KTM 690 Rally Build

I want to connect my laptop to my bike in order to both get diagnostic info out as well as hook up new toys to it. The most promising way to do this sounds like the OBD2 diagnostics interface. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be easy to do on bikes from 2014 or later having the "Fly by Wire" throttle. In the past I've happily connected my KTM 990 Adventure to TuneECU but the 2014 690 Enduro R is not playing a long as easily. So far I've tried out the Lonelec cable and USB cable to laptop Konnwei KW902 Bluetooth dongle Vgate Scan OBD Bluetooth dongle Only the Vgate dongle is responding but is not talking to TuneECU. However connecting with a serial comm terminal like Tera Term then it responds to the basic ELM commands. I also wrote a small diagnostic Python program based on python-OBD to try to see what was supported: import obd obd.logger.setLevel(obd.logging.DEBUG) # enables all debug information ports = obd.scan_serial() print (ports) connec...

Last Sunday the weather was great and I hadnt been out riding for a while so thought I would head out for a ride. Not having ridden for a few weeks I noted the battery had gone flat. I took it out and put it on charge for an hour while having breakfast. Normally I charge it longer but I was keen on getting out on the road and while riding the bike the battery is getting charged so didn't worry to much of having a flat battery. I was just coming over the mountain range on Route Twisk, where plenty of sport bikes go racing, when I noticed I was low on fuel. I pulled into a gas station and filled the bike up. Once I was ready to go I turned the ignition back on but nothing happened when I pushed the start button. Since the light came on and the headlight looked fine it wasn't obvious what was wrong. The most obvious sign was that the service light was showing after a few seconds when turning the ignition on. I thought maybe the ECU, the bikes computer, had gone wrong so ...

When out on the road you need to change tires every 5000 to 10000km roughly. Having a bike with only a side stand makes this a bit tricky since it can not stand by itself on only one wheel and the stand. The tool I found to solve the problem was the  The Enduro Star  stand. It looks like a telescopic metal bar: Changing the rear wheel involves using the black velcro strap to pull the front brake and lifting up the bike close to the foot peg like this: The front tire can be lifted in the same way by selecting first gear and using a lift point further forward like this:

It is well over due to finally put together some more details and a movie from this trip. The raw footage been lying around a bit longer than it should but I finally got some free time to do some editing. I flew in to Kunming and the majority of riding we did was between Dali and Lijiang to the west. Kunming itself also had some excellent hard enduro tracks close by. A summary video of the trip below And some pics

So I was out riding last Sunday and was just coming over the mountain on Rt Twisk. The weather was really hot and I noted a few drips of rain and thought the truck in front of me smelled a bit too much of gasoline. Moments later I felt something in my crotch and looking down I could see both evo2 tanks splurting out gasoline through the breather hoses and it was all pouring down over my pants. It wasnt rain and the gasoline smell came from my pants!! I pulled in at the first opportunity and noted now that fuel was pouring from the frontal tanks at a rapid pace. It was scary since the engine was running really hot and there was just luck that nothing set the fuel on fire. It took me a good few minutes and well over a litre of fuel pouring out before I figured out what was happening. The air in the rear tank has expanded because of the hot weather and was now pushing the fuel from the rear tank to the frontal tanks. I quickly opened the rear tank and the gasoline stopped flowing all ...

Valve clearances are the small gaps between the tops of the valve stems and the part of the mechanism which presses on them to open the valves. These needs to be checked every 5000 - 10000 km since they might need adjustments. My KTM 640 Adventure had small inspection windows where the clearance could be checked and adjusted with a screw. On the 690 Enduro R it is a bit more fiddly which is why I documented it here for next time. Front fairings removed now remove the tanks. First step is to disconnect the fuel line so that fuel from the rear tank wont flow thru the hoses to the front once they are disconnected. Now remove the tanks by first removing the fuel lines Remove air box and battery Cover the air intake from dirt and remove the breather housing   Unscrew the 4 bolts holding the valve cover lid and remove it exposing the mechanism Set the position to top dead center. Different ways to do this but I find it easiest to just se...

Finally a weekend again and getting it all finished up. Below is the end result from today. Some minor tweaks still to be done like LED indicators and foldable mirrors but otherwise complete and ready for a test ride tomorrow. Take off the tanks for the very last time in order to get space to fiddle back the airbox. Airbox slides in. Putting battery back Putting ECU (bike computer) back. Installing OBD2 bluetooth adapter so I can run diagnostics and debug the bike from my android phone. Fits snuggly in next to the battery. Ok, now over to pimping it all up. Graphics all laid out on bed. Contact cleaner to clean the surface and sharp blade Expose a 10 mm wide sticky part on the back using the blade. Once you cleaned you align the graphics and let the 10mm strip stick. Then you remove one side at a time and try to push all air bubbles out. Some of the graphics even have holes no issue with air bubbles. ...