What about in Oz Tim? Are you telling me I'm riding around with an extra 490cc! ;-)

I can answer that actually: I am, but I love it.

To the O.P.: I have owned 3 KTMs (450, 690, 990) and know many other owners. I know of 990s with well over 100,000km that have never had the engine cases opened. Even one 690 with over 100k.

The bigger bikes, including the 690s (and Husky 701s) are NOT high maintenance. They have long service intervals and valves need checking only every 15k kms. They are very solid and reliable and I wouldn't hesitate with one of these.

The enduro bikes are HIGH maintenance but designed to be. I.e. 500cc EXC and below. These need very regular oil changes, for ADV probably every 2,000km. This does not mean they are unreliable. This is typical for an enduro/race bike.

All of these bikes have some small known issues which are well documented and can easily be worked around. This is the case with all brands.

I'm not sure where KTMs got this reputation but it must've been in the 90s before I started riding them. My 990 has been absolutely bulletproof and it's half way to 100,000. The more I ride it the more I trust it.

A final word: the bigger capacity bikes are more complex. 1190/1090 is a very complex bike. If you're not comfortable working on those sorts of systems a smaller, simpler bike is advisable. Although the 690s are fuel injected (extremely reliable!) they are a bit less mechanically intimidating.

If I was buying a bike today I would go smaller and get a 690. It's just that once you ride a 990 you never want to get off...


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That is the only reason you need, IMO! If it's fun and you can afford it ... it's all good.

In the touring ADV world 100K km is tiny distance. Only 60K miles. Many bikes go double that and more ... BTW, I've towed 2 blown up KTM twins, a 950 and a 990. Extended warranty insurance paid for BOTH repair. One promptly blew up AGAIN! Finally fixed and still on the road today. NEWER twins are now MUCH BETTER than the early twins. MUCH BETTER.

But for perspective, there are dozens, maybe hundreds of Suzuki Vstrom with OVER 100,000 miles (160K km), still going strong. Mine did over 90K miles with ZERO problems. Not one issue. A common thing for Vstrom V-twin.

15K km. interval? Many modern Japanese bikes typically do 26K MILES (40K km) between valve checks.

My Ducati is 18,000 miles. So, all relative regards "long service intervals".

My DR650 calls for valve check every 6K miles ... but rarely goes out of spec. And since it's a half hour job, not a big deal. How many hours does it take you to do valve adjustment on your big KTM? ... or ... how much does the dealer charge you?

I consider my DR650 an "Enduro" bike, but it's certainly NOT a race bike. Very LOW maintenance for that bike.
Mine is now over 60K MILES of very hard use. (5 trips down Baja ... and back, no trucks involved)

But the EXC series are true RACE BIKES. Perhaps not ideal for travel, but the 500exc, for one, can do it if the rider knows how to take care of the bike!

That said, I've been reading the Ride Report about the Kiwi riding his 500EXC
all through the Americas. Very impressive. Pretty much DEAD reliable and SO improved from bad old days in late 80's and early 90's when I would find KTM parts littering the trail in an Enduro. :smarts: (true!)

True enough. The more you know about your bike, easier it is to maintain, prep and avoid problems in the first place.

I'm not quite ready to tackle doing the Desmo valves on my Ducati!
About $600 USD if shop does it.

Yes, but even earlier. late 80's ... but the 640's in particular were real crap up until maybe 1999 or so. I owned an 2001 Duke ll, zero problems.

Early 690 enduros ('07/'08) were NOT reliable by my reading of history. Many issues beyond F.I. Good news? Later ones are 100% better. KTM listen to customers ... then improve things! I see a 690 in my future.

But with KTM, you'll need to bring some mechanical expertise along for the ride. Know the bike, know it's issues and learn to SPOT THEM EARLY and correct them before they screw you!

I won't go to all the individual points but feel I should just summarise and address few things, esp. in response to mollydog's interesting tapestry of objection and support to my original post!

I think the anecdotal "I once knew a guy who had a [brand, model] that [positive or negative anomaly] after [ridiculously low or high mileage]" evidence isn't that helpful, and these sorts of stories can be found about the majority of popular brands one way or the other.

We could go on for ever with counter examples of GSes that bend forks, Husky's that spin big-end bearings, Ducati's that take too much time and money to have their valves checked and KTM 450s that can have theirs checked in 15 minutes (but need it every 105hrs).

I think what the original poster is really asking is: "I like the look of these KTM bikes, and I kind of want one, but is it going to let me down?".

To address the question, I personally am of the opinion that all modern KTMs based on the LC4 and LC8 motor platforms are reliable to high kilometres and suitable for RTW travel.

The enduro and motocross race engines I would say are not good for such long term usage -*not to say there aren't exceptions for those inclined and mechanically minded - but when talking about KTM it's important to note that there are two different subsets and opinions about the brand may refer to one or the other, and yes, may also refer to "old" or "modern" KTMs - again I'm skeptical of reports of entire production years' of bikes being "bad", but will leave that for others to speculate on.

I don't have much experience with other brands and/but obviously BMW, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Honda, etc. all make bikes that are suitable. So no comment from me there, I will only say that I have done my own due diligence and have drawn my own conclusions:

I personally would not hesitate to take one RTW I will be sticking with KTMs until I can no longer afford to or the motorcycle itself no longer excites any passion in me.

I have to agree, I rode the SM version and was massively impressed, effortless power though it runs out of steam as you get towards the ton - hardly a problem. Not a drop of oil leaked or a beat missed on a hard track day and should give good fuel mileage.

KTM sadly don't do a 690 ADV or I'd have already bought it. You would have to start with the enduro model and spend a lot more on customising it.

Yea, it's a shame we don't see many 690E's out doing RTW rides. A few, but not many in grand scheme.

BTW, don't forget KTM did make an ADV version ... the 640. This model vibrated so badly ... you could lose your teeth fillings. Two friends still own the 640 ADV bikes. Be nice to squeeze in the 690 motor into that chassis. So much better.

But still, I have not seen many very high miles 690's ... either the 690E or
or 690 Duke. In KTM single world it seems they think 20K miles is a lot.

More and more travelers are going SMALL ... 125, 250 and such. Cheap and expendable. With shipping costs, politics and Carnet issues, seems buying a small bike in country (or region) you are in, may be our future.

I don't know about that, new Africa Twin and all GS bikes sell like cakes,
besides going too light is also bad. Think about wind, luggage, stability, tank range etc. Personally for travel I would no go below 500cc and above 1000cc.

There is always the Honda CB500X with a Rally Raid 3 upgrade kit as an alternative consideration ?

Quite capable as an adventure bike , Reliable and easy to handle on the rough stuff where some big bikes might have trouble ...., and cheap to buy and with great fuel economy..., plus still quite comfortable to cruise on a highway.

Sometimes people just want to ride in style hence the big, heavy adventure bikes. They look awesome. I am myself tempted by them every year

The 690 is not a smooth motor, it is not far off the vibration level of the 640... Having ridden both back to back, there was not much difference between the 2.. That being said, the 690s larger power output is very apparent..

It is funny how there are the 2 different views on travel bikes, some guys feel they need 100+ horsepower and others are happy with 20... I prefer to go more to a midsize lighter bike and at the moment am waiting for someone to put out a 400cc bike so I can replace my aging 640..

I agree. I actually like both approaches, strangely enough!

My relationship with my 100+ hp bike is definitely not a practical one, and has very little to do with practicality of travel (perhaps it's marginally better for very long distances in a day in good conditions) but I just have so much fun with it and find it exciting to ride.

But make no mistake, that's certainly not a practical/functional benefit — if anything it's impractical and makes travelling more difficult, particularly in difficult terrain. For me, personally, part of the challenge is being able to build the level of skill to ride a big bike where others can only ride small ones.

Again, none of this is rational, it's emotional and probably quite heavily correlated with testosterone.

On the other side of the coin I totally see the benefit of lighter weight bikes with simpler mechanics that are not so performance oriented being practically speaking a great choice as a travel tool. If I was perhaps older, wiser, smarter I'd just buy a DRZ.

No question, 690 = power. I do disagree regards vibes. The 690 at least is less vibey within certain RPM ranges and latest version of this motor is said to be quite a bit smoother than earlier iterations. (2017)

The 640 vibes, in my experience, were BRUTAL. This view has been expressed widely by owners (mostly now X owners!), press reviews and so on. City Bike, San Francisco had several KTM 640 test bikes during my tenure there. I tested the '99 640 Dual Sport, '00 640 Adventure, '01 Duke 2 and 640 SM. We would get these bikes for 1 to 2 months each, so plenty of riding time by myself and staff.

I tested the Adv 640 in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. Bike was quite good in deep sand and rough rocks. Horrible on longer paved sections. (we were 80% off road on that ride) But, to contrast, I liked the Duke ll do much ... I bought one for myself! It had vibes, yes, but NOTHING like the 640 Dual Sport or ADV 640. By contrast, I felt the 690 was not smooth ... but smoother than 640.

True! But how can we ignore a bike like the KTM 500EXC? Granted, not the perfect travel bike in stock form, but seems to me that an ADV version could be created.

IMO, it's hard to beat your 640 in terms of HANDLING and LIGHT WEIGHT ...
and it's paid for! It's a great bike to ride off road, feels lighter than some 400's (XR400, DRZ400). Only thing missing is BULLET PROOF reliability. IIRC, it's lighter than the 690, power is not extraordinary, but adequate. You know the bike well and keep up with it's maintenance which means it could be RTW ready.

I'm going down the HP scale ... 250's. The WR250 is on my radar, will most likely become stable mate to my 62K mi. DR650. The DR will get a top end rebuild, the WR will become the new work horse.
My new (to me)'13 Ducati Hyperstrada is now my "street only" ride.

The 500 is a great bike, but the rear sub frame is too lightly built... What I really need is something 400CC or less to fit into a lower insurance rate category than my 640... The 640 would become my summer bike and the 400 would be for year round riding..

What makes any bike bullet proof reliable is the person that owns it... Whether it be a euro or a Japanese example the bike will not last if not maintained.. I have owned around 25 different bikes and only 4 have been euro bikes, the rest were Japanese and there is no magic, the Japanese had as many, if not more issues than the Euro bikes...

I would already own a DR 400 if they had come with a 6th gear, having a 5 speed box is a step backwards from the DR 350 days... I prefer the DR 400 to the 650 as in most respects it is a better bike, suspension, handling, lower weight and not far off in a power comparison, just give us a 6 speed gearbox when they go to fuel injection..

The 640 has been a good bike for me that has held it's novelty for a good many yrs, more so than for any other bike I've owned.. 640 parts production is starting to reach its end so the bikes days are numbered as far as an every day commuter... I will likely still own my original bike yrs from now, but it will likely be second fiddle to a much lighter smaller displacement Adventure bike...

Hope you can find something that will live up to your 640's ability.
I agree with part of your assessment regards DRZ vs. DR650. If you use the DRZ as a road bike, certainly a 6th gear is needed. Would not be my 1st choice if fair amount of road riding is on the menu'.

I've toured A LOT with guys riding DRZ400-S, me on my DR650. In our group we'd have a few DR's and a few DRZ's. DRZ was just about as fast ... up to about 80 MPH. But the DRZ is working hard above 65 mph. The DR650 is loafing at that speed.

Off road the DRZ has big advantage, more fun and safer when things get technical or you want to push the pace. The "E" model, even better. I owned the E ... not street legal in USA so it was my Desert/Sierra/Mexico bike.

But on a Baja trip the DR650 was the better bike (for me) because of long highway sections. Also, RODE my DR650 from San Fran to Baja, then did 1500 miles off road, then rode the DR back home. A true dual sport ADV bike. You could do that on the DRZ-S but not quite the same experience on fast highway riding.

You can push the DRZ off road ... but pushing off road ... I'd prefer your
KTM 640. The geometry is just better, IMO. More confidence in front end. Tracks better through tricky ruts, doesn't get bounced off line. But all of them are too tall for me.

Sure, with lots of work the DRZ can be better but your 640 is already there.
Parts in short supply? Perhaps buy full set for rebuild, sit on them till you need them. That should extend things a few more years at least.

The hard part is having a bike that is good enough on the road yet still competent off road. On my DR650 I have to avoid technical stuff and slow down the pace.

On a 250cc I'm more relaxed and actually make fewer mistakes ... and I can safely UP the pace on the 250 where I have to be careful on my DR650.

On fire roads or easy two track, hard to beat the DR650. It does well, but still won't carve the corners with confidence like your 640 can.

Most really depends on destinations, length of trips and pace you want to travel at ... and of course what floats your boat. Big difference choosing a bike for bumbling round BC as opposed to riding out to Ulan Batar and back.

For short, local rides off road, hard to beat KTM 500exc. Leaving Canada?
Whole 'nother consideration.