Adventure Bike Rider Forum

Great bikes indeed..
I am intrested but I have to sell my AT before I can buy..( )

I Just had the pleasure to ride 3 KTM 990 ADV bikes (2007, 2009 & 2012 Models) in extreme Heat & Trails of North East Africa.. What a bike .. Simply Awsome. I can't fault them...

Good Luck with the sale...

Er, Don't suppose you have considered the F800 GS.
Almost got tempted by the 990 when looking about for a bike as I am a big KTM fan. However the 990 felt like a really big lump.
Then I tried the BM, Sold. First demo test ride was on wet muddy back roads. The bike handled brilliantly, easy to hold when drifting and pretty well balanced. Managed to find an 09 bike with luggage at my local dealer, love it.
The only other bikes that I considered were the XT660. A mates got one, A good durable work horse, works well both of and on road with boxes etc, or the old 640 adventurer, tough and very capable machine but a bit hard to find a good one. Another friend has one of these.
The new KT690. Not too sure, it seems that they need so much changing on them to make them a good long legged AB. Should be great off road, but on road and big distances with luggage,
don't know. I'm personally not keen on spending a heck of a lot of cash on a bike and then having to spend a shed load more trying to make it into the bike I really want. :S
Best idea! Sell the bike if you don't like it. Then take your time to choose, it's not a race and you have cash in pocket. Try a Yam / BM even a trumpet if you do mostly road miles. but do go for a good demo ride to help you decide.

Yep, I did give the demo bike back to the dealer plastered in mud. They did not mind. As promised, I did not go off road with it. Yep, I was lucky, as I was paying for the 09 bike another guy was discussing buying it with one of the other sales staff.
Picked up my bike and went for a bimble. Ah, it's pretty dry today, I can just nip down Gypsy Lane and get onto Bullocl Lane as a gentle off road try out. Dry my *rse. Bloody big and long mud holes and me on road tyres with side and top boxes fitted. laugh, Sh*t, can't turn around, oh well, feel up, trials ride it keep it nice and steady and keep momentum, don't stop. All Good. Stayed upright. Bike well plastered but did well. You can imagine the comment when I dropped in for a coffee at the dealers on the way to a jet wash. Look what youv'e done, (or words of a similar vein),not had the bike more that a couple of hours. Still got a free jet wash in their yard as well as a coffee. Result.

Sorry to digress a bit. Buit the reason is simply to emphasise my comment. TRY THEM ALL.
Then decide which one you like best. GOOD LUCK.

D-S

Harty

I could just say... Man up and grow a pair :whistle:





But seriously I know what you mean, I'm loving my 990 on the road and I am getting used to off road but it is still a big lump :woohoo:

OK the fact I have been racing in the Big Bike Rally Challenge (on my CCM) for a year now does mean my off road skills have improved immeasurably in those twelve months but I do understand where you're coming from and have huge respect to all the guys who race Adventures in the BBRC!

I was definitely in the market for "a road bike that you can take off road" so the 990 fits the bill and as I also have the CCM which is definitely in the "off road bike that you can ride on the road" category but luggage is real problem as there are no off the shelf solutions for a bike that has been out of production for eleven years and they never made many in the first place! The 990 on the other hand is pretty good out of the box even if it is also ripe for improvement.

OK it does need farkling and i'm planning to gear it down, fit decent tyres and handlebar risers but actually I did exactly the same to the CCM to make it into a decent green lane/rally bike. So I don't plan on spending more than a couple of hundred quid on it.

Best of luck with what ever you end up with

.

And yes the private plate is staying with the bike

If you are planning on going off road with the BMW 800 beware as they don't crash very well. Couple of mates had them and in trying to keep up with the 690's off road binned them. Used to cost them £200 every time they dropped them as unlike the KTM they use hard painted plastic panels and not soft mx type panels that tend to bend and return. Also considerably heavier than the 690 i believe they are nearly the same weight as the KTM adventure!

On the flip side as a road bike they are superb with excellent fuel economy. Of the 3 mates that have th BMW 800, all 3 now have 690 ktm's although 2 of them have kept the bmw's for road use.

most people know what they want and have a idea what they can handle
butting in on somones advert with bad comments is bad order

seems like a fair price for a nice bike to me on a positive note

i bet the 990s are up in price when they announcethe new 1200 price :woohoo:

minkyhead wrote:most people know what they want and have a idea what they can handle
butting in on somones advert with bad comments is bad order

seems like a fair price for a nice bike to me on a positive note

i bet the 990s are up in price when they announcethe new 1200 price :woohoo:

Merely stating a fact and would hate for Harty to get an 800 without being aware of all the pros as pointed out before as well as the cons. I actually looked at these myself and was fortunate that my mates pointed out those same points to me. If I wasn't using it off road I would have one, but the bias is just too much for the road and in my opinion would be worse than the adventure he already has.

Besides it wasn't me that started to change the way the thread was going I was merely commenting in reply to others posts.

Isn't this what forums are all about?

Ok I'll keep out from now but here's a bump.

Snowy, I think Minky was on about the 2nd post in the thread :pinch:

'Another KTM rider discovering the down falls of owning an adventure.'

yup that was not cricket
anyway lots of free bumps B)