to work on though!
 
#15 ·
Yup, I put an Arrow on a couple of weeks ago and thought I would need to pull the radiator. At the last moment I got a box end wrench to fit in there. Just enough throw to do the job.
 
#16 ·
Well, the de-cat pipe arrived and was fitted... it wasn't too bad until about 7000rpm, then it just became like the Legion of Death arriving flying in Spitfires.. it was stupidly loud.

So the de-cat pipe is resigned to ebay and the standard cat will be fitted along with the Leo Vince end can. Pretty much exactly how it was 4 days ago... sometimes you have to wonder at the sanity of motorcyclists at time.. me in particular I guess.
 
#21 ·
So that's the shock removed.... However, it was more of a nightmare than I expected. Got everything off and undone, but the top mount bolt you cannot tap through from the opposite side, you've got a T50 on one side, then on the other it's blocked... So you remove everything but can't push the bolt out ! Spent ages and got nowhere, then used the same T50 and some Bluetac on it, managed to get it out far enough to grab and slide out.

Then gave all the little bits you can't reach properly a nice clean so it's all nice now :)

Then got the axle stand on there to secure things for the next few days till the new one arrives. It's a bit 'in the way' where it is, but to be honest it's not a bad solution :)

Lets just hope the new shock goes on as easily as the one other bloke in the world said who's done it before :)







 
#32 ·
Spent ages and got nowhere, then used the same T50 and some Bluetac on it, managed to get it out far enough to grab and slide out.
I just found this post. It make me smile.

I've had a long day doing a cleaning job on a Guzzi le Mans. That and getting a new workbench and disposing the old one... it's been a busy day that's for sure.
Pics. Or else.
 
#22 ·
Today was 'the chance'

Dry weather, sunny... still a bit bloody cold i have to say...

Took it out for a blast though, did about 40 miles or so. I have to say the rear tyre has transformed the handling... REALLY glad i did that as i wasn't feeling the handling at all on the little rides i managed before winter came. Bike is just bloody brilliant ! i absolutely love it.

Just ordered some raised footpegs for track use, essentially R version footpegs, mount higher/back to give a bit more clearance.

Can't wait for Donny now in 8 weeks.
 
#26 ·
Hmmm there's an interesting one.

Was having a discussion with Mrs weeksy about buying either these here raised R type footrests or a workbench for the garage this month. Basically as most rearset do, they move the assembly up and back a bit compared to stock.

She says "didn't we have all this debate with the 390" she was right, we did. So I thought I'd try the 390 footpegs, guess what, they actually work perfectly.

Whether I like them or not is open to debate still. But they lift them up for track use that's for sure.



The R footrests are prettier and use a different linkage too which apparently gives better changes and less missed gears that some suffer with in 5th and top.


Also take into account the KTM ones are £200, the 390 ones are free as I own them, but were £30 to buy.

Hmmm
 
#28 ·
Weeksy,
you get the same just rotating the footpeg brackets.

It is explained in the user manual chapter 10, 'Adjusting the footrests'

If you turn it an keep these, you will get an even higher height of the pegs. :wink2:

Don't know if gear and brake pedals will be too far at the end but, if working fine for you, might become the cheapest rearset solution.
 
#29 ·
Im so tempted to get the rearsets but not sure how i will adjust to having my feet higher and further back. I understand how that position will help transitioning from side to side but until i sit on one with them installed im just not sure if i would like it. very tempting though.
 
#31 ·
I ended up buying the R footrest kit. I've currently managed to fit the brake side, looks great.

Also fitted the black headlight mask :)

Not had time for the gear side just yet as I've had a long day doing a cleaning job on a Guzzi le Mans. That and getting a new workbench and disposing the old one... it's been a busy day that's for sure.
 
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