2020 KTM 690 SMCR | Should You Buy One??

Welcome along guys, well it's pre-lockdown. I've got a couple of days to get a load of videos recorded before we go into lockdown in the UK. If you're not aware, if you're watching this from overseas, we've got a four-week imposed lockdown coming on. So I've got these videos, I've got to record them. What I'm starting with is the follow-up and the final video on my 690 SMCR. I've had this on loan from KTM since February. It's been a long-term loan, I've had it all year. I'm here to give you my final thoughts on this bike. What's gone wrong with it over that time, if anything? What's it been like to live with? How have I found it to run, you know, economy? What's it been like as a fun machine? Can you use this bike as your only bike? Those are the sorts of questions we are going to be addressing today. So let's jump on, let's get going and chopsy roll that intro. So this little bike, I absolutely love Supermoto. So first of all, the reason I asked KTM if I could have this is because since I had my 701 two years ago and I swapped it to get a Superduke, I felt like I've really been missing out on the type of fun and the type of riding one of these bikes brings you. These are so much fun. You know, these bikes are really all about fun. That's the first thing. Supermotos are fun bikes, which is great if you can afford to have a couple of bikes. What's this bike been like as a, you know, can you have this as your only bike? First of all, you know, these bikes aren't cheap. Don't think of these as a little cheap runaround. These are about nine and a half grand. You know, this isn't a cheap bike. This is more expensive than the 790 Duke. This isn't a budget bike. So you've got to really, absolutely love Supermotos to really get one of these would be my first, my first thing. The good thing about them is they are, they really hold their money. These bikes really hold their money. If you look for secondhand 690s, even the older model, you know, you can't really get a decent bike for under £6,000. Even going back to like 2010, 2009, decent bikes start at about £5,500. There's no such thing as a good cheap 690. They really don't exist. If you manage to get one, then fair play to you. But these things really hold their money, which is first of all, they may be expensive to buy, but they absolutely hold their money. Also, the reason they're not cheap is because they've got top quality components, WP Apex suspension, you know, fully adjustable. Well, apart from preload on the front, but we gloss over that. Adjustable for reload, adjustable for rebound. The rear shock is actually adjustable for high and low speed compression dampening, plus, you know, preload, plus normal rebound. You know, it's highly adjustable. It's quality suspension. So as I mentioned at the beginning, I've only done 2,000 miles on this. Not a lot of miles. I've had it from use. I've had it from zero miles. I've picked it up from KTM. You know, I did the run in. I've got other videos on my channel about how I ran this bike in, and I think I've done an amazing job of running this bike in. And the reason for that is this bike, in those 2,000 miles, obviously it had its first service, I think it was about 700 miles. I was a little bit late with the first service. But since then, I have not had to put a drop of oil in this engine. It's not needed any top up of oil. It's still at the perfect position on the sight glass, which is incredible. My old 701, I used to have to put oil in it, really, after every ride. It used to drink quite a lot of oil. This new engine, that was a 2016 model, by the way, so it had the older engine in it. I just had that. But this new counterbalanced engine, I've not had to put any oil in it whatsoever. It's been an amazingly reliable unit in those miles. I mean, it's unheard of, really, not to have to put oil in. I've done a track day on this, where it's been hammered round Brands Hatch. Again, link to a video above. And I've not had to put any oil in it at all. I love to wheelie this thing. I've done wheelies on this. Again, sometimes when you wheelie supermotos, you know, that causes the engine to burn because the engine's up at a funny angle. My oil's been burnt. And I think that's probably a testament to how good this engine is, and the fact that I did a really nice job running it in. So, well done, Chopsey. These come with the Bridgestone S21 tyres. And when I picked this up, I was used to having the Conti Attack tyres on my 701, and they're brilliant. They're super sticky, never had any moments on those Conti Attacks. And I thought, are these S21s going to be sticky enough? Because these are a dual compound tyre, so you've got the harder bit in the middle of the tyre, and then a softer piece on the outside of the tyre. Whereas the Conti Attacks were just soft all over. Well, these have been brilliant. As I say, track days, this sort of riding, these sorts of conditions. I've been having downpours on this. I've ridden this in the summer. You know, no moments, nothing from those tyres. They've been absolutely amazing. So I have to say, top marks to Bridgestone. These tyres work very well on this bike. So don't think, you know, because the Contis lasted about 1,500 miles for the rear. I've done 2,000 miles on this. I've done a track day, and there's still a lot of life left in that rear tyre. I will show you that on the walk around. Oh yeah! Lovely for doing wheelies. I can't show the wheelies on the channel, because you just can't do wheelies on YouTube. You know, if you get caught doing a wheelie, or show a wheelie in a video on UK roads, you're potentially looking at a dangerous driving charge. So instant ban, massive fine, you can't show wheelies. But believe me, this bike is fantastic for wheelieing, and it's got anti-wheelie on it. What KTM have done, or seem to have done, it seems to be a little bit hit and miss, if I'm honest. But at the moment, the wheelie control is on on this bike. Here's your little adjuster here. You've got two different map settings. Press the button, and it turns off the traction control. It's a bit fiddly. You've got to leave it pushed down for exactly five seconds, and then let go. But even with wheelie control on, you could still do some very, very nice wheelies. And I would say probably 80% of people, unless you're doing literally 12 o'clock wheelies and scraping your number plate, you could just leave wheelie control on. The odd occasion, it'll think, hang on a minute, mate, this is too much, and it'll kill it. But nine times out of 10, you can just leave it on, and you can have some nice enough wheelies with the protection knowing that you've got the anti-wheelie turned on. These things are fast, honestly. 74 brake horsepower, 140 kilos. They're quick. It is a quick bike. You know, like I say, I'm going back to my track day. Much faster bikes, you know, proper middleweight nakeds were struggling to get away from me on this. Well, they weren't getting away from me, to be honest, on the actual track, but even on the straights. These things are quick. And that new engine, I think the new engine's about five brake horsepower up on the old engine, so it's a lot more punchy. There's a lot more top end on this engine. I've ridden Womble's 2016 701 recently, which is the same as the one I had, and that engine is a lot less revvy. It won't rev, you know, it's all about the grunt, but it really runs out of legs at the top. This has got another thousand RPMs at the top, and it pulls all the way to the red line as opposed to flattening off like it does on the early 701s and the early 690s. So this engine's incredible. They've also added an extra counterbalancing shaft into the cylinder head, and for a big 700cc single, it is so smooth. You get a tight, well, you get a little bit of vibration through the bars, a little bit. If you're holding on too tight on a long trip, it can become a little bit buzzy on your hand. Not buzzy, but just, you know, those vibes through your hands. You have to not hold on too tight, but it's twice, it's half the vibrations of the old engine. It's incredible, the engine on this bike. It's a big improvement over that old 690 lump. The new 690 also has no hands. It also has a blipper and a quickshifter. The quickshifter's pretty good, you know. I tend to use the clutch if I'm just changing up at low revs. I just use the clutch. The quickshifter's okay. It can be a little bit clunky. It's all right if you do a bit more of the higher rev range, but the quickshifter's okay, I would say. It's not the best quickshifter I've ever used, but the blipper is amazing on this. The blipper's fantastic, so it's worth having it just for the blipper. Quickshifter's, yeah, quickshifter's okay. Very much dependent on how your chain is tensioned and all the other factors which affect a quickshifter, but the blipper is... A lot of people also ask, you know, can you have this as an only bike? Yes, you can, you know. It will cruise at 75 miles an hour on the motorway, no problem at all. It's quite windy because you're obviously quite high up on this, so you do get a lot of wind blast when you're on the motorway, but the engine will cruise along at 75, no problem. These will do about 125 flat out. I think I got about 120 at Brands Hatch on it, on the speedo of course, but I think they do 125 indicated, no problem. So 75, you know, is cruising. You can cruise at 75, 80. If I'm on a long way on the motorway on the bike, I tend to fluctuate between 70 and 80 and sort of fluctuate around that range. It can do that all day, honestly. You can use this on the motorway, no problem, which means you could go on a bit of a trip on this. You could go on a bit of a tour on this, no problem. You can get some aftermarket panniers to go on the back, and you could go on tour on a 690, no problem at all. It's a great bike for commuting because you're high up, you know, you can see over the traffic. The bars are quite wide, so it can be a bit tight if you're filtering, but you've got a lot of control, you know. You can steer this thing so precisely, you really can just nip through the traffic. So yeah, you can use this as a commuter. You could go on tour on this, as long as it wasn't too ridiculously far. The fuel consumption is brilliant. Now, this has got a 13 litre tank, which will get you to about 140 miles if ridden sensibly on a full tank. So, you know, it sips fuel, which is another reason I love it. You can come out and ride around for the evening, and it costs you like a fiver. You compare that to riding a litre sports bike around, and it's incredible value. Is there anything I don't like about the 690? Any annoyances I've found with my time with this bike this season? There's a couple of things I wish it had. I wish it had a better display. It's exactly the same display, if you can just about see it down there, as what is on the Enduro bikes. So it's very, very basic. No rev counter. You've got speed, you've got engine hours, you've got trips, you've got a fuel light. That's it. Very, very basic. The old 690 had a rev counter. I wish they did what they do on the Hypermotard. Have a little TFT on here. I want a massive, great big five-inch screen, but just a small TFT with just a rev counter, bar, and a speed, you know, and a gear indicator would be nice. I would like a gear indicator, especially when you want to pop a few wheelies. It's nice to check you're in the right gear before you try and pop a wheelie. So yeah, I would like a nicer, a bigger sort of TFT on this. I think it's crying out for that. It's just too basic. I'd like the ability just to turn off the anti-wheelie. Just turn it off. At the moment it's linked to the traction control, which is good, you know, the loose gravel lanes I'm riding on, a bit of traction control. Why not? It's a good idea. I don't want the wheelie control on though. I'd like the ability to be able to just turn off the wheelie control and it stay off, like it does on the Super Duke R. You know, this isn't a bike you really want wheelie control on. Perhaps when you're learning, fair enough, but there comes a point where you want to be able to turn that off. So I wish they'd give that as an option. There's a few people out today making the most of it before we go into lockdown. So yeah, I wish you could turn that off. I also wish this bike had the orange wheels like the old bike. It used to have anodized orange wheels, the old 690. It looked amazing with those. This has got just like a black satin powder coat wheel. Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about. I wish it had orange wheels. It would be brilliant with some orange wheels on it. But apart from those three things, this bike's amazing. I wouldn't change anything else. This bike has got the Powerparts comfort seat on it. It makes a massive difference. The standard seat is very, very hard. You know, every hour you've got to get off. If you're on the bike for more than three hours, it becomes tiresome on your body. It's a quite thin seat. I'll show you on the walk around, but it's quite a thin seat. So you sort of, your arse hangs over the seat either side. It does with my arse anyway. So, you know, you need more padding. So the Powerparts seat though, the comfort seat on this, I found it to be great. It means you can stay on the bike for a couple of hours without too much arse trauma. I wouldn't say you could still ride the bike all day, but you can certainly go out and ride it five hours in a day without too much problem. And you know I do suffer from a sore body. Well, I'm going to stop on this little quiet road and give you a little bit of a walk around. Give the sheeps a bit of a treat. So there she is, my lovely, well not mine unfortunately, it's KTM's. I'm actually thinking of buying this bike from them. You know when I borrowed it, the agreement was that there could be potential for me to buy this bike at the end of the loan. Because I know exactly what's happened to this, that's why I've run it in so well. Because I thought, you know what, I may end up buying this at some point. So I'm in some negotiations with them now as to whether I buy this. My thing being, I'm going to buy it if I do buy it. I'm going to do like a build project on it. I'm really going to go to town on it. Rottweiler intake, full system, probably a custom graphics kit on it. You know, I'm going to go to town on this bike. I know I've got the Hypermotard and that won't stop the Hypermotard build also going on when I finally get the cylinder heads. But I think this could be another... I think this is going to be another build project. So yeah, I'm just in final negotiations with them so I may not be giving this back. Hopefully, hopefully she's here to stay. This bike has got the Streetline Akopovic. Yeah, it's a bit big, it's not really loud enough but it's certainly better than the standard exhaust but that won't be staying. It's got the little Akopovic trim piece, the carbon, Brembo discs and Brembo caliper. It's absolutely filthy now. I'm going to have to clean this now. I'm not happy about that. Oil level, as I say, this has not changed since the bike had its first service. It's got a full window of oil when it's leaning upright off the stand and it's warm. It's unbelievable. I can't believe I've not had to put oil in that engine. I can't believe it. The Bridgestones, as I say, these have got 2,000 miles on them. You know, track day, you can still see the peeling on the edge of the tyre from the track day I did and there's still a fair amount of life in these. I'd say there's probably still another 800, I may get 3,000 miles out of these if I'm lucky, maybe. The front, it's got loads of life. On the Conti Attacs, it used to wear them sort of mid here, they'd wear out here quite quickly actually. You know, even despite the front wheel being off the ground most of the time on these bikes, they do wear the front out. But this, on these, loads of life left on that front. My bike has the power part seat, the comfort seat, you know, the little logos on it. It is, you know, there's a reasonable amount of padding in it, much better than the standard seat. It's also got like a, what they call an anthracite look to the outside and then a different more grippy material in the middle. It's, yeah, I think it's about 180 pounds for the power part seat. So that's the whole seat, not just a cover, not just a foam. The dash, as I mentioned, it's a bit basic. A little rev counter would be nice. They've changed the light layout. You know, these lights used to pop out here on the old 701, that's all fixed now. But yeah, a bit more information on the dash would be nice. That's the traction control button, as I mentioned, that changes the map, that turns off the traction control. So it's okay, it's good enough. The rest of the controls are very simple, you know, just a high and low beam, indicators in a horn, a start button and a switch on and off. It's all, it's all very, very simple. It's all very, very basic from an operation point of view. So there she is, the 690 SMCR. Let's jump back on. I must say, I know Knox are a sponsor and all that, but I've been trying out a bit more of the Knox gear, you know, because they're a channel sponsor, they sent me all their, you know, their new kit. So I've got the waterproof jackets and their layering system. And I've got these Orca gloves, I think they're called, which still have the bow attachment, but they're brilliant for this sort of bike. Because what I tend to find with the hand droids, because they've got the armoured fingers, they can, if you're going to do some wheelies and pop them, flick the clutch in, they can catch on the armoured bit. So for riding supermotoes, these are much better. And of course, these can be used off road as well. I must say, I am loving the Knox gear I've been using recently. So massive thanks to Knox, Planet Knox. I'll put a link to the description to their website. Their kit is unbelievable. Really, really good quality kit. An English family-run business, so big up to Knox. So there we go, that is about it really. This could be the last time you're going to see me at this rate. This could be the last time you're going to see the 690. I'm in a bit of a dilemma because of course I've got the Hypermotard, so do I need two supermotoes? That's a big problem. That's why I'm even discussing it with KTM, because I'd buy this in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the fact I've got the Hypermotard. But I love supermotoes. I think the Hypermotard is a bike which you can do bigger distances on. It's a bit more power. You know, this is more of a fun thing to ride around these sorts of lanes on, where I think the Hyper is maybe a bit more functional. So I think there's room for both of those bikes in my garage. So there we go guys, thanks for watching as always. It's lovely to have you along. I'm going to hope to get out again before lockdown on the H2 for a final ride. I want to winterise that bike, fill it up with fuel, get it put away. A final ride before she goes away, but I want the roads to be a bit drier than this. I'm hoping tomorrow we will get another dry day just to get the H2 out. Also I've got the GSX-S at home, which I've ridden a couple of times but not done a video on. The GSX-S1000. It's great, so I want to bring you a video on that. So I'm hoping to get on that tomorrow as well. So I've got a lot to squeeze in before lockdown. When we go into lockdown I'm going to be doing a kit review. My riding cameras, what I use to record, how I get the shots out the back, what sort of backpack I use to do that. So I'm going to go for a bit of a kit review. Also going to do maybe a live stream as well. I may have already done the live stream by the time this video comes out, but if not keep your eyes peeled. I'm going to be doing a live stream just to have a chat with you guys live. That's always good fun. I've not done one for about six months, maybe longer. So there's a live stream on the way as well. And plus whatever stuff I can think of. Another thing I'm going to do is my top... all the bikes I've ridden this year, including this one, including my own bikes, all of the loan bikes I've ridden, I'm going to do my top 10 favourites. So my favourite, which ones I would buy, which ones I love in a top 10. So that's going to be another lockdown video. So if you haven't already, as ever, subscribe. Is it over there? Is it over there? Press the subscribe button. Join the fun. Bye guys, see you later on. Take care, ride safe, be safe, and I'll speak to you on the next video. See you later. This is power level one, which is full power. I could do that all day. What have you done here? I told you I was scared back there. I've never dropped a bike before in my life. Oh, that's it, that's it. Listen to this. There you are, there she is, the 690 701. Sorry, start again.