Husqvarna 701 Supermoto

Husqvarna 701 Supermoto

 Just a few shots of the new Husqvarna that is closely related to the 690...

2015 KTM 690 Enduro R

2015 KTM 690 Enduro R

A few shots of the 2015 model. Nothing much to see here. It's difficult to tell the difference between the -14 and the -15. I noticed that the fuel breather hose is now routed differently and to my eye the seat rubber grommets looked different, but I may just remember things wrong. I will have to double check.

The fuel breather hose can no longer get pinched by the seat

Removing KTM 690 Enduro R spark plugs

Now usually removing spark plugs is a two step deal. 1. disconnect spark plug cable 2. unscrew spark plug. Deal done. Not so with 690 Enduro R. It doesn't help that the owners manual doesn't have any instructions on how to change / remove the spark plugs.

The following is a step-by-step instruction on how to remove both of the spark plugs.

1. Disconnect the white coupler from the stick coil and pull the outer stick coil out from the stick coil holder. If the stick coil O-rings are dry, as they probably are, the coils need some force for it to pop out. Grease the O-rings once you you get them out.

This outer stick coil with the white coupler

Outer stick coil removed

the 2014 KTM 690 Enduro R stick coil itself. 1 of 2.

Now here is where it starts to get tricky. One would assume that the inner stick coil could also be simply pulled out from the holder, but that's a NO. The frame gets in the way and I didn't feel comfortable applying force to try to pry it past the frame.

Nope

At this point you would think that you could insert the spark plug removal tool in to the stick coil holder and simply remove the outer spark plug. Again NO. The bottom end of the stick coil holder is too narrow for the tool to reach the plug at the bottom of the hole! Yes, really. So more stuff to do before getting to the actual spark plugs.

Nope again

2.

a) You need to pop out the inner stick coil, but since you can't fully remove it this point, leave it in the hole but make sure it is disconnected from the spark plug. (You can feel it pop of the plug). Disconnect the wire from the stick coil too.

b) You need to unscrew the 2 stick coil holder mounting bolts.

stick coil holder bolts

This bolt goes to the cable holder, removing it gives you a tiny amount of more room to work on the bolt behind the cables

The KTM toolkit T-wrench is slim enough to access the other bolt

 3. Lift off the stick coil holder. Dry O-rings may need some convincing again. I recommend applying grease to these O-rings too when you remount the holder.

2014 KTM 690 Enduro R stick coil holder

bottom end

top end

O-rings

Finally! Access to the spark plugs!

Now You can finally just unscrew the plugs using the spark plug tool included in the toolkit.

FYI

2014 KTM 690 Enduro Spark plug specs

Inside spark plug: NGK LKAR8BI-9

Outside spark plug: NGK LMAR7A-9

Spark plug electrode gap: 0.9 mm (0.035 in)

New farkles - Rally Raid products soft luggage racks

Not my bike or my picture

Last summer I came to the conclusion that in order to travel comfortably (not constantly fiddling with luggage during fill ups etc.) I need luggage racks. My preferred option were the so called Wolfman racks, but apparently they are no longer available. I looked through offerings from KTM, Touratech and the like, but found them to be both ugly and of wrongly shaped for my plans.

The Rally Raid soft luggage racks seemed to be the best available alternative and I made the order a while ago. It was also important that the RR racks and my Nomadic rear rack would fir together which they do judging from the pictures found at ADVrider.com. I haven't actually received the goods or installed them yet, but both of those things should happen at the end of the month.

In the meanwhile I got a heads up from The Rolling Hobo that the RR racks have a weak spot at the lowest mounting bolt. His rack fractured from both sides during the Eastern Dirt ride. You can see pics from the failure at the week 3 entry of his blog. The plan is to tackle the issue with large spacers and see if that is enough to prevent them from breaking. I'll post more once I get the racks mounted.