- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
This thread is basically a place for me to keep track of the mods of my 690 and discuss my experience and opinion of the bike. The first post will be getting changed/updated as the bike changes.
About a year ago I bought a '08 KTM 690 Enduro that was on consignment at Beemers & More in Ft Collins, Colorado. Before that, I had been riding a Suzuki DR650 that I had modified quite a bit, but found the DR to be uninspiring and well... boring. I was looking for something similar to the DR, but wanted a bike that would make riding that much more exciting. I'm certain I've found that with the 690 Enduro!
The KTM 690 Enduro is an interesting bike, KTM calls it a 'Hard Enduro'... the engine and chassis are based on KTM's 690 Duke, which is a Supermoto bike. Of course, the Enduro has different suspension, wheels & tires and a very different headlight and plastics. It has a Trellis frame, the single cylinder engine makes almost 70 HP from the factory, it's fuel injected and is coupled to a 6 speed transmission. The power is excellent, it makes good power down low and can be lugged around when offroad... and when you yank on the throttle, it has a very smooth & linear pull into the upper RPM's. The engine's power is impressive... it will put a smile on anyone's face! The other aspect of the bike that really makes it fun is the braking... it's very confidence-inspiring. Compared to my DR, the brakes on the KTM make it feel more like a sport bike, you can come into a corner pretty hot and the brakes give you the feeling of total control. I've noticed how fun the bike is on the curved roads, even with knobbies you can really lean the bike over and pour on the speed. Pretty impressive for a 'dirt bike'! The downfall of the Trellis frame is how wide it is at the forks... the turning radius isn't that great and at times when offroad, you need to take that into consideration.
Offroad the suspension works beautifully... when the trails get rough, you can feel that it's a bigger bike. It's not a bike I would want to take somewhere that was too technical, but so far the bike seems to handle rough trails quite well. Dirt roads at speed are fun, the bike just plain works! KTM claims the bike weighs just over 300#'s dry, which is pretty impressive. My 690 has quite a bit of aftermarket goodies, but I do need to weigh it one of these days and see where it stands now. I would imagine it's over 350#'s, which is fine by me!
Maintenance intervals on the 690 Enduro are quite generous, 3,000 miles on oil changes and 6,000 miles on valve checks. The guys at KTM of Aspen mentioned that the valves hardly move on these bikes, which great news.
The 690 hasn't been without it's problems... when I got it, the bike wasn't running perfect. It did occasionally have starting & running issues. The problems made me quite wary of riding the bike too far and that not right! The EFI on these bikes is quite finicky, to say the least. Fuel pumps go out way too early, injectors clog, etc, etc. This winter I took the bike down for some work, added some aftermarket parts, deleted some emissions stuff, put on a set of knobbies, etc. Come Springtime, I fired up the bike and it would run with throttle, but die if I let it idle. I had a hunch that the EFI Map wasn't right, but there were a few other minor issues that all contributed to the 690 not running like it should. The guys at Aspen KTM took care of all the problems, checked the fuel pressure, checked the valves, cleaned the throttle body, changed the plug, etc. The biggest thing was uploading the correct Map, since the bike has an FMF exhaust and the wrong tune for the pipe... and they did it all very quickly, making the total bill bearable. Great customer service too.
When I picked up the 690, the previous owner had a good start on mods to make the bike more offroad capable and long-distance travel friendly. Here's what it had when I picked it up.-
Since I've owned it, I'd added...
About a year ago I bought a '08 KTM 690 Enduro that was on consignment at Beemers & More in Ft Collins, Colorado. Before that, I had been riding a Suzuki DR650 that I had modified quite a bit, but found the DR to be uninspiring and well... boring. I was looking for something similar to the DR, but wanted a bike that would make riding that much more exciting. I'm certain I've found that with the 690 Enduro!
The KTM 690 Enduro is an interesting bike, KTM calls it a 'Hard Enduro'... the engine and chassis are based on KTM's 690 Duke, which is a Supermoto bike. Of course, the Enduro has different suspension, wheels & tires and a very different headlight and plastics. It has a Trellis frame, the single cylinder engine makes almost 70 HP from the factory, it's fuel injected and is coupled to a 6 speed transmission. The power is excellent, it makes good power down low and can be lugged around when offroad... and when you yank on the throttle, it has a very smooth & linear pull into the upper RPM's. The engine's power is impressive... it will put a smile on anyone's face! The other aspect of the bike that really makes it fun is the braking... it's very confidence-inspiring. Compared to my DR, the brakes on the KTM make it feel more like a sport bike, you can come into a corner pretty hot and the brakes give you the feeling of total control. I've noticed how fun the bike is on the curved roads, even with knobbies you can really lean the bike over and pour on the speed. Pretty impressive for a 'dirt bike'! The downfall of the Trellis frame is how wide it is at the forks... the turning radius isn't that great and at times when offroad, you need to take that into consideration.
Offroad the suspension works beautifully... when the trails get rough, you can feel that it's a bigger bike. It's not a bike I would want to take somewhere that was too technical, but so far the bike seems to handle rough trails quite well. Dirt roads at speed are fun, the bike just plain works! KTM claims the bike weighs just over 300#'s dry, which is pretty impressive. My 690 has quite a bit of aftermarket goodies, but I do need to weigh it one of these days and see where it stands now. I would imagine it's over 350#'s, which is fine by me!
Maintenance intervals on the 690 Enduro are quite generous, 3,000 miles on oil changes and 6,000 miles on valve checks. The guys at KTM of Aspen mentioned that the valves hardly move on these bikes, which great news.
The 690 hasn't been without it's problems... when I got it, the bike wasn't running perfect. It did occasionally have starting & running issues. The problems made me quite wary of riding the bike too far and that not right! The EFI on these bikes is quite finicky, to say the least. Fuel pumps go out way too early, injectors clog, etc, etc. This winter I took the bike down for some work, added some aftermarket parts, deleted some emissions stuff, put on a set of knobbies, etc. Come Springtime, I fired up the bike and it would run with throttle, but die if I let it idle. I had a hunch that the EFI Map wasn't right, but there were a few other minor issues that all contributed to the 690 not running like it should. The guys at Aspen KTM took care of all the problems, checked the fuel pressure, checked the valves, cleaned the throttle body, changed the plug, etc. The biggest thing was uploading the correct Map, since the bike has an FMF exhaust and the wrong tune for the pipe... and they did it all very quickly, making the total bill bearable. Great customer service too.
When I picked up the 690, the previous owner had a good start on mods to make the bike more offroad capable and long-distance travel friendly. Here's what it had when I picked it up.-
- KTM Aluminum Panniers (Rebadged Zega cases) and Factory KTM Rack
- Touratech rear luggage rack
- Heated Grips (Now upgraded to Oxford heated grips)
- KTM Parts Skidplate
- Rear disc guard
- KTM Parts Handguards
- FMF 'Q' Exhaust pipe
- Aftermarket/Relocated rear Blinkers
- Lowered bike about 1.5" (Now back to stock height)
Since I've owned it, I'd added...
- 1.5" Rox Bar Risers
- Pivot Pegs
- Continental TKC80 tires (now running a rear Motoz Tractionator tire)
- Uni Pod air filter
- Garmin 550 Zumo GPS
- Seat Concepts new foam & cover
- Rally Raid fuel tanks for 2.5 gallons more (Grand total of 5.5 gallons capacity)
- Wolfman Tank Bag
- Renzago Racing gas tank cap
- Giant Loop Coyote saddle bag (When the aluminum panniers aren't desirable)
- Sigutech Clutch Slave Cyl
- Double Take Mirrors
