I'm thinking of getting a KTM 690. What are the pro's and cons for using this bike for touring? Any accessories that should be added to make it more long distance friendly?
Arie Fourie
Only just found this thread, I use my 690 for touring. Have done several longish trips, including through France down to Spain twice and several trips to France and Holland. Here's what I did to make my 690 suitable (in the order that they were done):
Replaced the crappy plastic belly pan with a decent alli one
Put on a touring screen from a 690SM
Made a little plastic screen that clips on top of the touring screen to push the wind over my helmet
Added a RAM mount for my GPS
Added a tooltube
Added a waterproof cigarette lighter for charging GPS
Added pannier racks that I bought off ebay
Completely rebuilt the saddle (surprisingly easy and cheap to do)
Ripped out the whole airbox when I discovered how much dirt it was letting through and replaced it with an S&N air-filter (bike sounds delicious now)
Added vibranators to the handlebars to cut the vibrations and make my mirrors useable
Modified the pannier rack to take soft luggage.
Current mods that are in the pipeline or on my workbench:
Building a homemade rear-rack (just need to get it powder-coated now)
Making some soft panniers to replace the alli boxes I currently use
Adding ROX anti-vibration risers to the handlebars
Building a toolbox area under the seat to fit in the gap where the airbox used to be
Probably going to try and add some rubber inserts to the footpegs to cut vibrations
I'm really happy with the bike as it currently is, the only thing missing is a longer range, but for the price of extra fuel tanks I'll just strap a 5 litre jerrycan on the back instead!