It’s new bike day (well, new to me).
First a little backstory…
I love my 950! It really can go anywhere I want it to and does so with authority. That said, we’ve been discussing for a long time now how a smaller bike (as in less weight) would really be nice. We really want to do more backcountry discovery route (BDR) stuff. For the longest time my profile here (and elsewhere) mentioned that fact.
Every bike is a compromise. No bike is going to perfect for everything and so you really need to prioritize what it is you are wanting a bike to do and then apply that to the bike search. My Hayabusa was great at cruising along at high speed but wouldn’t be as fab at a track day and it would suck at dual sporting, right?
Our Needs / Wants:
- Weight: Lighter is better. Picking up a 600 lb. bike on a slope isn’t fun. Picking up a 600 lb. bike 6 times in a day isn’t either.
- Range: How far can you go on a tank of gas? If you need to carry more gas, how does that work? Can you add a bigger tank? Rotopax?
- Power: Loaded down you still need to have enough power to get you and your stuff up the hill.
- Suspension: You can put knobbies on a street bike or you can take lights and a plate and put it on a motocross bike – neither is perfect but on the suspension spectrum we wanted more dirt oriented suspension than road. That means good travel and good fork and shock internals.
- Service Intervals: Motocross bikes are very different than road bikes. In Motocross they determine service intervals by counting the hours, not the miles. Moto bikes generally need an oil change every 15 to 30 hrs. We certainly want longer service intervals.
So given those parameters we’ve been looking.
We were excited about the new Honda CRF450 with it’s moto suspension. We were not so excited about it’s $11,k price tag and moto styled service interval.
We were then looking at the Honda CRF250 Rally – it checks all the boxes (almost). It was cheaper than the 450 (by half!) but needed a bunch of upgrades to get it ready. So I did a spreadsheet. I always do a spreadsheet.
So you spend $8,k and end up with a low powered, but light and capable bike?
We looked then at KTM and/or Husky in the 350 cc range. The KTM 350EXC-F would be great, but it also has that same short service interval.
And then Tomm bought a Husky 701. Wait a second! We were looking at small displacement bikes, not something that’s just about a liter bike. Truth be told, he first bought the Honda CRF 250 Rally and while it’s light and almost right, it just felt underpowered.
If the CRF250 could almost check all the boxes how could the Husky 701 even come close? Big bikes are… BIG. Right?
I didn’t see that coming! But there’s one problem with the Husky – it’s price. It’s right up there with the CRF450. But the good news is that while the Husky is relatively new to their lineup, the same bike has been in KTM’s lineup since 2008. Yes, the KTM 690 is nearly identical to the Husky 701.
That meant I might be able to find an older used one. There have been slight changes here and there since 2008 like dual spark plugs, ABS and so on but it’s pretty much been the same for a long time.
Tomm started sending me Craigslist posts, I started looking myself. I found one up in Reno that had all the right stuff, average miles but we couldn’t come to terms over price. I found more of a stock one in Fresno that we agreed on price. It was a 2nd owner, older guy (like me) and did have some add ons that I wanted / needed.
So Tomm and I headed down to Sanger (east of Fresno) to pick it up.
It has 7,071 miles and is in good shape. The tires have a lot more life on them but they are not the style for me. Mostly stock but I’ll go into what it had and what it will have later. Yes, I have a spreadsheet for this too.
Riding it I can tell it’s going to be great. It’s light weight, it’s got power, it has range, and it checks all the boxes.
The previous owner had a few extra bits lying around. A stock aluminum KTM Skid plate and a set of Touratech Stainless Steel luggage racks. I’m not sure about the plate but I do like the racks.
I’ve been trying to come up with the right personalized plate for it, but DMV isn’t allowing plate ordering or lookups right now. My friend Harry suggested “OTHER1” which works on quite a few different levels as I’m definitely keeping the 950.
Since I already have AUFROAD, I wonder if I can get AUFR0AD. That’s a zero instead of the letter o. Probably not but I’ll see.
He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, had a big cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and is currently building a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
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