You have obviously never ridden a Super Enduro off-road? Do yourself a favour and test a SE off-road, you will be amazed.
No I haven't ridden SE - it was always bike in my sights, but eventually reason prevailed. I do once/twice a year long distance remote trips on my own most often (last time I killed clutch on Tenere going up VZP on my own), so I need offroadability, combined with reliability and range - on that last trip I originally needed to have 700 km range if I wouldn't be able to make it up VZP. From my point of view (without riding one) SE should score high on the first one, questionably (this may be admittedly only perception) on the second one and fail on the third one (I could put lots of jerry cans on it, jeopardizing the one thing in shines on - offroadability.
When looking for the ultimate adv bike for me, I have ridden one of the early 690s and TE630 (which I was keener on due to percieved better reliability) - and as you, I was totally unimpressed with the 690 at the time - funnily enough I have already said here (and I think it was you who disagreed with me as you still do), that it felt like gutless twin, rather than meaty single (revvy with narrow power bank high up and no meaty bottom). So I bought 630, adventurized it with big tank, lynx and pannier racks and did few trips. It's fantastic once in the good stuff (Kaokoland, Lesotho and such), and much better that 690 (old or new) in gnarly stuff, but just too much of a chore getting there so I end up trailering it there instead of riding. Nothing wrong with that, but I like simplicity of just bike trips, with no stupid car to take over borders and store somewhere.
Dwerg let me ride his 2014 few weeks back, and I was very impressed. They made lots of changes to that engine since new, some of them I knew - bigger volume, some of them I didn't - twin sparks, throttle by wire improving fueling and consumption, and they made quite a difference (that, or my perceptions shifted greatly). It's still not a thumper, but it pull strong from 3500 - 4500 rpm and gets just better as you go up (the old 690 - nothing seemed to happen under 5500) - while thumpers inevitable peter out higher in the rev range. I still have a problem with the narrow gearbox, that makes it too revy for cruising, but decided to give it a try anyway and if everything goes well should be on one soon. That said - I wouldn't ride it in its standard form - I want long distance capability and stability (sacrifysing some agility of course), so I'm going to put on rally kit and keep 630 in its more enduro form for gnarly duty.
Topic: 690 vs Husky 610 (Read 3588 times)
