Why must all the best supermotos be such high maintenance...

I was gonna say, you cannot have it both ways.... The only SM which actually does is ktm 690 smc. Everything else is either mild power or high maintenance.
 
Its a high strung, racing oriented dirt bike with street tires on it. Its oil sump is tiny, very little oil reservoir....High compression = high blow-by = lots of stuff ends up in the oil, oil which there is very little of.

Its the same reason i didnt pull the trigger on the Aprillia SXVs....sure its an amazing bike but man is it a maintenance biatch!
 
10 hour oil changes would be nice. I'm doing an oil change every other weekend at least... 3 hours and it's change time!

Eventually I will go SM on the street, and when I do it's going to be a DRZ400SM simply because of the reliability of the engine while still being a capable bike.
 
rmemedic said:
10 hour oil changes would be nice. I'm doing an oil change every other weekend at least... 3 hours and it's change time!

Eventually I will go SM on the street, and when I do it's going to be a DRZ400SM simply because of the reliability of the engine while still being a capable bike.
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How about a DR650 with ProCycle 790 kit and Mikuni TM40 pumper?
 
BNKN said:
How about a DR650 with ProCycle 790 kit and Mikuni TM40 pumper?
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Don't want all that extra mass. I'm going for as close to a pure MX bike as I can get. So 490 kit, head work, exhaust, carb mods, and any cheap ways of shaving weight off the thing.
It will be my DD and going out for shorter fun rips bike, FZ6 will do longer distance and pilon duty.
 
rmemedic said:
Don't want all that extra mass. I'm going for as close to a pure MX bike as I can get. So 490 kit, head work, exhaust, carb mods, and any cheap ways of shaving weight off the thing.
It will be my DD and going out for shorter fun rips bike, FZ6 will do longer distance and pilon duty.
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DR650 is porky to be sure but everythings a compromise, as you know. DRZ400 SM is no flyweight purebred either. Small engines get old on open road imho. What most people don't understand about big Jap singles is how much CV carbs hinder performance. Hogged out airbox and flatside pumper (TM40 or FCR39) changes character of the engine completely. I will not try to change your mind on this as I realize modding a DR650 chassis into anything approaching KTM or Husaberg would not be cost effective but as a lightweight road bike it has merit. They're reliable, pull tall gearing if need be and get good gas mileage.
 
I've been going 3000K between oil changes on my WR450.

I don't find it all that bad.
 
dricked said:
Woah, I didn't even let my zx10 go that long between changes.
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Well I did my first service at 10 hours. Oil was like new. Did another service at 1000 k, that oil was super clean also. Along with the filter.

I find on my bike the oil is just beginning to a bit dark around 3000.

Those 10 hour increments are for competition off road use. Bangin it off the limiter, super dusty dirty environment.

Daily driver use is a cake walk compared to mx racing.
 
The ktm lc4 bikes 2003 and newer make awesome motards, you can get a smc version or convert an enduro or duke version to one. They can get 3k between oil changes if you ride them lightly, and with a 41mm fcr carb and proper exhaust they can hit 60hp easy. The lc4 will cost you a fraction of the ktm 690 and with good maintenance the motors are known to go 60k+


matt220 said:
http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-cars-veh...rt-bikes-HUSABERG-FS-550-E-W0QQAdIdZ447956266

I'd take this over a DRZ any day if the oil didn't need to be replaced every 10 hours :(
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Why 2003 and newer? Why even convert when KTM offered the exact same adventure 640 in Supermoto trim? Whats wrong with the older 640 SM's?

Factory oil change interval for the 640 LC4 is 5000K and i spoke with some very knowledgeable techs who said even that is very conservative....KTM had no idea where you would be taking their bikes so they conservatively estimated the intervals...if you're riding it easy on fire roads and street 5K shouldnt be an issue at all.
 
Red_Liner740 said:
Why 2003 and newer? Why even convert when KTM offered the exact same adventure 640 in Supermoto trim? Whats wrong with the older 640 SM's?

Factory oil change interval for the 640 LC4 is 5000K and i spoke with some very knowledgeable techs who said even that is very conservative....KTM had no idea where you would be taking their bikes so they conservatively estimated the intervals...if you're riding it easy on fire roads and street 5K shouldnt be an issue at all.
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I actually own a 2001 ktm 640-e, and my brother owns the 2003 640 sm. The high flow head, hydraulic clutch, upgraded cam bearing and just bunch of other slight updates make the 2003 and newer bikes a better deal. I do like my enduro version and it is a great off road bike but I have not made it anywhere close to 5000k before my oil went dark and i do use full synthetic maxima 10w40 or 20w50 depending on the season. The price difference between the two models that I have seen on kijijji does not warrant getting the 2002 or older models, but that being said I do not want to hold anything against them, I put 6k km on mine last year and it is a blast.
 
I've found the LC4 (2010) engine to be very low maintenance. Checked the valve clearance this winter and it's still in spec (4th season) so, other than oil and filter changes it's required nothing.

KTM brought the 690 Duke back for 2013 but no SM unfortunately. :(

The 450 SMR is available in the US but not here... which is strange considering the 690 SM sold out the last three years it was available in Canada....
 
Those are all slight upgrades. My 02 has high flow head. Oil turning dark is in no way an indication of when to change it. Have it analyzed and im sure it will perfectly fine. cant judge a bikes maintenance schedule by personal choice that are not factually based.

markac said:
I actually own a 2001 ktm 640-e, and my brother owns the 2003 640 sm. The high flow head, hydraulic clutch, upgraded cam bearing and just bunch of other slight updates make the 2003 and newer bikes a better deal. I do like my enduro version and it is a great off road bike but I have not made it anywhere close to 5000k before my oil went dark and i do use full synthetic maxima 10w40 or 20w50 depending on the season. The price difference between the two models that I have seen on kijijji does not warrant getting the 2002 or older models, but that being said I do not want to hold anything against them, I put 6k km on mine last year and it is a blast.
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