Opinions needed on 690 Enduro R

Alright ladies and gents, I need some advice here. Local dealership has some KTM 690 Enduro R's on sale and I am thinking about purchasing one. Now, this will be my first real dual sport bike. I owned a Honda XR650R for an extremely short time(got stolen). In that short time though, I thought it was a hoot, save for the kick start. Anyway, my question is, for those that own this bike, how liveable is it, how crazy is maintenance, and what is your overall opinion on the bike? I see nothing but great reviews online, and I follow a few guys on Instagram that adventure on these bikes.

Calling Kamalear.

I'm probably the only guy who doesn't like it! For whatever reason it just didn't "fit" me. On gravel roads, light trail duty it was great. But dang just miserable for ME on the highway. I tried risers, footpegs, tall seat, just hurt to ride! The motor didn't seem happy above 65(just a perception, it was fine, just gearing I guess). But in this area to get around to dirt roads takes a lot of pavement, I was miserable, sold got a 800GS which is just adequate on dirt as long as you don't get in a hurry, smell the roses and take pictures! But it's extremely comfortable on the road. I have a real dirt bike for real offroad riding. Hopefully one of the upcoming middle size bikes tickles my fancy!
Why I had it, I had no issues and service wasn't too bad as far as I remember. I'm sure I'll get hammered on this. But I think Goyko is selling his, went smaller. And don't know why but guy who bought mine, put lots of extras and didn't keep long either. Just my 2 cents.

I agree with Woodsguy.
The 690 is like a KLR, it can do everything, but not everything well. I do love it, but only because I have 3 bikes. I don't think I'd be happy at all with it as my sole bike, but it's doable . Highway use is just not enjoyable. Too light in the front end, vibrations, and lack of wind protection will tear ya up pretty quick. I just did a 100 mile trip, stayed under 65, it was bearable. But butt will tell ya. Also, don't expect to overload this bike. She doesn't really like anything on her back.
Dirt roads it's a perfect machine, big two tracks, gravel roads. Offroad, not so good. Even though it's a 340 lb bike, it's way to big and heavy for the woods. It can be done again, but why. My 350 is for that type of riding.
Turning radius sucks, as does on most KTMs.
Maitenance is fair on machine.
She's definitely finicky with fueling sometimes.
Eats back tires.
Lightweight is nice around town, short jaunts.
Tall bike, gets heavy real quick off road off chamber.
If your looking for one bike to do it all, this is it, if you can live with the cons. If you want 1 bike and will be doing more highway than offroad, get a KLR. KLR can pack the kitchen sink and go 65. KTM will be squirrelly has heck with light luggage.
I've rambled out of order, and I'm sure I will add more.

All I can say about the 690, this thing is hoot and sure likes to Wheelie!!!!

My 2-cents...

I've got a 2014 I bought new that now has 8K miles on it. As a dirt bike it's adequate, and as a street bike it adequate. Doesn't really shine in either category but it'll do the job. But as an adventure bike, IMHO there's nothing better.

I've done several week long adventure rides while camping off of the bike, loaded with all my gear. The trick is to keep the weight low. I run the Mosko Moto 80 litre packs and don't put anything heavy up high. I've also added the Rade auxillary fuel tank to address what I consider to be the weak link, the 3 gallon factory tank. This keeps me from adding the Roto-Pak extra fuel tank to the rear rack like most folks do, thus keeping the weight from being high above the rear, which does make the bike handle badly.

I've made a couple of the BOM 1000's, 2014 and 2017. The first one I attended in 2014 there were a handful of 690's. The one I did this last summer, there were 690's every where you looked. I've had the 690 on long rides in Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona as well. No problems. I change the oil at 2500 mile intervals, and I've added most of the standard 690 farkles to make the bike better.

The bikes got it's down sides, but putting a big silly grin on my face every time I ride it isn't one of them...


...

have you guys tried pumping the tires up?
my little Honda crf250l would get quite twitchy and prone to head shake at anything above 60mph. stock it calls for 22psi in the tires, pumping them up to 28psi totally settled it down, way less twitchy and eliminated the head shake.

I would not recommend the 690 for a first off road adventure bike, lots of unforgiving power, if you like wheelies it is the bike to have, it points the front wheel to the sky with the least provocation.

I'm with Rsquared.

When I was evaluating what DS bike I wanted I had to determine what kind of rides I'd doing mostly. Would I be trailering the bike somewhere and then doing day rides off of it, or would I be doing longer commutes on it to get to a destination and then do day rides from there? In the end I felt the latter would be more common for me and so far it has.

I felt with a super light bike the ride to the destination would be a beating but once there it'd be great. I felt anything 800cc and above would be just the opposite, a comfortable commute followed by 3 days of struggling or missing out on the most fun rides.

I had a brand new 500EXC at the time I was deciding. A fellow forum member let me test ride his 690 and I decided that day that it was the compromise that fit me the best. I sold the EXC and bought the bike and outfitted it in a way to suit my objectives.

I've done 3 trips on it now and couldn't be happier with my decision. When slabbing it down the highway I'm 'ok' comfortable as long as I stand for a good part of the time. The bike is stable at 80mph and I run up there frequently. Seat Concept seats and bigger pegs helped a great deal for this type of riding. I added the KTM small bug shield and it helped a little but you certainly get blown around.

Once at the destination and shed of all the travel gear the bike is somewhat nimble for a 650cc+ class bike. It's not so heavy you can't bounce over some of the bigger stuff and can pick it up when you drop it (I'm familiar with this). It's not a 250/500 dirt bike but at my skill level I can have a lot of fun and handle some good speed and trails.

Already mentioned is the fuel range. I opted for the quick and dirty low cost option of a Perun rear rack and either a 1 or 1.75 gallon rotopax. Have only had to go to it once as most of the bikes I ride with have a worse range than I do anyway.

For dual sport you should look at the 500EXC or Husqvarna FE501S, lighter, (much) more dirt capable & just as lacklustre as a highway bike.

I have a 2010 KTM 530 EXC. I have done a lot of the trips with Rsquared where he has been on his 450 EXC or his 690. I have never really had an issue with running highway on my 530, even without any kind of aftermarket windscreen. We usually run 70-75mph when we hit the highways. We've done stretches of highway riding that have been several hours in length at a time. I would not say it is fun, but for me it certainly isn't miserable. The seat I have sucks. A new one would be nice. The bike handles fine. The biggest issue is that I have to pack LIGHT. The 690 can definitely carry more. Fuel range is not an issue for my 530 or his 450 because we have the 6.6 gallon tanks installed, giving us a range of around 300 miles on a tank. There have been times in Utah and Montana where that was a nice thing! The last trip we did to Montana in July it was not a problem for his son riding the 690. His BIL had to stop and do the RotoPax thing somewhere out in the middle of Wyoming.

As always, it REALLY boils down to intended use. When we get in rough stuff, the 690 can do it, but it just takes a bit more effort (unless you are Rsquared's son, in which case you rip through it like it is nothing...). While I can do highway miles on my 530, that is not its forte. I prefer to use it for trips that will be predominantly dirt. That said, we did a trip to North Carolina where we had our "big" bikes (1200 GS and 990 Adventure) and our small bikes (450/530 EXCs) and on the twisty pavement, I think we had more fun on the small bikes, even running full knobbies! We have done quite a few trips where we trailered to our destination, taking big and small bikes for each of us. Then we ride them on alternating days on bike appropriate routes. That let's us take a "relaxing" day on the big bikes after each day on the small bikes. This works great if you base out of the same location and do loops each day. It also allows us to run knobbies or an aggressive DS tire on the big bikes without worrying about using them up getting to wherever we are going.

For an extended road trip where I might hit the occasional dirt forest service road or county road, I would take the 1200 GS in a heart beat and put something like the Heidenau K60s on it. They will last MUCH longer than the TKC 80s I prefer for more aggressive dirt riding on the GS, and they do pretty well on everything except mud and deep sand. On trips like these, we might do several hundred miles of pavement in a day and the comfort of the GS over the 530 makes a big difference. On the trips like the last Montana trip, we were doing anywhere from 200-300 miles per day with a mix of pavement and moderately technical dirt. I could have done probably 80% of it on the GS, but that other 20% would have REALLY sucked on the GS Like Rsquared said though, the vast majority of the bikes present on that trip were 690s and 701s. Surprisingly, there were very few KLRs. There was a time when it would have been the most prevalent bike on these kinds of trips.

The riding I consider to be technical is the stuff that usually has you doing relatively low speeds because the terrain is just rough, exceptionally rocky (as in BIG rocks), very steep, lots of deep ruts, deep sand for extended periods, muddy, tight narrow tracks, downed trees across your path, rocky ledges you have to get up or down, etc,... It is these conditions where the weight of the bike makes a BIG difference, as does your ability to get a foot down if needed. The other end of the spectrum is pavement and maintained unpaved roads. It is almost impossible to get a single bike that excels across the whole spectrum. It is always a compromise. My 530 covers the rough end well and the middle, but not the easy end. My 1200 covers the middle and easy end fantastic. The 690 seems to cover the middle and a little of each end really well.

Just in case you missed this...

http://www.twtex.com/forums/showthread.php?t=115491

Awesome responses guys! And thanks for the link Tourmeister!

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