I got the bike home and then started looking into what I had bought. The previous owner wasn’t great with details, actually he had little knowledge of what was on the bike. We knew that going in. I don’t have a copy or screen capture of his original Craigslist post but it was something like
“2014 690 Enduro – clean, runs well, 7,000 miles” and a couple of pictures (as in 2 or 3). Calling him I found out that he had 5 bikes, 2 jet boats, was 61 years old and a farmer. Got service records? Nope. How long have you had it? um, 4 or 5 years I think. Bought it from feller down in LA. Any Mods done on it? Nope. Change the oil? Yup. Every 1,000 miles with that synthetic stuff. Oh you mean Motorex PowerSynt? Um nope some other kind.
So, we walk up to the garage and the 1st thing I see is that it’s been lowered. There’s a bright orange KoubaLink showing right under the swingarm. Kind of hard to miss, right? There’s also what I think is a Wolfman Top Tray on the bike. He mentioned he had some side racks that were on the bench that he never put on. I identified them as Touratech ($400) so there’s at least that, right? There was also some discussion about a dongle under the seat but he really wasn’t sure.
HERE IS WHAT I DO HAVE:
See The Light: As soon as I turned the key I heard a familiar whirring sound. Looking over the top you can easily see there’s an LED bulb in the headlight. It’s a Cyclops conversion kit much like the one I put on the 950. #winning
Low Rider: As mentioned, it’s lowered.
It’s a KoubaLink KTM8-2 which is the biggest lowering that they offer for the bike. 1 and 5/8th of an inch should be around 3 inches of seat height depending on what I find out with the shock and preload.
Skid Row: He had also handed me an old crusty looking aluminum skid plate. There was a stock plastic unit on the bike. So I cleaned the Aluminum up and installed it with no problems. It looks like a KTM Powersports version which is a dealer upgrade. It’s much better than the plastic – so we’ll go with this for now.
Touratech Pannier Rack: As mentioned, it’s a quality rack. It was missing mounting bolts but did come with the passenger pegs. A quick trip down to the local hardware and I was able to temporarily attach it with stainless steel bolts and washers.
Dongles: In the 690 world there is one dongle that matters if you are going off road. That is the ABS Dongle. This dongle plugs into your bike and disables the ABS just for the rear (if chosen). That’s important and you really want that going down something loose and steep. Did this bike have one?
Well I found this attached under the seat.
And while that looks promising with wording like that, a quick Google search found out that it was instead a Brake Modulator. For those not familiar, that modulates not your brakes but your brake light. It’s a thing that might get better attention of the the car behind you in a quick stopping situation. Not the Dongle I was looking for. 😩
Next I found this Dongle.
The word ‘performance’ could mean most anything but once again, Google says it’s not the Dongle I’m looking for. Move along…
But Wait, There’s More!
This unassuming thing was just hanging out in there. It has a number on it so I Googled that and guess what?
It IS the ABS Dongle we were hoping it had! Yay Me!
Other Dongles? Why yes, although this one is stock. It’s the fuel mapping dongle that allows you to set the mapping for average riding, aggressive racing and what most people will do with it – set it for poor fuel quality when that’s all you have.
Reading the manual (yeah I know, right?) I set the dial to 3 for average riding. Sorry for the potato quality.
While we’re under the seat. The wiring was a mess, things just weren’t pretty and so I started looking closer. The battery wasn’t locked down properly and pulling it out I found out why. It’s a Walmart Battery. Not that it’s a crappy one, AGM is supposed to be the better kind of batteries, but this is just too tall.
So that’s what I have that is not stock. Most everything else is. The bars, handguards, seat, air filter – all stock. Next up, I’ll detail out what I need to upgrade and with what.
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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