Trade my '17 690 for a newer 690/701? Or maybe an 890 Adv R?

Wife got me a gift card to our big local Motorcycle dealer.  Not enough to outright buy a new bike, but something that'll help a bit.  I've got a well built '17 KTM 690, with the older motor.  I've been interested in riding the newer 690/701's with the dual counter balanced motors because I've heard they're much smoother.  They also make more power, have traction control and a few other nice things.  The cons are the cost and the fact my bike is completely built and many of the parts won't transfer over to the new frame.

I'm also playing with the idea of getting a twin, like the 890 Adv R or Aprilia Toureg.  The additional smoothness on road will be nice, but I'm not sure I want to deal with the 100+ lbs that these weigh off road compared to my 690.  I'm also a little concerned about the reliability of both the Aprilia and the 890.  Any 890 owners here?

As much as I'd love to just add another bike, I don't have the space for it, I've gotta be a one bike guy...

How much singletrack/rock garden kind of stuff do you ride on your 690 where you feel like you're pushing the technical limits of yourself or the bike? A heavier bike generally just means you're going to be feeling that way a bit more often. 

The counterbalanced engine is nice on the newer bikes. Just generally feels a bit happier doing dirt bike stuff, and the extra 1000 rpm to the limiter makes a big difference. My 690 is an older one like yours. I didn't play with the traction control, and in general I don't like quickshifters off road. Accidentally bumping the lever puts you between gears, or into the next gear unexpectedly, enough to annoy me. Never realized how often my foot brushes that lever.

I had a 790R concurrently with my 690, and a 990. Much smoother, much better for anything pavement related. Generally feels light on its feet once you're moving, but feels a lot heavier than the 690. 690s have a very odd feel/handling to them, either you like that feel or you don't. The 790/890 are much more conventional feeling, which is a good thing. 790R/890R suspension is better out of the box. A lot more electronic stuff to fail, immobilizer in particular can be a problem. When I had my 790 there were several durability concerns, but I think the 890 has resolved a lot of those. I ended up selling the 790 and keeping the 990 and 690. 

I've not been on the Aprilia, can't speak to that one. 

Tenere 700 is worth a mention here. Not a sharp-edged engine like KTMs tend to be, but they do a good job splitting the difference between a thumper and a bigger ADV bike. Not as many electronic gadgets. Seating position with the big hump of a gas tank can feel a little odd. Great price though, decent suspension out of the box, engine that is entertaining but calm enough that it will never wear you out, and generally proven to be durable. 

In reply to gearheadE30 :

Generally never do single track, mostly two track, BDR type stuff.  The 690 is definitely more than capable, I'd say far more than me.  I try to stay away from deep sand, that really taxes me physically, once I had to pick the bike up a few times.  Other than sand, I'd say I'm an ok rider.  Have done most of the passes here on the Front Range and don't feel like the Alpine Loop is over my head, although certainly challenging.

The handling of the 690 feels pretty normal to me, I've owned two 640 Adv's too, so I'm used to it.  Not as rock solid as the 1190R I had, or the 990, those were really planted.  The 990 off road did really well, was just more effort compared to the 640 it replaced.  I never took the 1190R off road, I felt it was more of a sports tourer in Adv clothing, it was a total hooligan on the road.

My friend has a T7 and around town it feels great!  I helped him pick it up a few times on the Red Desert X loop and I didn't like how top heavy it felt then.  That kinda cooled me off on it, plus the Aprilia Toureg is better in pretty much every way except dealer network and reliability.  (I guess?  I mean, it's Italian...)

I'm definitely concerned about the 890's reliability, key immobilizer issues, cam issues, so forth.  I plan to go to the dealer today after work with my 690 and try out a few bikes.  I'd like to ride an 890R and a new 690/701 to see how I like them.  Curious to see if I feel the new 690/701 is improved enough over mine to warrant spending the money and if the 890 feels heavy once it's moving.

The bad influence on your other shoulder would like to remind you about the 500 EXC-F, which weighs 100lbs less than the 690, and has two more inches of suspension travel to boot.

That said, my wife has a nice 790 adventure and it's an absolute peach everywhere that we've taken it, and since we're always riding together picking it up is never a problem.

In reply to the_machina :

People have been building those 500's into travel bikes with fairings, bigger fuel tanks, etc.  The much lighter weight is attractive but I think I'd lose too much as far as road manners on the interstate etc. 

An interesting opportunity might've popped up, I could have a chance to trade my 690+cash for an 890 Rally that's been very well set up. Fabulous suspension setup, much lower production so should hold its value fairly well.  Need to come up with a fair price for my 690 and see what the Rally is worth too...

Yesterday I rode a few bikes. First, my own 17 690 Enduro "rally". Very familiar, rides well, not crazy vibrations with the Scotts mount and HDB anti vibe inserts. Then I rode an 890 Adv R that the dealer had used. Glass smooth motor with good power. Felt very balanced and centered but nowhere near as flickable as my 690, could really feel the increased weight of the bike in that respect.

Motor puts out a TON of heat on your lower legs, the ergonomics were a little weird, the foot peg is right where you want to put your foot down at a stop. It's got a cable clutch and on this bike, the bite point was really late, which kept getting me caught out. Nice bike, not entirely sure I want one.  I can generally tell I want a bike within a few blocks of riding it, I didn't really feel that way with this 890.  They did have a used '24 890 Rally, but they didn't let me ride it.  I was able to put the seat concepts seat from the 890 Adv on it tho, which made the seat height basically the same as my 690.  While that would help immensely, it's still 100lbs+ more than my 690, so easier to tip over on me.  I'm not sure the bike itself will ride a whole lot differently than the 890 Adv R, they're the same with the exception of a much better spec suspension.  So I don't know if I should pursue a trade of my 690 for one.

Next I rode a Husky 701LR, so it has the new counterbalanced motor. At start up/idle it didn't seem a whole lot different, but once moving, OMG! It's definitely a big difference in smoothness, honestly it felt very similiar in smoothness to the 890. Power felt about the same, as it had stock intake/exhaust and my 690 has the rottweiler/wings. I didn't like the "enduro" dash on the 701, which doesn't have a tachometer or gear position.  Other than that, I really liked it and think I might need to list my 690 and start looking for a newer one. It seems to be the sweet spot for a sub 400lb bike, very smooth powerful motor, light on its feet.  To be used everyday needs a rally tower for wind protection and a secondary fuel tank, but otherwise is good.

A friend expressed interest in my 690, but I'm not sure how serious he is.  I'll probably list it and see what sort of response I get

Okay, so you've got plenty of experience with some of the bigger bikes then and how they work off road. Yeah, the Aprilia is a superior bike vs the T7, but durability is unclear to me. I just don't know anyone who has one. Couple Desert X's in my group though, they are very much loved by their owners. 

Unfortunately all of these bikes feel really top heavy picking them up, but the 790/890 does have that low wide tank going for it. Unfortunately that tank is also why it throws so much heat at your legs. My 790 came to me with a cat delete that wasn't installed, installing that dramatically reduced heat. 

The light pull clutch arm for the 890 fixes the annoying clutch, and it's cheap. I didn't like the stock clutch feel either. 

The 690 with a rally tower is still kind of the unicorn sub 400 lb adv bike in a lot of ways. 

I also have an FX450 in the garage with a big tank, rally tower, 6th gear added, etc. It was my rally race bike until I got the 690 to build myself an RFR replica. It's physically quite a bit smaller even than a 690, and I'm quite tall. It just ended up being cramped for very long all day racing/riding. The 690 is far more comfortable. Of course, story is probably different if you're not so tall. Highway manners are fine, but the light weight does work against it in that wind blows it around more than the other bikes. I've never put bags on the back of it though, that would make the front end pretty darn light. Definitely vibrates a bit.

The 701LR is an interesting beast, not a lot of those around so it's cool that you got to test one out. 

Sounds like you've already got a direction though, maybe it's just time for a newer counterbalanced 690/701 and a rally tower. Or find yourself a 950SE.... 

I think there's a Kit690 setup for the newer frame, that's the kit I started with, just welded a lot of stuff on that was meant to be bolted. I raced with a guy with an Omega and a guy with an Aurora kit about a month ago, the kits all have their weak points but the Kit690 seems to win the durability competition. Just not as exotic since it's all aluminum instead of carbon. Mine weighs 375 lbs full of gas. Not as smooth as a T7 (counterbalanced bike would fix that), but feels more powerful, similar weather protection, easier to make the suspension work right, noticeably lighter, etc. 

In reply to gearheadE30 :

The Kit 690 is a really well made setup.  My current 690 has a Yenkro fairing/tower and Safari tank.  I really like the Yenkro fairing/tower but they don't seem to make one for the newer 690/701.  I thought they did, but it's no longer listed on their site.  The 701LR I rode had a Nomad tower/fairing on it, which I didn't care for all that much.  It didn't integrate well into the bike and the owner did something on the install that really negatively impacted the ability of the bars to turn.  When I mentioned it to him, he just sorta shrugged it off and said you don't feel it while moving.

Ok?  The bars on my bike move at least 2" more side to side, that kinda makes a big difference in tight, slow speed moves.  I've got my 690 listed on Adv and FB, need to put it up on a few more FB groups and probably CycleTrader.

A friend found an 890 Rally listed for under $12k at a dealer, I reached out to them and it's a real bike/listing.  Bike is low mileage and has some farkles too.  I did some price research and sent a text to the guy on adv with the 890 rally who was interested in a trade, haven't heard back from him. 

I think my best bet is to sell my 690 and get into a used, newer 690/701.  If my local dealer gets one in, that'll be the easiest route for me, as I can take whatever parts off my bike that'll fit, trade it in, get the tax savings and use my gift card towards the new purchase.

Well, guy came and looked at my 690 yesterday and I got a cash deposit.  He's picking it up today and giving me the rest of the money.  Really need to decide what bike I want, the 890 Rally or a 690.  The fully farkled 890 Rally guy has come down in price, to a fairly reasonable level.  I'm going to call the dealer with the other Rally and ask the salesman to walk me around the bike while on a video call because the photos he sent me were kinda crappy.  I'm just not sure I want to try and wrangle the weight of it and I am a bit worried about the reliability of the platform.

My friend thinks I should buy the 890 Rally because it's a rare bike.  Get it, ride it, if I don't like it I can sell it.  The 690/701's are easy to find at any time and most people have put some sort of rally tower on them.  There is some logic there...

All the "adv'd" 690/701's locally are over priced by several thousand dollars.  There are similiarly equipped bikes on Advrider on either coast with asking prices of $3-4000 less.  I've messaged the sellers, it might make sense for me to just buy one of those and have it shipped to me.

I saw a well built 701 on Friday, guy seemed firm on his price.  He reached out to me Saturday morning and asked me what I thought.  I was honest with him and pointed out I could buy a brand new, left over '23 for thousands less than his used bike and examples of built bikes like his on adv rider were selling for $2500-3500 less than his.  To his credit he understood and we were able to work out a deal. I might've been able to buy one cheaper off adv, but then I wouldn't be able to see it in person and after paying for shipping it would've been at least as much as what I bought this 701 for.  I have bad luck buying stuff out of state, so I'm happy with the way this worked out, I'm laying out a small amount more for the 701, but getting what I want.

I do wish I'd removed some more parts from my old 690 before I listed it and sold it.  Turns out the Perun luggage plates I had are no longer made, plus I wish I'd kept the double take mirrors and hammerhead shifter/brake pedal.  Oh well.

Hopefully I can pick it up in the next few days, he's out of town but his business partner should be able to work the deal for me.