It’s not that I ever felt that my 690 was lacking in power. When I bought the bike, the previous owner had drilled holes in the snorkel section of the intake allowing for more air flow. That was good, but he was also running a paper filter – that was bad.

So I immediately taped up the snorkel with black Gorilla tape and ordered a K&N filter to fit the stock hole. That worked great! I’ve cleaned and re-oiled my K&N many times so far.

The big problem that I’ve always had was just the bulk of the stock airbox.

When I had it out last while working on the Fuse Block, my friend Tomm happened to stop by and said, “I’m surprised you haven’t replaced that airbox yet“. So I did what maybe I should have done years ago.
I put an ad in ADV.

Within a week I had a barely used one on the way! I made sure it was for the right year. This one was last used on a 2015. He decided to go the Rally Raid way, which has a smaller Twinair filter but also can hide a gallon of gas or a storage box in the empty place.
Swapping it out was easy. Everything is easy for Chris, but this was easy even for me!
One of the things mentioned in the video is to replace the o-ring on the pressure sensor. Luckily I had one that was the perfect size. Look at how flat and squished my old one was!

Like I said, easy install. It’s centered in the space. I test fitted it and checked for any clearance issues. None at all. The air filter is big – that’s good. More airflow, more time between cleanings. Look at all that space!

Looking to make use of that space, here’s what the Rally Raid guys do. They have a plastic box that bolts into the area that you can just dump what you like into. Can you see how much smaller the air filter is? https://www.radegarage.com/parts-us/ktm-690-storage-kit-us/

So that got me to thinking about constructing something similar (just a little smaller). There’s two great mounting points up front that aren’t being used right now (aqua arrows), plus the frame itself.

That pink arrow is where I mounted the massive relay and plug for the Fuse Block.
Most likely I’ll take the easy way out and order this one from Rottweiler https://www.rottweilerperformance.com/690-701-enduro-internal-soft-bag/.

I imagine it will hold my tool roll plus a bunch of other items that just don’t fit elsewhere. The bag will keep the dust out and also protect the tools from cutting into all that exposed wiring.
When I order that, I’ll also order the extreme dust pre-filter cover for the filter. It doesn’t get oiled and traps a bunch of the dust before it gets to the filter.
After my test fit I started it up – at idle it sounded just like it had before but with a crack of the throttle it’s so much louder than it was! Much Much Louder!
Now I no longer have “Intake Envy” and feel much more like a man. LOL!
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