Wyte Lightening, a KTM 690 "Adventure"

In reply to gearheadE30 :

There are no crash bars that fit the Safari tanks, so no worries there.  I've had Renazco seats on all my other bikes and loved them, really looking forward to getting his seat on this 690. 

I had a set of MotoZ on the bike, desert IT and some tractionator variant on the bike, couldn't stand them.  They made the bike head shake on the striated freeways here, which felt spooky.

Yeah, Hammerhead specifically says not to loctite the bolt, so I didn't.  Tho you're not the only person who's told me to do it, so I think I will...

In reply to docwyte :

Yeah, headshake or even just a wobble is never good for a relaxing ride. At least on the 990, it was the front tire that was causing mine to wobble. They are far from the best tires, but I still run the rear because it is the best balance of price, capability, and life I've found. Nothing else semi-aggressive will last 1000ish miles. I've never been one to really care if my front and rear tires match for whatever that's worth; every time I've done a matched set I've found one end to be dramatically worse than the other. 

The Mefo Super Explorer was a great adventure/dual sport rear tire but it doesn't seem to be available anymore. Another example of a great rear tire and a disappointing front.

In reply to gearheadE30 :

I ran the Mefo rear on my 990 and 1190, it was a great tire.  I agree that it was the front MotoZ that caused the problem but it made the bike really spooky to ride and I'm not cool with that.  I also had the TKC80 tires sitting in my garage, so easy enough to put them on.

You're a *much* better rider than I am, I need all the help I can get so a tire that makes the bike unstable is not for me, lol!

New farkle installed!  So I'd had a friend cut about an inch out of the stock side stand as it was just too long.  Even with that, when off road on weird terrain sometimes the stand was still too long for me to easily retract it.  To the point where sometimes my friend had to come over and pop it up for me.  Awkward and embarrassing.  Enter the Swift Kicker side stand, which is adjustable for length and auto retracts.  They just released a version for my 690.

Technically I could've just removed the bolt holding the side stand to the bracket, but I needed to get at it from the other side of the bike and there was a ton of stuff in the way, so I just removed the entire bracket/side stand from the bike.

Remove the side stand spring.  Next remove the three 10mm bolts holding the side stand to the bike.

Now move the bracket over to the Swift Kicker stand.  This is a thumper, so use your best friend, Blue Loctite on the bolts

Ok, now put the entire assembly back onto the bike.  Loosely install the three bolts first, using Loctite.  Then torque them to 25nm.  Reinstall the spring, which is a PITA, even with the Motion Pro spring puller tool.

Here's a video I shot showing how it works...

So I've been wanting the Sicass Racing LED tail light kit for months and months but its been out of stock.  I really hoped they'd have it back in stock when I broke my stock tail light lens but no love.  I've been checking their web site a few times a week and noticed it showed in stock last week!  So I called them and ordered it all.  It's mostly a plug n play solution using KTM parts and the LED tail light the 690 comes equipped with in RoW.  Once again we get hosed here in the USA.

Anyways, I had a little spare time yesterday so decided to knock out the fast part, which were the front turn signals.  Since I'm using LED turn signals front and rear I need to put resistors in line so they don't blink super fast.  Sicass Racing supplied the plug n play kit for that too.  I like plug n play!

Here's my starting point with the large stock lollipop lights.

Fairing comes out with two dvus fasteners

The turn signals are held on with a 13mm nut.  Spin that off, unplug them, install the new ones, which use a 14mm nut (why?)....

Did I mention how much I love plug n play?

I love it!  Some zip ties to clean up the wiring and put the fairing back on.  Yeah, that looks better....

Today I went after the tail light and rear turn signals.  First off remove the tank bag, then the seat.  That's a good doggo!

Then the pannier/tail racks come off...  Yuck, that filter sock is filthy!  I took a little time to clean it up...

Next the gas cap comes off, so I can then remove the upper body work, which is held in with two 8mm bolts on either side and three 6mm bolts underneath it, like inner rear fender.  I noticed I'm missing one, will need to get it from the dealer this week.

You need to trim this raised lip off the body work

Utility knife and a sanding barrel on the dremel and it's gone

Next part is sorta fiddly, the euro part doesn't come with any holes for turn signals.  So I had to mock it up and decide where I wanted them to be, drill the holes (yippee for unibits!), mount the turn signals, drill the hole so the wiring for them could be run, (unibit ftw!) install the grommet, run the turn signal wires.  Then decide where I want the license plate to be, try and mount it, run to the hardware store for longer bolts, drill the fender for the upper holes (unibit scores again!) and then mount it all.

Then I wondered where the turn signal wiring from the bike was.  Turns out KTM tucks it up underneath the factory tail light.  So you have to loosen that, pull out the wiring, unplug it, then clip the zip ties holding it on.  Here's where the plugs were hiding

Stock tail section on the floor, look at that huge tail light and turn signals! 

Checked it all before I buttoned it all up for once, (I do eventually learn from my mistakes) and thankfully it all worked.

Put the new tail section on, everything back on.  There are these spacers that go between the pannier rack and the tail rack.  I put all 4 of them in place at once, which I instantly regretted when I tried to line everything up and they scattered.  Doh!  Took awhile to find the last one but everything is in and done.

Even with the resistors the turn signals blink faster than stock, makes me think they'd be machine gun fast without them.

I much prefer this look, the Euro tail light is far sleeker and the new turn signals are shorter and well out of the way of the exhaust, which is good.

Next weekend my friend and I are planning on riding the Alpine Loop!  Really excited about it but also nervous as some of those passes are no joke, I think harder than Hagerman, which was pretty hard for me last month....

For better or worse I checked out some videos of California and Corkscrew Passes, which are the ones we're planning on doing.  They don't look too bad, Corkscrew looks like the harder of the two with one side being very steep with 4-6 extremely tight switchbacks.  I'd prefer to go down those vs up, getting a little anxious about it.

Think I'll try and get a new rear TKC80, mine is about done.  It'll probably last this trip but since I'm a little worried better to have a new one vs one that has less than 30% on it and will have another 200+ miles of slab on it before the trails, so could be pretty well done by then.

Called Performance Cycle first thing yesterday morning and they had my preferred TKC80 in stock and put one (of only 2 they had in stock, good thing I called right away!) on hold for me.

Since I'd ridden to work, once I got home I put the bike up on the rear stand and whipped off the rear wheel.  It comes off pretty easily, I don't bother to retract the chain adjusters.  This means I don't have to retension the chain when I reinstall the wheel but getting the chain on/off is a little more difficult.

I took the wheel to Performance as they'll mount/balance the tire for $25, which is well worth it to me.  Here's new vs old, quite a difference

Took it back home and went to reinstall it.  Here's where the fun started, as getting the cush drive and sprocket back in is a pita.  Then the wheel itself seemed too wide to fit in the swing arm and the spacer on the right side kept slipping out.  Argh!  Then one of the brake pads popped out and I had to remove the caliper pin to reset the brake pads.  Then reseat the sprocket and cush drive.  Then get the wheel back in place.  Man, what a PITA!  Finally got it tho...

I need to loosen and tighten both the front and rear axle nuts using the tools in my tool kit so I know I can loosen them with the tools I carry.  Otherwise the bike is ready.  My old tire might have made it but I didn't want to risk doing 200+ miles on the pavement and then show up with the tread mostly gone.  We're actually doing almost the entire Alpine Loop, with the exception of Ophir Pass.  So we're doing Corkscrew, California, Hurricane and Cinnamon. 

Well, the weekend trip definitely did NOT go as planned. 

I still don't have my Renzaco seat, he's running behind and won't be working the month of September.  Oh well, hopefully I'll get it in November.  The stock seat might as well be a plank of wood though, holy crap is it uncomfortable!  About an hour and I need a break from it....

First off met my friend, filled up both tanks at a station in Morrison that I've used before.  A slab ride to Montrose in the heat.  Lemme tell ya, it was HOT.  My friend notices that my headlight isn't on.  Hmm?  I tested it all when I put the new tail light in and it worked.  At a gas station I take off the fairing and look at all the wiring, everything up front is hooked up.  Well, I've got my auxiliary light, so I'll just run that.  Then I see that my rear wheel isn't up against both the axle stops, it's sitting off on the right some.  Ugh.  At just 225 miles my low fuel light pops on.  Wait, what?!  I'd just gone 325 miles on the last tanks of fuel before the light popped on!  We were probably 40 miles from the next gas in Gunnison, hope I make it! 

We get to Gunnison, I fuel up and stop for a cold drink, that's when he notices that my running light/tail light also isn't working.  Brake lights work tho.  Great, so that entire circuit isn't working.  Oh well, let's get to the hotel in Montrose and I'll start diagnosing the lights and square up the rear axle.  We get there no problem, unload the bikes, soak up some AC, then go back to my bike.  Fixing the rear axle is easy, loosen the nut, give the wheel a boot and retighten it.

Under the seat there are all the connections for the rear tail light, I check them to see if one is loose.  Nope.  Pull the fuses and visually they look fine, we don't have a multimeter to check them.  Well, I'll just deal with it.  We go out for dinner/beers and meet up with a friend of Nikos.  Nice guy, super good rider!  I make a note to never ride with him, as his skill level far surpasses mine and he's so good that he doesn't realize how hard stuff is for us mortals.

That night one of the mounts for my CPAP face mask breaks, so I have to squish the mask against my face and the pillow to hold it into place.  Sleep like total shizz.  Up and at em!  Big day today!  Riding 550, "The Million Dollar Highway", then thru Silverton, out to Animas Forks, then onto the Alpine Loop!  The entire reason for this trip was this one day of riding.  Queue the ominous music to foreshadow....

So 550 is an amazing, twisty road with tight switchbacks, tons of exposure with no guard rails and amazing views.  It's hard to take in the views and at the same time pay attention to the road so you don't ride off and plummet to your death.

There aren't really good spots to stop for pics, sadly this is all we got.

Roll into Silverton, which is a cool old mining town, which is being totally over run by tourists, especially this weekend.  BTW, I'd never seen so many cruisers (mostly Harleys)out on the road here before, we must've seen hundreds of them.  Hilariously the day before we stopped for a coffee and a snack at a place in Fairplay and a harley guy walks up in all his gear, with a 9mm strapped to his hip.  Ok, Colorado is an open carry state, I have my CCW and have been in the military for 23 years but I still don't open carry, I hardly even concealed carry, just don't need to.  I find it humorous that this guy, just out on a ride, felt it necessary to carry.  Like it was part of his riding gear or something.  But I digress.

So we get to the start of the dirt, stop to check the air in the tires (I add some to the front and take some out of the back) put on googles and turn the ABS off.  On our way to Animas Forks, which is an abandoned mining town.  Road there is fine, some wash board, some embedded rock but still an easy ride.  I'm up on the pegs and feeling pretty good.  I'm wearing my usual boots, so I can actually feel the shifter and rear brake pedal, score!

We get to Animas Forks and it's just awesome.  Spend some time there wandering around and checking it out.

From here we start the climb up to the top of Cinnamon Pass and really get on the Alpine Loop.  The trail is actually just across the way from the bikes in the above pic.  It climbs up to the left fairly steeply with a section of fairly tall embedded rock, with some steps here and there in it.  Nikos is ahead of me and thru the intercom tells me to pass him if I think he's going too slow for me.  His bike is a twin cylinder and makes more low end grunt then my thumper.  I consider it but decide I should stay behind him.  He's going a bit too slow for me, so I try to give him some space, so I can then get back on the throttle for this section.

Well, that doesn't work too well for me and I get back on the throttle, try to go over a step maybe 6" high and lose the bike.  It's a quick drop and I step off without any issues, bike is laying down on it's right side.  Nikos comes back and we get the bike up no problem.  A quick check and I notice it's leaking something.  Initially I think it's gas, but it turns out it's coolant.  Great!  Looks like when the bike dropped the Safari Tank hit a bracket on the radiator, which bent and pushed a speed clip into the plastic end tank, puncturing it. 

See it?  Here's a close up...

So, we make the decision to head back to Silverton so I can remove the Safari tank and assess the damage better.

It's a slow leak, but definitely leaking.  We think about it and decide that heading off up the passes would be a really bad idea.  If the leak gets worse I'm hosed.  If we pull the clip out and try to JB Weld it and that doesn't work I'm hosed.  Ok, I start to call the KTM dealers in the nearby towns and nobody has a radiator in stock.  In fact they're saying that it has to come from KTM and earliest I'd see it is November!  WTF, this bike was made from 2008-2018 with my motor and they're still making it!  Argh!  Ok, let's head to Gunnison, via slab as that's where I booked out next hotel.

I was gutted, absolutely gutted.  The section wasn't too hard for me, it was a simple drop and this is what happened.  The irony is that bracket isn't even used by the Safari tank and the previous owner just left it there, with the speed clips installed.  At the very least the speed clips should've been removed and maybe the bracket cut off entirely.  Dammit!

I fill up in Ouray and I'm getting my typical 60+ mpg again.  So either I got a bad tank of gas or my bike didn't like that axle misalignment.  We make it to Gunnison and I stop at the KTM dealer there to see if they can search the US and try and find me a radiator.  They find two places that show one in inventory.  I call the first one in S. Dakota and he quotes me $1000 for it!  Um, the dealer here shows it for under $400?  He goes to check to see if he actually has it and turns out he doesn't.  Or he doesn't wanna sell it to me for the $400 that it lists for.  Dunno.  Call the second dealer, which is in California and I guess they decided to close for the holiday weekend.  Drat!  I'll call them tomorrow to see if they actually have the radiator and will sell it to me for list price.  If not I suppose I'll order one from Rocky Mtn ATV, who said they could get it in 7-10 business days, then stressed that may change, which I'm sure it will.

We go to the hotel and I try and see if I can get some QuikSteel around the clip and stop the leak

I borrow some tape from the hotel front desk and fix my CPAP mask, so at least that's done and I'll get a good nights rest.

We walk to dinner, then come back a few hours later, more than enough time for that stuff to set.  I start the bike up and it starts leaking immediately.  Argh!  

There goes the fun way home, which would've been over Cumberland Pass, then Cottonwood Pass, then Weston Pass.  Slab it is.  Nikos wants to leave early since riding slab sorta stinks and we're out of the hotel at 6:30am this morning.  Let me comment that Gunnison is frequently the coldest spot in the state.  Yeah, it was 43F this morning and both of us just froze our butts off.  My hands were popsicles!  Then riding over Monarch Pass the sun is coming up and I can't see a damn thing.  I really don't wanna ride off the pass here and die, that would suck.  So I slow down, freeze more and we stop at the top of pass to put on sun glasses.  Bike starts leaking way more.  Uh oh.

Down to Salida for a really yummy breakfast at a coffee shop and I check the level in the radiator, not bad, which I'm surprised about.  Fill up with gas again, another 60+ mpg, stop at Safeway for a bottle of water, just in case and then start riding again.  Stop in Fairplay for a butt break and then off into the valley to head up Kenosha Pass.  As I've said before, this valley is a wind tunnel.  I've been lucky the last few times I've gone through it but not this morning, so got to fight the wind but made it.  Another butt break in Bailey and then I attack the remaining twisties and come home.

I decide to pop off my seat and plug in my stock tail light section to see if it works.  Hmm, nope.  Grab my test light, open up the service manual, identify the headlight fuse and check it.  Yep, it's bad.  Put in the spare fuse and it pops immediately.  Ok, obviously have  short somewhere, likely the wiring for the tail light got squished when I reinstalled the tail/pannier racks.  I'll deal with this later.  Maybe much later.  So I push the bike into the shed and go inside....

Was told that the radiator end tanks are actually metal!  Woot!  My friends son is going to TIG weld this thing back together.  Friend wants to pick it up at my office today.  So much for not dealing with this later, lol.

So, seat off, fairing off, tank off.  Pull the lower radiator hose, drain coolant, remove upper hose, unscrew radiator cap.  Remove two screws holding the radiator guard off, unplug the temp sensor and the fan (which was a huge pita!), then take off the 4 bolts holding the radiator in place.

I then bent the bracket out of the place, pulled off the cursed speed clip, along with the one from the other side and there's my problem, nice little hole.

I'd noticed these brackets with little bump stops on them and they were bent.  Hmmm....

Yeah, those are meant to support the Safari tank so it won't bump into things on the bike.  Ok, lets bend them back where they should go...

Much better.  Now the next time I drop the bike hopefully the tank won't bend anything else.

OK, bike is on the lift, might as well see if I can find the wiring issue with the head/tail light.  So pannier/tail rack off, gas cap off, upper plastics off.  Instantly see the problem...

Yeah, that shouldn't be squished like that, oopppssss!  Cut out the bad wiring, soldered the wires back together, heat shrink, hockey tape wrap.  Then I very, very carefully checked the routing of the wires.  Every  time I put another part back on, I cycled the key to make sure everything still worked.  End of the day, got it all working again, look at that headlight and tail light now!

I put the tank, fairing and seat back on, but didn't bolt the tank on.  I should get the radiator back later this week so I'll put the bike back together this Friday with any luck.

Picked up my repaired radiator, it looks great!

Went and installed it this morning while my son was at Sunday School.  Pretty much the reverse of removal.  Hung the radiator, put in the left upper bolt to hold it into place, then when I went to push on the right lower radiator hose I heard that left upper bolt pop out and fall out.  But it didn't make a metallic sound when it hit.  I looked and looked for it but couldn't find it anywhere!  Wasn't anywhere on the motor, the lift table, in the skid plate etc.  I thought maybe it fell on my plastic tile floor but I looked all over and still couldn't find it.  This one...

Guess I'll order it from the dealer Tuesday, hopefully they even have it in stock.... 

Anyways, put the bike back together, filled up the radiator and overflow tank with Engine Ice and Water Wetter, then started the bike and let it come up to temp, then cool down.  Everything seems fine, so it all went back together.  I'll ride it tomorrow and see how it does, then see if I can sneak that radiator bolt in without removing the Safari tank but I'm pessimistic about that....

My bike has the cyclops LED headlight bulb in the stock housing.  It works fairly well but I've been wanting to upgrade to either a Baja Designs or Moto minded direcet plub n play LED setup.  The price has been stopping me tho, I don't care to spend $5-600 on one of those.  So yesterday when a like set up popped up on one of my 690 FB groups I took a look at the ad.  That's when I realized the guy was 15 minutes from me!  At that point I figured I should at least check it out in person.  It's a knock off of the Baja Designs but not a Chinese one.  Totally plug n play with wiring and mounting and it was less than half the price.  Ok, well I'll give it a try, if I don't like it I'm sure I can resell it for what I paid for it...

Dealer had the bolt in stock, so I bought two.  I tried to sneak it in without removing the tank but I was afraid of cross threading it, so I just moved the tank some.

Anyways, everything is buttoned back up and done.  I may try to install that new headlight this weekend....

Well, since the corrado has sold that opens up the bay again, once I put the 911 up on the lift.  So I brought the 690 in from the shed, cleaned and lubed the chain, changed the oil and put the cover on it.

My renazco seat is supposed to ship sometime this week.  At some point this winter I'll install the upgraded fuel filters and hopefully my friend will find some time to put the graphics on the bike.

So that new headlight wouldn't work.  For whatever reason Yenkro decided to use the 690 Super Moto light with the first gen fairing, which is what I have.  Nobody makes an LED light for a 690 Super Moto.  Doh!  So I sold the light.  Oh well.  Why they just didn't use the stock 690 Enduro light is beyond me.  Anyways, I finally got my Renazco seat!

Can't wait to try it out!

One of the other things I've noticed is that I can't use the steering lock on the bike.  The key hits the Scotts dampener pin.  See?

So I just shaved down the plastic on one side of the key and know I can use the steering lock.

Just need to install the fuel filters now.  Will have to pull the Safari tank to get at the one that's near the intake, then pull the fuel pump to handle the two that are in the tank.  Might do that this weekend.  After that the bike is ready for Spring as it's still a little early for me to check the valves.  Although I might do that once I've got the intake, tank and seat off anyways...

My friend finally got around to printing out the graphics for my bike!  Can't wait to get them installed, hopefully sometime in the next month or so

Happy Turkey Day!  Since we do Thanksgiving dinner vs lunch, I had time today to work on the 690.  Task at hand was upgrading the fuel filters.  Three of them in fact, I was adding the Profill tea bag filter to the bottom of the fuel pump and then replacing two other stock filters with the Best Dual Sports and Golan filters.

First up, remove the tank bag, seat, pannier racks, fairing, Safari tank, muffler and two lower fuel tank bolts.  One of which dropped off into the abyss and I couldn't find it, no matter what.  Dammit!

Now remove these 4 3mm allen head bolts.  That plate you see is the feed to my Safari front tank.  I bought this cool siphon hose, the shake one?  Yeah, that metal fitting wouldn't fit into my tank.  Hence the large catch pan underneath the fuel pump.  Luckily I had less than a gallon in the tank.

Ok, pull out the fuel pump.  I *know* I've got a 5/16" fuel line disconnect tool somewhere but I couldn't find it.  Guess I'm not swapping the filters over on my bench.  No biggie.  Remove the oetiker clamps holding the stock Mahle fuel filter in place, noting the direction of the arrow.  Hint, it points away from the fuel pump.  It was surprisingly dirty after only 4000 miles or so. 

Put new Oetiker clamps on the lines, then put in the Best Dual Sports filter.  It's metal so it can't crack like the stock plastic one, it filters better and it's servicable.

Ok, pull apart the fuel pump housing and remove the plastic basket, retaining clip and holder from the bottom of the fuel pump.  Press on the Profill filter and make sure it's totally tight.

Put the fuel pump back into the housing and then reinstall the lines and pump into the tank.  Drop the tank back down.  On the left hand side of the bike, near the ECU you'll find the last fuel filter, on the line right before the fuel injector.  Here...

Separate the lines, remove the Oetiker clamp and pull out that fuel fitting end.  Inside you'll find this tiny little filter

Put a new Oetiker clamp on and then place the Golan filter into the line.  Clamp it into place and connect it.  It filters better than stock and is servicable.

Put the fuel back into the tank, cycle the fuel pump a few times and she fired right up.  Sweet....  Put it all back together, struggle a bit with the pannier racks/top rack until I remember where the bottom spacers go.  Doh!  While tightening that down, I see the missing lower tank bolt just sitting on the lift table.  WTF?  It certainly wasn't there before!  Oh well, happy to find it and I install it.  Torque everything down and it's all finished. 

Last thing is to get the graphics installed, hopefully my friend has some time in the next few weeks.  Otherwise this is ready to ride!

Graphics went on the bike today!  Started here...

Ended here...

Really happy with how it turned out!  In other news I bought an adjustable kick stand from SingleTrack Innovations.  They sell a "regular" length, which at its shortest is 1" shorter than stock and "short" one.  I bought the "Regular" one, then realized I should've gotten the short one.  What's cool is Single Track Innovations will convert your regular one into a short one for free, you just have to pay shipping.  Turns out one of their guys who does it is in Ft Collins, so I sent my stand to him.  Sadly, even tho I gave him my address three times, he still typed it in wrong and the package that I should've had last weekend got sent back to him.  Then he didn't send it out for several days, so I won't have it till tomorrow.  Oh well.

Once I get that on, the bike is well and truly done and ready for me to ride it in the Spring.

got the side stand back from SingleTrack Innovations.  They shortened it an inch for me, which should be enough as it'll be two inches shorter than stock.  Tossed it on, bike is good to go unless I decide to check the valves a bit early.  KTM says it's good until 6200 miles, I'm around 4500 miles now.

Couldn't help myself, a basically new Garmin 700i with mount popped up on Adv, so I bought it.  This has a built in InReach, so I figured after I sold my Montana 610t, mount, touratech locking mount and separate InReach, it'd pay for the new one.  The differences between the 610 and 700, besides the built in InReach are the new 700 has built in City Navigator and Topo maps, which are update able for free, bluetooth to your phone as well as a helmet headset, so you can hear the directions, has a larger screen, has a much faster processor and is generally nicer.

First thing is to update the software and maps.  Looks like it'd been awhile (or never) since the maps were updated, cause that took a long time...

Then I set it up on my wireless network, paired it to my phone and helmet headset, and went through the settings to make it how I want.  After that it was time to remove the old powered mount and install the new one.  Would've been nice if Garmin had kept the mounts the same.  No big deal tho, power and ground.  When I was trying to strip the power wire it popped out of the inline fuse connection tho.  Doh!  Had to cut the rubber insulation off to reveal the connection, strip a new piece of wire, put it in, crimp it and then solder it to make sure it was solid.  Then went on with the rest of the connections with solder/heat shrink. 

Only after I was done did I realize I didn't run the wires on the inside of the rally tower.  Sigh.  My OCD won't allow that, so today I'll unsolder those connections, reroute the wires and resolder.  However it does work...

And looks the business. 

Now I have all season to try and figure out how to properly use it and Basecamp to set up routes.  I won't bother to activate the InReach until the Spring, as it's a monthly subscription and I don't need it until then.

I always felt that I'm mediocre at soldering.  Well, apparently I'm better than I thought as I couldn't desolder the joints.  Doh!  Here's what I was starting with, bad job of routing the wiring...

Here's what I finished with, much tidier looking!

And GPS even still works! 

Need to get a micro SD card for it, thought I had one kicking around but turns out I don't.  Also trying to transfer the service from my old InReach to this.  That'll remove the old InReach from my account and get this one up and going.  I couldn't figure out how to do it, so reached out to Garmin via email.  They got back promptly but trying to follow their steps gives me an error and tells me to call support.  Currently on hold with them now...

So Garmin support figured it out, the guy I bought this from hadn't removed it from his account, so I was unable to transfer service from my old InReach.  They did send me a link to send to him showing him what to do.  They also walked me through it on my old InReach, which I'd already sold and shipped.

So I emailed the guy with the link and happily he took care of it a few hours later and I was able to get service on this.  Sweet.  Now I have to wait a day so I can suspend the service, as I don't need it in until the Spring.

KTM wants you to check the valves at 6200 miles, I've currently got 5135 miles on the bike.  Figured I'd rather get it done now, rather than have to do it during the riding season.  This motor is known to have issues with the rocker arms breaking, which then pretty much destroys your motor.  I picked up a pair of new ones just in case mine are worn, although most people say to replace them at 10,000 miles.

So, tank bag off, seat off, fairing off, Safari tank off, disconnect the negative battery terminal.  Then pull off the rottweiler air filter and base plate, then the little stash pouch.  Take off the two 8mm bolts holding the coil pack cover on.  Unclip the two plugs going to the coils.  Struggle to remove each coil.  Seriously, they were *stuck* in place!  Remove the outer coil, remove the coil cover with the inner coil.  Using a 14mm spark plug socket remove the outer spark plug.  Now you're about ready to remove the rocker cover.

Clip the zip ties on those two hoses, remove 4 10mm bolts and wiggle the rocker cover off.

Now grab a 14mm allen key and remove the little cover on the left side of the motor.  There is an O ring there, make sure you don't lose it.  Use a 13mm socket and turn the crank over until the marks on the sprocket line up with the mark just below the center bolt.  See them?

Wiggle both rocker arms, they should be a little loose.  Now check clearances, which are the same for both intake and exhaust.  KTM calls for 0.07-0.13mm.  All of mine were in spec except one intake valve, which was tight at about 0.03.  I wanted to pull both rocker arms to inspect them for damage to the roller and also make sure neither roller had play up and down.

Remove both bolts and then using the longer bolt, screw it into the rocker shaft, thru the outer hole in the timing chain sprocket.  Pull out the shaft, taking note that the flat surface on the shaft points up.  Now remove the rocker arm.

Inspect the rocker arm.

Thankfully both rocker arms seem to be in good shape.  So I used a magnet and swapped out the one shim for a smaller one, then put the intake rocker arm back in.  I removed the exhaust rocker arm the same way, inspected it and reinstalled it since both exhaust valves were in spec.  I put the 4 bolts back in, torqued them down, then spun the motor over 2 complete revolutions, ending up back at TDC.  I then checked the clearances again, all were within spec.

After that it was time to get everything back onto the bike.  Had to snake some new zip ties in to reattach the stash bag, that was sort of a pita.

Once I got everything back on and installed, I started the bike to make sure it still ran.

Happily it did!  I'll do this again in another 5000 miles and replace both rocker arms at that time.

Eagle eyed viewers will note the open port on the rocker cover in my first picture in the post above.  I sure did and wondered why.  My bike has the Rottweiler intake on it so I downloaded their instructions.  Depending on the year of the bike, they either want that port open or capped off and it wasn't clear to me whether it should be capped off on my 2017 or not.  So I reached out to them via online chat and they told me that it should be capped off.  Great, although I'm amazed the bike ran and idled as well as it did with it open.

So yesterday afternoon while my son was at Ju Jitsu, I went at it.  Fairing off, Safari Tank off, tank bag off, seat off, air filter off.  Moved the air filter mounting plate to the side and got access to the rocker cover.

A quick trip to the corner auto parts store got me the correct size cap and I installed it with a hose clamp.  Hopefully the clamp doesn't wear a hole in the bottom of my gear bag.

I also took the opportunity to replace two bolts that were beginning to strip that hold the intake plate in place with some factory KTM bolts.

Put the bike back together and started the bike up, it runs fine.  Honestly I'm not sure if I can notice a difference, which again boggles my mind given the size of that open port....

Finished up right in time too, washed my hands and went and picked up my son from his class.

A couple of wraps of electrical tape around that hose clamp should help prevent rubbing through the bag. 

Rode to the base and back yesterday.  Renazco saddle is excellent, as expected.  Far more comfortable than stock, however it is higher than the stock saddle.  This is both good and bad, good in that the seat to foot peg distance is larger, which is more comfortable for me.  Bad in that now I can't flat foot the bike.  Oh well, I'll deal with it.