Wyte Lightening, a KTM 690 "Adventure"

Grabbed some Wolfman side bags today to go on my rack.  Nice guy and the bags fit great!

Still pretty narrow from the rear

They've got these D rings that conveniently slot into my Perun side plates on the racks.  4 total, really help hold the bags securely

Then two large straps that go over the top.  So pretty easy to remove/install them, plus they're dry bags so everything will stay totally dry. 

Now I just need to get the free time to go on a trip!

So one of the drawbacks of a metal skid plate vs the stock plastic one is it allows a lot of noise to bounce back on me.  The motor sounded like a cement mixer once I added the black dog skid plate.  I grabbed a piece of dynamat/boom mat and put it on the inside of the skid plate, happy to report that made a huge difference!

I also played with the rebound setting on the front forks, since I weigh so much less than the guy they were setup for they were pogo'ing a little on one section of the freeway I ride to work.  They're still doing it a bit but it's much improved.  Good enough to leave alone I think until October when I pull the bike off the road for the winter and can pull the forks/shock to send them back and get them setup for me.

Managed to get some seat time up in the hills today.  Played up Rollins Pass with my buddy on his T700.  I stupidly forgot my tool roll but luckily I didn't need it.  The spur we took up to the top was steep, rutted out and very rocky.  690 ate it up tho!  Rocks were wanging off the skid plate, happy I got the Black Dog on there.

Colors are changing already...

Obligatory bike shot

From there it was a fairly easy descent, then we took the Peak to Peak, which is easy but scenic into Idaho Springs.  Which was a ZOO!  Super busy and they're now charging for parking?!  Screw that!  A quick blast on I70 to Hwy 6, rode along the river, which is awesome, into Golden for lunch.

Then the quick, boring ride on C470 home. 

Have I mentioned how much I *love* this bike?  Suspension is great, loads of power, handles the freeway perfectly, very stable in the dirt.  Yeah, it takes a good amount of effort and money to "adventurize" it but I was able to take advantage of all the work the previous owner did in that regard...

Of course it's a beautiful day and weekend looks incredible.  I should be out on the bike checking out the leaves.  Instead I decide to take it apart.  Sigh.  Suspension was setup for the previous owner, who weighed 250-260lbs, while I weigh 190lbs.  That's a problem, I can't get the bike to sag properly.  Konflict needs to put in 3 step lighter springs and then revalve to those. 

I literally just bought a motorcycle lift table today but it won't be in until the end of November at the earliest, so I'm slumming it with this Hammer Store motorcycle jack. 

See how I have the jack on the skid plate?  Remember that...

I decide to go after the rear shock first, as it's more work.  First I have to pull the seat, pannier racks/tail rack, Safari tank...

Ok, now I can tilt the tail (with the fuel tank) up towards the handle bars, hence the looped bungee cord on the bars.  Unfortunately my Black Dog skid plate blocks access to the lower shock bolt.  Which meant I had to get the bike on the side stand, remove the skid plate, remove the bolt, put the skid plate back on and then get the bike back onto the jack.  Ugh. 

Then remove the upper bolt and spend at least 5 minutes trying to Tetris the thing outta there.  I did finally win though

Ok, let's take off the front forks.  Remove the bolts holding the brake caliper in place, then the wheel speed sensor, then the bolts holding the brake lines to the fork guards.  Now loosen the lower axle bolts, remove the 27mm nut, push the axle out and pull the wheel off.

Now loosen the upper and lower triple tree bolts and wiggle the fork legs out.

remove the fork gaurd bolts and slide the guards up and off the forks.  Done.

Konflict sent me a box, which was supposed to arrive today, but now is supposed to arrive Sunday.  Oh well.  Since it'll be a few weeks before I'll get the suspension back, I labeled all the bolts so I wouldn't forget what went where.  This is only in the spots where I couldn't put the bolts back into their homes for now

Hopefully get this stuff back in 2 weeks or so.  Debating swapping out the fuel pump and filters since I pretty much have all the access I need to the fuel pump.  Maybe next Friday if I get done with the 911 early.

Might as well finish everything you can while you wait on suspension. 

In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah but I kinda have an issue playing with something that so far has been working perfectly.  I have a hard time pulling the fuel pump and filter since they're so low mileage and work fine, to replace them with other parts.  Just seems like I could be introducing issues I don't currently have.

I did however, pull the rear wheel and take them along with the tires the seller gave me when I bought the bike to the shop.

$35 to mount and balance each, so $75 with tax.

Figure I might as well keep the rear wheel off until I get the rear shock back into the bike.  Surprisingly the box from Konflict showed up this morning so I packed up the forks and shock and dropped them off at UPS.  They should have them Tuesday.  So timing wise that couldn't have worked out any better.  Well, other than me doing this next weekend since yesterday and today are gorgeous and I should be outside riding...

Finally got around to installing my USB port/Voltmeter.  It goes here, in the big hole...

Of course the locking ring that holds it in place interferes with my dash holder, even with spacers.  Out with the Dremel!

Dash is successfully notched.  Time to wire it.  I went to auxiliary switched power, sharing the circuit the GPS has, with both devices running their own fuses, plus the bike has a fuse on that circuit too.  I couldn't find my shink/solder connections when I installed the GPS before, so I just used butt crimps.  One of which pulled out when I barely touched it today, so I'm happy I did this.  Plus I found my solder/shrink connectors, which are the BOMB!

And done...

So I decided to order a Handy motorcycle lift and have it inset into my garage floor.  That way I can pull off the front wheel vice and still park a car over it when I'm not using it. 

I ordered the lift and was told they'd ship out November 15th, with a delivery date around the end of the month.  Cool.  I then got 4 bids for the concrete work.  I'm not sure if the guys didn't understand what I was asking them to do or if they just thought they'd give me obscene bids because they didn't want to do the work, but I was getting bids of $3000-6000 to cut a hole in the current slab, dig out some and then pour a liner.  Which for 1 days work is crazy to me.

I ended up going with a different bid and am waiting for time in the guys schedule to open up.  Then yesterday I get a call from the Handy lift distributor, Handy told them they wouldn't have any lifts until mid December at the earliest and more like late December.  So now it looks like I'll be lucky to have it early next year.

Debating whether I tell the concrete company that, I'm not on their books yet and don't want to get pushed back but at the same time don't want a hole in my garage for a month longer than I need it...

Much to my dismay I can't seem to get the suspension company on the phone.  It goes to voice mail and they don't return the call.  Or their email.  Or respond to the texts that they send me after I leave them a voice message.  Very frustrating, they've had the forks/shock for a week and a half now, I'd like to get an idea of when they're going to send them back.

Got a happy email from the suspension shop, they're shipping the forks/shock back to me today.  Hopefully that means they arrive on Saturday, so I can reinstall everything...

Forks and shock showed up yesterday morning so I immediately went to work.  Everything went back together pretty smoothly.  Getting the lower shock bolt in was a PITA, as I had to get the bike off the jack, remove the skid plate and put it back onto the jack to have access to the bolt.  Also struggled a bit getting the rear wheel on, just awkward and easier with two people.

After that I bled the rear brakes as the fluid in the reservoir was the same color as coca cola and I'm sure was 4 years old.  Had to do it because the Safari tank blocks access to that reservoir and I already had the tank off.  Torqued all the fasteners, was happy I didn't have any fasteners unaccounted for.

Today a friend is coming over to help me bleed the front brakes and set the suspension sag.  Then in the Spring before I ride I'll install an Oberon clutch slave cylinder (stock ones are known to suddenly fail) and do an oil change.  Then it should be totally ready to ride.

Yes, the leaves bugged me, just spent some time vacuuming them up from the garage floor....

So I got the sag set and front brake bled with my friend.  Then we checked to see if the new led bulb in put in the tail light was working.  Hmm, not working to front or rear brake.

Pop the stock halogen bulb in, works for the rear brake but not the front?  Look at the front brake, previous owner had swapped on a set of shorty levers.  I notice that the brake light switch wasn't put into the proper location, there's a locating dowel that wasn't where it should be.  Easy enough, fix that.  Now the brake light is on all the time.  WTF? 

Some googling reveals that there's supposed to be a "nub" or spacer in the hole between the brake light switch and the lever.  That's what lets the lever depress the switch and keep the tail light off.  This doesn't show up in the KTM parts fiche, dealer can't order it.  Obviously the previous owner of the bike lost this part and didn't bother to try and replace it, or even tell me about it.  Which annoys me greatly since it's a safety item.

I found the dimensions of the thing on advrider and my friend has a buddy with a 3D printer.  He's going to make me a few and I should be good to go.  My friend also brought over the first iteration of a template for graphics on my bike.  Need to make some tweaks, then we'll try out the next template before printing the graphics.

In the Spring I'll install an Oberon clutch slave cylinder (stock ones can fail suddenly) and do an oil change and it should be all set.

Friend of a friend 3D printed some spacers for my brake lever.  Put one in today, had to fiddle with it a little to get everything to work, but got it going!

So I noticed that my "Konflict" stickers on the front forks weren't in the same orientation.  Dammit, now I'm going to have to fix that.  So out came the moto jack, up went the bike, loosened the 10mm upper fork clamp bolts, then the lower two, then rotated the left fork.

Got it matching, although it doesn't really look it in the picture, if you follow the centerline of the fork guard you'll see I've got them pretty much the same...

Hopefully my friend gets the graphics template 2.0 done soon so we can mock it up, if that fits then print and install the graphics...

Got it out for a quick ride, suspension feels good, tires are still really squirrelly feeling, have to scrub all the mold release off of them, plus they're pretty aggressive knobbies and won't feel all that awesome on tarmac ever...

Well, today I double checked the static sag, rider sag and suspension settings.  Had to change the static sag a little bit.  Everything else was fine, which means the spooky handling on striated pavement is definitely coming from those MotoZ tires.  They're coming off ASAP as I have another set of tires I can install, Continental TKC80's, which are my favorites. 

On the Handy lift front, it's been delayed again.  Now they're saying the end of January 2022 for delivery.  Apparently they're having issues with staffing, supply, materials, etc.  The bummer part is the concrete company is coming this Thursday to start the work.  I managed to find one of these lifts at a somewhat local Harley dealer and they were nice enough to let me check it out and measure things.

Good thing too, as I hadn't left enough room for the air line to come up.  I'm going to have a 4x4 cut out on the corner for the air line to come up, will bring it up through an electrical junction box and use the box to fill the space.  Here's the layout, it's 3.5 feet from my work bench.  Figure that gives me enough room to work and easy access to the workbench too for tools etc

I'll have to get a piece of 3.4" plywood to cover the hole until the lift shows up.  Once that happens I'll put the plastic tiles back down around the lift

After consulting some guys on AdvRider, I decided to move my layout 6" further away from my workbench.  Gives me more room to roll around on a stool, plus if I decide I want to add the extensions to the lift for an atv, snow blower, etc, I'll have the room.  The extensions add 12" of width to each side of the lift.

Concrete guys showed up this morning to cut out the hole for the lift.  Much mayhem ensued, lots of noise and really bad smells from the garage.

However, they ended up with this.  They went 6" wider all around to leave room for the concrete.

The concrete truck just showed up, they're laying it in now!

I'll have enough width on the corrado to straddle the hole, although my project tomorrow is to make a cover plate with 3/4" plywood until the lift shows up.  Concrete should be set enough by Sunday night to park on it they say.

Wait for it to set enough for them to remove the form, then they're done.  I'll get started on the "cover plate" tomorrow.  Figure 3/4" plywood with some 2x4 bits going horizontally and maybe some "posts" to support the plywood in case I stand on it or something...

And they're done!  Looks great!

Installed the tiles around it, I'll install the rest once the concrete has set more.  Pretty much have the perfect amount of tiles.

You can see we also signed our names in the concrete.  Always wanted to do that!

OK, since the corrado is at the shop, this gives me unimpeded access to the moto lift.  Time to use it!

Here it is fully extended...

Here it is with the 690 on it.  Got lucky and it clears the garage door opener, which is something I should've checked before I installed the lift

The stock clutch slaves are known to be horrible, KTM actually recalled them on the newer 690's but not mine.  So I decided to replace it with an Oberon one, as it's hard to ride the bike without a working clutch

Remove the front sprocket cover and unbolt the stock clutch slave, after you've cracked free the clutch line

Remove the stock clutch slave, it was in perfect condition

Get the clutch line threaded into the Oberon unit, then put in place and put in the two 8mm bolts.  Put the cover back on and then start bleeding it.  I hate this job, I never bought the mtb bike brake syringe kit everyone told me to get, so it was a struggle again to keep the hose on the nipple and then force all the fluid up to the reservoir, but I finally got it.

Then I did an oil change, which is one drain plug, two filter screens and two filters.  Then add 1.7 liters of oil.  After that I needed to get the bike off the lift deck, so pulled out the jack so I could remove the wheels to swap tires.  Then this happened

Which was awkward because the side stand was caught on the jack.  So I have to lift up the bike while my wife played around with the jack.  Sucked!  I did get the bike up on the jack though and wheels off, so I can swap out the hated MotoZ tires for my favorite TKC80s.

Dropped the wheels/tires off at Performance Cycle and a few hours later they were mounted/balanced and installed on the bike.  Then a friend came over and bought the MotoZ's, so I'm happy.

I want to get a smaller jack that fits on the lift table so I can raise the bike up off the lift table.  THis larger HF jack doesn't fit on the table.  Performance has a few choices, some I'm not sure will lift the bike enough, the one they have that will for sure is a bit expensive...

Bike is ready to go for the season now. 

Swapped out the Scotts Dampener knob for a bigger one that'll be easier to use wearing gloves

Ready for the season, hopefully my friend does the graphics for it in the next month

I picked up a tool tube for free from another local Advrider guy.  Mocked it up and when I saw it'd fit, went ahead and got it on the bike.

I'm quite proud of this as I had to make a small bracket to get the cap end mounted up.  I was able to reuse the mounts for the Perrin side plate on my pannier racks.  On the front mount I added a spacer and a longer bolt.  On the cap end I had to make the bracket.  I probably should've made it from aluminum, but I had a peice of steel that already had a slot cut in it, so went with it instead.

Perfect placement, it's out of the way of the rear wheel and still easily accessible.  I plan on putting my tire spoons, bead breaker, etc, etc in it.

First ride with the tkc80's, which further cemented them as my favorite tire.  
They ride great at 80mph+ on striated pavement.  Bike was smooth and stable, so winning!

My friend's friend has done the graphics layout and this is the first proof.  I really like the teeth/eye, not a fan of what he did with my name rank.  Asked him to change it to just a small american flag and small script name/rank so it's more subtle.  The same graphic will be on both sides, he only did one for this proof.  Hopefully get the second proof shortly and then have it printed/installed!

RM ATV has graphics for the Safari Tank and they're blowing them out for $17, so I bought a set.  Friend came over this morning and we checked the RM ATV graphics against his template and decided to re-template copying the RM ATV ones.  He'll re-do the layout and then print them out.  Should have graphics on the bike soon!

So the weather (except this weekend) has been good and I've been riding the moto to work and around town.  My DoubleTake Mirrors like to droop, which is super annoying.  This is partially due to the fact that the bike is a thumper and vibrates some, some due to the fact I have to store it in my shed and have to fold down the mirrors to get it in/out and mostly due to the fact that the mirror ends are hard plastic, as is the end of the RAM arm.

Had the same problem with the ones on my 640, the solution is easy.  Some heat shrink tubing, as it's rubber and gives the RAM arm end more to bite into.  You need 1.25" or 30mm heat shrink, which I didn't have, so a quick Amazon order later and I had it.  Cut off a few pieces, put it on and done!

Put them back on the bike and it's really ready to rumble now.  Well, once the weather clears up again...