Hi,in Cameroun killing time waiting for parts.
getting concerned that I should check my inlet bearing after checking Jeremy's post!

02 adventure
bought for transafrica trip 6 months prior to departure.
Swampy changed my main shaft bearing to 03 spec. Besides that had the KTM front wheel upgrade prior to departure.

On the trip some hassles have ocurred:
-Leaking rocker cover - I resealed this in timbuctou with liq gasket.
-Battery and regulator failure - battery is an Oddysey it is still under garauntee.
The distributer is Tayna electrical.
Tayna are disinterested in honouring the warrantee claiming their supplier needs the battery returned from Africa prior to replacement. the decision took them over a month to come to so leaving me in a compromised situation in Niger.FYI The replacement battery would be brought to SA by a friend to replace the oversize batt I have currently got that required me to raise the seat to accomadate it. I would not take this risk if I were you and travelling remote areas. get a Yuassa,end story.

-Rear shock failure: Happened after a long line of hard bottom outs whilst desert riding with full gear load.Completely my own fault riding the bike like a motocross bike with full panniers, duffle bag and spare desrt tyre on rear.

-Worn carb slide and pin: Important for anyone travelling in dusty conditions get some airfilters for the carb vent hose on the right of the carb. this will definetly save you hassle in the future

-failed ignition Coil/HC coil- not confirmed yet as i'm waiting for replacements from Sommer and will know for sure whether My diagnosis (Swampy and Sommer really) is correct.

That's all there is really. a fair amount for a bike with 18000km's on the clock.

Gents,
good topic, if I read the stories I get drawn back to the trip... I was 42000 km on a 2000 model Adventure (that I bought with 16000 on the clock). Met Jerome and Dave on the trip of this Thread, good to chat... And good luck guys for the future... My failures were only few ones...
1. the front wheel bearing failed at km24000. But they were the originals and in 2000 the OE weren't of high quality. So the new ones are still in today...
2. The Revmeter failed at 25000 km, in the f... desert. Well, I pulled the plug and its still off and I finished the trip.
3. clutch basket made rattling sounds at 30000 km. I exchanged and upgraded to the 2004 solution.
4. Piston failure in Chile after pieces broke off following the Bolivian 70 octane gas at km 50000. At KTM Chile (by the way a super dealer) I got all new parts. And at that time (as the bearings made these funny noises since 5000) I exchanged everything, basically build a reman engine.
5. Rear wheel bearings failed at km 55000 in Patagonia.
Everything survived 100 Rivers (up to the light), 60 degrees, 5300 meters altitude, minus 15 in Bolivia and so on.

Besides the engine (which I do not blame the KTM for) all these little things were for me more or less wear and tear...
And it never let me down...
Super Bike.. Cheers Ras

__________________
Rasmus
www.panamericana.info

So far:
2006 Adventure. 5000km into Africa trip - in Egypt.

Sidestand - aftermarket from KTM Sommer. Broken 2 bloody centre stands (the bolt) with it and now its bent and won't work. Dont bother putting it on, waste of money. You get used to the centre stand with panniers etc.

Leaking a small amount of oil from the sighting window on the RHS of the engine. The seal on the window has gone.

Apart from that, great bike which is doing the job well. Just wish you didnt have to remove the tank to get to the spark plug...

Ok... posted an ironic comment on this thread 19th feb regarding Adventure vs Dakar. Now I have decided to give the KTM 640 ADV a try and bougth one
last week......

Havent started to ride it yet but the history from previous owner is:

2005 mod
5000km
Neutral bulb changed.

__________________
Dizzie

Congatulations - and happy travels. Keep us posted!

__________________

Just curious, to some of you who posted on this thread a couple of years ago, do you still own your Adventures and if so what kind of mileage are you up to now? I own a 03 and so far other than a rocker cover oil leak it's been pretty much trouble free for 41,000 km. regular wear and tear items:
12,000 km new sprockets and chain
17,500 repad brakes
20,500 replace worn needle/needle jet
23,500 sprockets and chain
26,200 new float +needle valve assembly
30,300 new countershaft seal + o-ring
31,000 rear wheel bearings+ renew exhaust hanger bushings
37,100 chain and sprockets + countershaft seal and o-ring
38,000 repad brakes
41,000 rebuild water pump + replace cam follower and main cam bearing + replace float needle/seat + new jet needle {preventative maintenance}

So far so good.........

Island Hopper,
Your experience mirrors mine with my '02 640 Adventure at 20K miles-32K Km.
I have not had rear wheel bearing problems though. i just removed them, regreased them and put them back in service.
Hope I don't regret that decision.
With regard to your other problems, I think I had them all.
Bill

+1 and the footprint is useless off-road. A pencil would be more use.

__________________
http://bigben.to/ London to....? The big bike annual rally.
http://www.mongolbikers.com 125cc London -> Mongolia.

I read this topic before going on my trip, i never thought i would get to post in it too. I have a problem, BIG one that is, so i'm asking for your advice.
Being in Altai mountains, near Ak-Tash and going to Mongolia, i dropped my bik in a big pond, with some mud on it. Not gettng to stop the engine quick enough, in got a few gulps of dirty water in the carburettor and then in the engine. Changing the air filter and the sparkplug seemed to make it work fine at that time, so i went on with it. But after 500km or so, it started consuming lots of oil. So much that it freaked us and decided to head back to Barnaul, where we opened the engine and found the piston rings were worn out. Changed them, and the bike still has little power, low compression as one can feel in the kick pedal and also most alarming of all consumes lots of oil, about 1 liter/300km.
At this point i don't know what to do next, if it is valve rings wear, then mybe we cantry gettingand fixing them in Amaty, as we are now 900km from it, but if it is cylinder wear we have no choice but to drive it as it is and complete the oil every 100kms. When weopened it, we could not see any visible signs of wear, and yet, the oil is going away like crazy.
Thanks for your help,
Alex

It's time to update again: The last one was at 85,000 KM... I am now up to 122,000 KM....

My auto decomp cam is now worn out so I use the handlebar lever to assist on cold starts... I've replaced the needle jet/jet needle again due to wear..Replaced the chain sprockets a few more times{since 85,000}... Replaced the suspension dog bone link due to wear.. Replaced the exhaust follower roller and rebuilt the waterpump as well....

Over the winter I plan to do a bit of engine work:

Replace the camshaft, camchain and sprockets.... Replace the intake follower and piston rings... Replace the clutch, check and replace {if required} the oil pumps and the oil bypass piston spring.... Measure gear shaft and crankshaft slop and replace bearings if required.... Send the head in for valvework....

Hi there,

On post no 52 there´s a link to the ADVrider site for problems on the LC4.
Now, i got the problem that i need to replace the oilseal at the drive shaft.
I´ve never done that before and thaught it would be a good help if i can print that description on that site how to do it.
I opened it a couple of weeks ago and i could see everything. Now, i´ve tried to open it through different browsers but the pictures don´t open. So i only got the text. Can somebody tell me what´s wrong? Is it the site or does it depend on the internet connection, or something else?
Hope to hear from you.

Cheers, Bossit! :-)

'02 KTM 640a
40K km-blew the headgasket, please see this:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-warning-29819

Using a Proiler for chain lubrication,
chain and sprockets are lasting 25K km.

Only other failures were carb float needle plus needle and needle jet and the countershaft sprocket seal.
b.

Good Day

Myself and 2 friends are doing a 8000Km trip through Africa (South Africa – Namibia – Zambia – Malawi and Mozambique)

We got KTM 640 Adventure 09 and 2000 models and bought them from a guy in South Africa
Both of them got around 43 000 Km on them so what I would like to know as I’m not very familiar with KTM (Honda Man) what must we have looked at before the trip and most important what spares would you recommend taking along on our adventure.

Now the bikes did a trip from Germany to South Africa so it got all the long trip conversions done.

Any recommendations will be appreciated

Thanks Peter

I'd start off by reading this thread from the beginning ... it started in 2004!!

Then go over to ADV Rider (Thumpers section) look up the 640 ADV specific threads over there. Some VERY comprehensive ones by guys who have been dedicated to this bike for ages. A TON of knowledge.

Look up a Canadian guy on ADV Rider (Gunnerbuck) He knows the 640's very well. Don't read too much ... or you may never go on your trip. Not ALL news is good news regards this bike!

I love the 640's ... to ride, but not so much to own or to travel on. But if you deal with all the common issues, carry spares and know your ins and outs of the bike ... you should be fine!
Safe Travels!

Time to update: At 127,000 KM I rebuilt my engine, including splitting the cases and replacing a worn countershaft, since then the bike has been worry free for a few yrs... I am now approaching 202,000 KM and it is just starting to use a bit of oil meaning the rings and valves could probably use a service in the next 20,000 km.. One thing I have found is that the top end component life increases considerably with a more free flowing exhaust installed instead of the OEM unit...