640 Adventure in the garage

[dgunther]

I picked up a 2001 Adventure 640 from an advrider.com member in Birmingham today and had a hundred mile ride home on the backroads.  I love this thing and lucked up to find one - they're pretty rare here in the south for some reason.

All the coolest bikes hang out in front of the Cracker Barrel, don'tcha know!


Yes, I know I look like a tennis ball perched atop a giant grasshopper  

[R.Markus]

 

Congrats...you'll have a lot of fun on it.  

[bubba zanetti]

Wow ... that is my dream DS bike ... Congratulations! I am soooo envious.  

[R Doug]

I am HI VIZ green with envy!  

Nice ride!

[leeo45]

Congratulations.   Lots of fun on the pavement, gravel, and dirt . . . makes it hard to decide which tires to buy.  

[Guy]

So does this mean that every bike in your household is dirt worthy? Do you guy's still have the Wee-Strom? Your rapidly approaching the threshold for Nirvana in a happy complete garage.  

[dgunther]

So does this mean that every bike in your household is dirt worthy? Do you guy's still have the Wee-Strom? Your rapidly approaching the threshold for Nirvana in a happy complete garage.  

Yeah, we've still got the WeeStrom - it's my wife's bike, but I manage to steal a ride on it every now and then.  I guess we now have the full spectrum of "Adventure Bikes" in the garage - ranging from truly dirt-worthy to dirt-pretention.

I think the Adventure will be the perfect complement to my Ulysses (which is OK on gravel or dry dirt, but I wouldn't knowingly subject it to worse).  Even though I've only had it a day, the KTM is appealing to me in a way the KLR never did.  The KLR is newer, cleaner, more comfortable, cruises easier at highway speed, is cheap and easy to maintain and has pretty much every farkle on it, but bikes have never been a rational decision for me

[zam70]

I bought a 2002 640 E (hard enduro) a few months back to get at some of the roads I didn't want to take my FJR on...very fun bike and more comfortable than most would think.

The nice thing about the KTM is, the initial purchase is more $$$ than something similar (japanese makes) but the parts are cheap and the owners manual for the KTM is the BEST. (for those who don't know, a KTM owners manual is a maintenance service manual with excellent pics and walk throughs).

Have (more) fun!

[MK96xj]

You know now i am going to stop by an test ride your KLR and the KTM just to compare

I'm serious. Both of these are on my radar.

How it the seat hight on the 640? i sat on a 950 adventure yesterday and would not put up the kickstand as i would have fallen over like humpty I had probably 6" of air between my feet and the ground In all my life i have never felt so short!!! I sware this is Austia's way of fucking with short Germans

Mike

[dgunther]

You know now i am going to stop by an test ride your KLR and the KTM just to compare

I'm serious. Both of these are on my radar.

How it the seat hight on the 640? i sat on a 950 adventure yesterday and would not put up the kickstand as i would have fallen over like humpty I had probably 6" of air between my feet and the ground In all my life i have never felt so short!!! I sware this is Austia's way of fucking with short Germans

Mike

It's taller than my Ulysses by a bit, and slightly narrower, but the suspension compresses more.  One really odd thing is how teeny-tiny the footpegs are.  
I've never been to Austria, but by the way this bike is built, Austrians must have short torsos and arms, size 6 feet and 36" inseams
 

Oh, and buy my KLR - its super-farked

[dgunther]

I bought a 2002 640 E (hard enduro) a few months back to get at some of the roads I didn't want to take my FJR on...very fun bike and more comfortable than most would think.

I'd always heard of the LC4's reputation for shaking so hard that it was almost unbearable to a lot of folks.  Honestly, I don't see it.  It buzzes a little bit at highway speed and has a bit of a lope at idle, but nothing horrible.  Then again, I ride a Buell, so maybe I've already shaken my brains loose!

The only comfort things I might do are bar risers so I can steer better standing on the pegs, larger footpegs for my size 48 Sidi MX boots, and perhaps one day a Renazco seat.

The KTM manuals are pretty detailed compared to the Japanese and BMW manuals - the basic owner's manual stops just shy of walking you through how to do a valve job

[DNA]

So - after 1 month - what is the verdict?  Like it - love it - hate it?
Do you loft the front every day as you cross restricted parkland?
Worth the extra coin?  

[dgunther]

So - after 1 month - what is the verdict?  Like it - love it - hate it?
Do you loft the front every day as you cross restricted parkland?
Worth the extra coin?  

To be fair, I've only had it out on the forest service roads once since I got it.  I took the same loop I took on my KLR the last time I had it out and the KTM was hands down faster, lighter, and more confidence inspiring than the KLR.  On the road, I honestly say the KLR is much more comfortable and feels less stressed at 65 mph.  The KTM can go that fast, it just feels like it doesn't want to.  Once I got to the twisties the KTM was *much* better behaved that I expected - vastly superior to the flexy-flyer feeling KLR.  I'd say it was very, very nearly as much fun as my old MZ Baghira motard even though the 'tard was on 17" Pirelli motard tires and the KTM was wearing TKC80s.  I will say that the KTM stock seat is fine for a few hours and the thin profile works well off road, but the ride home put some serious pain the in the nether regions.  Once I get everything else sorted out, the fine folks at Renazco Racing will be getting my seat pan and some hard-earned cash.

As far as extra cost, I got a nice price on my 2001, so it ended up costing me less than a grand to move from an 03' KLR with 12K miles to my '01 KTM with 2500 miles.  There were a few minor issues that the PO told me about, so I've had to spend a little money to fix some non-essential items.  I've currently got it stripped down in my garage working through the 3k service, flushing the radiators, and doing a few electrical farkles.  

It's a one-cylinder motorcycle, so the maintenance isn't rocket science, but I've run into a few obnoxious things.  Getting the inspection covers off the rocker box made me buy some new tools.  The damn spark plug socket in the tool kit doesn't fit the actual spark plug in the bike (and I don't own an 18mm spark plug socket yet!).  When I did the pain in the ass oil change, I was expecting to see an o-ring on the secondary filter (as shown in the parts manual) but found a one-time use gasket (I rode 100 miles round-trip to the only KTM dealer open on Monday to pick that up).

Overall, I think once I get everything back together and get the recommended main bearing upgrade done, I'll be really happy with it.  As it stands right now, I don't think that it is as reliable a bike right now as my old KLR was.  I don't have a real reason for that - it just know that there are a couple of weak points in the LC4 platform that I haven't worked around yet and it makes me a bit nervous.  By comparison, my old KLR was very well sorted by the PO - it just didn't speak to me, so it had to go.

[R.Markus]

It's a one-cylinder motorcycle, so the maintenance isn't rocket science, but I've run into a few obnoxious things.  Getting the inspection covers off the rocker box made me buy some new tools.

Yeah, you have to remove quite a bit to get to them, I don't know how different the 2001 is to the 2006.

 The damn spark plug socket in the tool kit doesn't fit the actual spark plug in the bike (and I don't own an 18mm spark plug socket yet!).  When I did the pain in the ass oil change, I was expecting to see an o-ring on the secondary filter (as shown in the parts manual) but found a one-time use gasket (I rode 100 miles round-trip to the only KTM dealer open on Monday to pick that up).

The oil change isn't so bad once you do it a couple times...it definetely isn't the "drain oil and fill" that most people are used to. KTM changed from the O-ring to the gasket in 2001. I'll have to check my spark plug wrench, but I'm sure mine fits the plug (can't remember if I used it or my plug wrench). The PO may have put the wrong socket in there also.

Overall, I think once I get everything back together and get the recommended main bearing upgrade done, I'll be really happy with it.  As it stands right now, I don't think that it is as reliable a bike right now as my old KLR was.  I don't have a real reason for that - it just know that there are a couple of weak points in the LC4 platform that I haven't worked around yet and it makes me a bit nervous.  By comparison, my old KLR was very well sorted by the PO - it just didn't speak to me, so it had to go.

The KLR has a very solid engine. The LC4 is also, it's just a bit higher strung and more maintenance intensive...but nothing like the RFS engines. I think this makes one a bit nervous about it's longetivity.

[dgunther]

Yeah, you have to remove quite a bit to get to them, I don't know how different the 2001 is to the 2006.

The oil change isn't so bad once you do it a couple times...it definetely isn't the "drain oil and fill" that most people are used to. KTM changed from the O-ring to the gasket in 2001. I'll have to check my spark plug wrench, but I'm sure mine fits the plug (can't remember if I used it or my plug wrench). The PO may have put the wrong socket in there also.

The o-ring / gasket change was one of those KTM mid-year changes in 01 (or the 01 manual is wrong), so there was no way of knowing until I had it apart.  I was guessing my my relatively early build date that it would still be an o-ring.  Oh well, no big deal.

Some of the nice changes from a maintenance standpoint on the post 03 models are:
- Altered frame section by the secondary oil filter makes getting the cover off a lot easier
- Frame downtube oil fill hole is much larger.  I had to use an oil bottle with a pump to fill it.  There was no way a funnel w/ hose and gravity would have filled it a reasonable amount of time
- 03 and up models already use the roller bearing on the main shaft, so no difficult bearing pulling procedure!