The 640 adventure. You fill it up 10 times and it’s ready for the next service. No joke.
This would be a perfect bike for me if I didn’t have to service it every 2-3 months. Coupled with the dearth of KTM dealers…
And what do KTM services involve anyway? If it’s an oil change, fair enough. But if that single cylinder needs checking out each time, I’d be better off, sadly, with a BMW 650GS (nooooooooooo!).
What service intervals have you been quoted?
The LC4 bikes usually have fairly decent (for SM) intervals.
Bike magazine says the 640 adventure is 3000 miles (hardly seems apt for an “adventure”). The 950 adventure is 4500 miles. So says KTM website too, although in kilometers so it looks bigger.
Is it because they are supermotos? I did not think endurance would be excluded by the supermoto styling.
2 very different engines. The adventure has a similar motor to my superduke - LC8 (twin) and has a dry sump with a oil tank - takes about 4 Lts.
The other bike is a LC4 - single. The motor itself holds a small amount of oil (prolly around a Lt), it may also have some oil in the frame - some LC4 models do this - I’m not familiar with that model TBH.
It’s the small oil volume that really requires the frequent service.
My 660SMC has a LC4 in a fairly high state of tune, no external oil. I changed the oil every 1K miles of road use.
Not quite sure why that seems so low to you?? My Z750 has 4000 miles services so only a 1000 more and quite a few Jap multi’s have simular intervals
Also remember that an LC4 is a (for a single) high tuned engine with a much smaller oil capicity than most other bikes. ie my Z holds about 3.5 lt of oil where as an LC4 has only 1.8-2lt. Singles also tend to run hotter due to larger pistons etc.
As for services it will require an oil and filter (not a big job but due to oil in frame a bit of a faff) and a valve check, but mine didn’t need the valves touching once
I ran a Duke II for 7.5k without anything other than oil and filters, and a 625 SMC for 6k again with just oil and filters, although I serviced that every 1000 due to the higher state of tune but that was me being extra nice to it as the guide says every 3000 same as the LC4.
I notice that the BMW uses a engine part designed by Rotax, who also designed the LC4 engine, so doubt they are much different, but I would have thought that the LC4 engine would be a bit more powerful and possibily lighter as well.
In comparison to other singles it seems the BM would have longer services that most other singles, isn’t the Yam XTX 4000?? As for services every 10 fills ups how big is the adv. tank? The LC4 supermoto only has a 12.5 lt tanks and will only do 70-90 miles to a tank
As for using a single for big mileages…I wouldn’t. But thats just me. I used my 625 for a while on a 60 mile round commute and it wasn’t ideal. I single is a bit laboured for longer A-roads etc. Hence the Z750
I ride a xtx and use it for commuting as well as rideouts ,i find it does what i want it to do ,a bit of scratching and the commute,but as you say it gets a bit laboured on the motorways thats why i stick to B roads,the service intervals on the xtx are 6000 miles but i tend to do a oil & filter change every 3000 ,at the moment im looking for a second hand lc4 for the weekends and keeping the xtx for the longer journeys .
cos they go BANG!! 
mofo, only 1000 miles more is still an extra 1/3 as long… and that’s on a jap muscle bike compared to a world class enduro bike. My ‘supersports’ ZX6R can go 1/3 more miles without a check up than a bike that is used in the Dakar Rally…? My other jap bike, a yamaha fazer, can go twice as far. Granted, not every mile is over a sand dune, but then I’d not be using a 640 for that. The 950, the bike Ewan and Charlie almost never had possibly to go around the world maybe, the bike they show riding through waves on a beachfront in most mags, does 25% less miles than my piece-of-crap-commuter-despatch-riding fazer before it has to be looked at by a mechanic…
The 640’s tank is 25.5 (website) or 28 (bike mag, older model?) litres! That’s gotta be 300+ miles per tank. I could ride to work all week, in the foulest of weather on the grittiest of B road, with filling up exactly once.
I figured it was the single that makes for the short intervals. It just doesn’t make sense to base an enduro bike on that though. I’d love to hear from someone who runs a 640 adventure.
Now changing the oil and filters I can do but if my service book shows half as many services as KTM recommend then it f*cks the resale value.
The Dakar thing - the oil is changed every night.
I suspect the factory bikes are having a lot more exchanged!
My 660 is based on that motor, over 5K miles it was generaly a case of shall I change the oil this weekend, or wait till the next explosion.
OK - I got a wrong-un - and to be honest, it’s such a mental bike it almost made up for it. Almost.
Think your missing the point mate.
Yes KTM race the Adv. in the same way that Ducati race the 999 but there is a world of difference between what you might buy in the shops and what is raced.
The Dakar competition bikes prob have the engines completely rebuilt in the course of the Dakar. Its a bit like comparing your ZX6 to the Kawak GP bike. The same company completely different bike. If you think the BMW team do nothing on their GS650 but change the oil and filter over the whole Dakar then you prob need to do a bit more research! The bikes are far from standard.
As for services etc the LC4 engine is a very old design (1980’s I think) and was built as a competition motor, not as a street bike. In enduro services are usually measured in hours
not miles. Take something that you might think would be better as its Jap and an enduro the CRF450X. I believe the piston life is approx. 60 hours according to Honda. The Yam WR450 requires oil and filters approx. 250-500 miles of street use. In comparison the LC4’s 3000 miles is rather favourable, no?
Also I think that your thinking on the lines of Enduro = high milage is a bit wide of the mark. Enduro is mainly used as a word to describe things like hare and hound races that last for a few hundred miles max. The Dakar is a rally not an enduro. Also bikes built to do the dakar, rally’s, enduros etc are race bikes and need to be treated as such. A bit like if you ran a race bike on the road. And before you think thats what your ZX6 is, its not. The LC4 was designed as a race bike that people started to use on the road. The ZX6 was built as a street bike that you can race big difference.
Not sure about the Adv. but also remember that the LC4 in SM trim puts out approx 50bhp out of a 625cc single engine, thats not bad when you consider than Suzuki only get 64 out of the SV650 twin. So in relative terms the LC4 is in a much higher state of tune than either of your current bikes. Plus as you rightly said in general singles do need more looking after…well apart from C90s and things
At the end of the day a single is not the best motor in the world, if it was surely we would all be riding one? Single are good at MX and Enduro cos they are light and have relatively a lot of low down torque, they are not used cos the last forever
Your ZX6 will prob do about 80k-100k miles before going pop. Most singles do about 20k-30k before doing the same. Thats the difference. There was a guy in Bike Magazine that had done 120k on a single Adv. engine but I would suggest that is an exception to the rule.
If you want a long distance, do it all, run for ever bike i would buy a Jap in line four.
If you want a fun, versatile bike, that needs looking after get a single.
As for not getting the book stamped yes I would have thought that this will effect resale, but not as much as a Jap bike. Off road bikers are much more likely to do their own servicing due to the extra servicing demands. A KTM 3000 mile service will prob set you back £100-150
At the end of the day its your choice of what you want out of a bike, but it sounds to me that you need to do a bit more research, not taking the pish by the way just don’t want to see you buy the wrong bike
Try other forums like Thumper talk or the KTM forum for more info on the Adv.
I’d get a CRF450 or a KTM525 then rather than an LC4 would be more fun as a weekend toy
Mofo, that’s some interesting data, and answers some of my questions. The reason I’m asking is because I’m very interested. I’m not having a pop at KTM’s, but I am comparing them to what I know.
And since we’re talking about comparing like for like, I don’t think the point is that a dakar going KTM will have a complete rebuild, whereas a roadgoing supersports won’t need it. The point is that these bikes are sold “out of the box” to do certain things. I should be able to take my ZX6 on the track and race it but I’d need to service it more. I should be able to take a 640 KTM cross country. If I race the ZX6, I imagine I’d be putting the same pressures on it as a rallying KTM. And you’re comparing a dakar team run KTM to a road going serviced BMW, that’s not what I meant.
But all these bikes are sold as road bikes, where those demands aren’t placed on them. Yet jap bikes in those conditions require 1/4 to 1/2 less servicing. Shame really. If I was into the dakar thing, guess I’d get a KTM, but it doesn’t make economic sense for the road. I’d have hoped that endurance and rally riding focus would mean less servicing when run at a road rate. I can only conclude it’s the (single) engine that kills it.
Ah well, I’ll keep looking.
