F800GS didn't fit the bill. 690 EnduroR is the business!

F800GS didn't fit the bill. 690 EnduroR is the business!

I have been riding enduro bikes for over 6 years now. My weapon of choice is a KTM300exc. It gets me to some awesome places that dont have paths. Me and the crew call it "Extreme Enduro". 2 years ago I wanted to get something that I could ride from home to say Argyle and do some forest roads and tracks, nothing too difficult.
Enter the F800GS. At first, I thought it was brilliant. Powerful, a looker in yellow, fuel efficient and loads of trick bits. 1st job was to fit Tkc80's then have a go off the Tarmac. In the beginning, it was great because I wasn't really confident. As my confidence grew, I quickly realised the limitations and more importantly the excessive weight of the GS. Getting to and from the areas I want to ride was perfect, but the riding experience once there was poor! I am quite heavy on the throttle, and as a result of this combined with the weight of the bike (perhaps some bad luck too) managed to trash 3 rear tyres in as many rides. Well that was the last straw! I decided to sell it and look for something else....
Enter KTM690 Enduro R.*
In stock form, it is pretty much a big beast dirt bike. Approx 150kg and 70bhp with 105 top speed. I was going to be doing 50/50 road/dirt so needed to mod it a little....well a lot really. I ended up building a 690 Adventure. Put simply, it is 99% EXACTLY what I was looking for, with a few extras fitted. All in all the cost was about the same as a new 990 Adventure, but that would have defeated the purpose. I would have been in the big heavy bike club again. The brief was to ride from home at nat spd lmt 70ish, then have an off road experience that would thrill. Every time I go out on it I have a grin that lasts all evening ;-)

Stock trim:


Adventure-ised:


What I love:

Nice one. I like the look of some of the Katooms.

I can see why you love it

Mmmmm, nice

I have an old R100gspd, I love it because you don't see many around & it's just a bit different. Far too heavy off road though, & the suspension & brakes just can't cope realy. I think the 690 adventure! is just what I need cos as you say a 990 is a bit of a hulk too me thinks. Have to save some pennies.
Looks the biz by the way.

Intrigued how you managed to trash three tyres in three rides on the F800GS.

Yes, on paper the 690 is a lot lighter, but once you've added fuel for 200km plus the rider with protective gear you're talking about 322kg for the F800GS vs 276kg for the 690 Enduro. And then you've added extra tanks and the fairing which eats into that a bit.

The 690 is certainly a nice looking bike. And on both torque/100kg and power/100kg (with rider weights as above) it comes quite close to the 800GS.

690 24.32 Nm/100kg, 23.96 hp/100kg
800 26.39 Nm/100kg, 25.77 hp/100kg

but 40kg is still 40kg Tim... not to mention being quite a bit smaller too.

Tim Cullis said:

Intrigued how you managed to trash three tyres in three rides on the F800GS.

Yes, on paper the 690 is a lot lighter, but once you've added fuel for 200km plus the rider with protective gear you're talking about 322kg for the F800GS vs 276kg for the 690 Enduro. And then you've added extra tanks and the fairing which eats into that a bit.

The 690 is certainly a nice looking bike. And on both torque/100kg and power/100kg (with rider weights as above) it comes quite close to the 800GS.

690 24.32 Nm/100kg, 23.96 hp/100kg
800 26.39 Nm/100kg, 25.77 hp/100kg

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Are you aure about those figs, Tim

I thought the 690E/R weighed about 138kg dry, plus say 3kg for oil, 3kg for water and about 12 kg for fuel...................so about 155-156kg, ready to ride... in stock form

F800gs is about 220kg, fuelled

So the weight difference is about 60kg

Surely the 690 will do 200km in stock form, won't it

If not then 3l of fuel in 2 cans attach to your luggage, will do the trick

Can't see the point of adding that expensive RR tanks and fairing to a dirtbike, when a couple of cans will suffice

Weather protection JB - you can survive for a couple hundred miles without it, but if you want to do 4/500 miles, or 100 miles after a tough day on the trails, you'll want the fairing

Mav said:

Weather protection JB - you can survive for a couple hundred miles without it, but if you want to do 4/500 miles, or 100 miles after a tough day on the trails, you'll want the fairing

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Ok...............how good is the SMR black screen?

Fits straight on does it not?

Looks ok, but does it work

Lovely looking bike, I had a few rides on them and have been very tempted to change.

JohnnyBoxer said:

Are you sure about those figs, Tim

I thought the 690E/R weighed about 138kg dry, plus say 3kg for oil, 3kg for water and about 12 kg for fuel...................so about 155-156kg, ready to ride... in stock form

F800gs is about 220kg, fuelled, So the weight difference is about 60kg

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According to BMW the fueled, ready to ride weight for the F800GS is 207kg, but that's with 16-17 litres of fuel. To give a direct comparison with the 690 Enduro's fuel range I reduced some of the fuel load (and therefore weight) making it 204kg.

Dry weight for the 690 Enduro is 138kg, then I added 12 litres of fuel at 0.7kg/litre (much lighter than water). With oil and water—which I forgot—it should be around 153kg, so a difference of 51kg rather than the 46kg I worked out before. But the fairing and long range tank that Zedos added weigh another 9.8kg, so the real overall difference is actually 41kg.

JohnnyBoxer said:

Surely the 690 will do 200km in stock form, won't it? If not then 3l of fuel in 2 cans attach to your luggage, will do the trick. Can't see the point of adding that expensive RR tanks and fairing to a dirtbike, when a couple of cans will suffice

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I can't see the point of adding long range fuel tanks. It's early days but so far I'm getting over 22km/litre on my 690 Enduro R, which implies a fuel range of over 250km. The reality is that riding gentle offroad pistes gets an even better consumption. There's very few pistes in Morocco that are longer than 250km without fuel, but if I really needed more than 250km I could carry 3 litres in a couple of 1.5 water bottles and empty them into the tank after 70km, giving me over 320km range.

I am envious of the fairing/high screen. I have KTM's touring screen on mine which isn't enough for high speed, long distance trips.