The KTM 690 Enduro survey

The thought occurred to me when mining for information from the depths of the internet. You can find thousands of pages of opinions and comments on the bike (or any bike for that matter), but that still doesn't give you real picture of the reality behind the comments. Technical problems seemed to be a big part of the 690 discussions, but opinions varied greatly. People had bikes with zero problems, some had some minor issues and others seemed to have issues to no end.

With this in mind I posted a survey form on advrider.com where 690 owners could post their technical issues or lack there of. I chose advrider because it represents no particular brand, has  a lot of visitors and the inmates seem to be a cool bunch in general. I was fully expecting to be told to F off, but instead got a whole bunch of entries. I immediately proceeded to crunch the data I had gotten and got some interesting results.

I could now calculate the average amount of technical issues per model , percentage of issue free bikes, the average amount of miles before first issue etc. More importantly I got a long list of issues with the mileage the issue appeared at and how it was fixed. The statistics are more "fun facts" mostly because they are far from scientifically reliable results. (lots and lots of room for interpretation) BUT the technical issues list seems to actually be useful!

REMEMBER, the numbers on page one are NOT "real". 

1. the amount of entries is not large enough to make any conclusion regarding the bikes reliability
2. the data entered is not verified in any way (all issues could in fact  be entered by envious Honda men ;))

Oh, you want to see the results?

The thread is located here >> http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=951460
Post number 15 has the images & data.

* I'm not adding the pictures here because I said I will not use them to promote any website, service etc.
This way I'm leading people to advrider.com and not the other way around.

EDIT

The amount of data became so large that posting images was no longer sensible. I had to make a PDF file.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22421767/690_survey.pdf

2014 KTM 690 Enduro R walkaround video

This is a rather pointless exercise, but I didn't want to steal anybody else's walkaround video so I made my own. Enjoy if you can.

The motorcycle show

Motorcycle shows are a place where many people decide on a particular bike while in reality it should not probably be so. Sitting on a bike that's bolted down to the show room floor and making wroom wroom noises while fun, may end you getting a bike based purely on marketing hype and pretty booth girls buzzing around. Don't ask how I know.

Motorcycle shows are, how ever, a decent place to compare ergos of different bikes (one of key elements of the "right bike") and check out the details without the sales people howering over you. When I'm considering a bike, there usually is very little that the sales guy can tell me that I all ready haven't found out on my own. My sights were pretty much set on the 690, but I tried to keep an open mind if something interesting were to surface.

The Honda NC750X was still kind of intriguing, but the 690 was stayed as the bike of choice even after seeing all the other offerings live.

KTM RC 390 PHOTOS

The RC 390 was also on the floor. I have to say that it looked fantastic. The seat was hard as a rock, but other than that, a great machine. I'm not exactly clear whether or not this bike is made entirely or in part in India (or if in fact any of is made in India) It certainly does not have a budget feel or look to it.