‘Man, are you crazy’ ….. was the comment I got from my good mate Ray Powdrell when he first saw these photos. ‘Why are you cutting up a perfectly good KTM motorcycle?’ His parting words were ‘You’re going to regret that!’.
It was a hard thing to do, I have to say, pulling out an angle grinder and hacking into the 690. The kit still hadn’t arrived and, while I was fully committed, it kind of became the point of no return. What possible reason could there be for doing something like this?
Two of the key elements of a KIT690 build are the front fuel tanks and the upgraded rear one. Together they result in 32 litres of fuel capacity – 600 plus km of range I was hoping. Fitting them completely changes the profile of the bike, leading to a need for the seat to be modified. This is no bad thing as the OEM one is known to be pretty hard and unyielding. The stock seat is elevated off the frame by 2 metal tabs – these are not needed with Jon’s upgraded rally seat. I have to say, the seat is a thing of beauty. It aligns to the tanks and frame with the faintest of gaps, lowers the height a little and is covered by a light coloured, water resistant material with KIT690 proudly emblazoned on the back. Perfect for standing up, but possibly still a bit challenging on long road transports. I wasn’t too worried about that though, it doesn’t take long to get ride fit. This was the only irreversible element of the conversion, not that the bike will ever be going back to stock.
The angle grinder was a little unwieldy, but did the job nicely. I have to say, doing it at night had some unexpected advantages. My daughter Sophie took a few photos and the colours and streams of sparks that lit up the garage certainly looked spectacular. I finished it off with a small dremel, taking the original welds down to bare metal. Some undercoat, mandarin orange touch up paint (the closest I could get) and you’d never know the difference ….. maybe.
So, Ray, lets see if I can make you eat your words. In fact, I bet you a Blackbutt Pie it’ll all be OK. I’ll be doing the eating 😉
Adventure USA 