Christ man, get on with it.
<TLDR> Marmite handling, lovely power, good suspension. Go ride, have fun.
Bullet points for the short of span:
- Get a proper bashplate and a brake snake immediately. Wrapped the brake lever twice around the footpeg in the first hour. Oddly malleable but monumentally arse-clenching to bend back.
- Medium term, get a screen.
- Wishlist, save for an auxilliary front tank and lighter silencer.
- Air filter – beee caaarefullll… Make sure you figure out how ot locate the front tabs before you ride it out the driveway. Found at the first change mine wasn’t, after a dusty day. Hands flew to face, peered at intake through fingers.
- Fuel capacity is 13L (I think) and it seemed to run at about 20km/l over a mix of 20% road, 60% fast gravel and 20% techncial. The light comes on early. I ran it dry at that combo at 260kms.
I find the much hated quickshift is actually quite likeable on the road where i’m somewhat of a donkey. The upshift part is of zero practical use and does not turn me on in any way.
The downshift however, is a likeable friend and turns panicky stomps on the lever in the twisties into smoothly buttered progress, allowing me extra time to figure out other VERY IMPORTANT THINGS. Road riding is notably more enjoyable from its’ presence.
Handle with care
Road handling feels fine, end of, nothing more to say.
Offroad I dont actually know. Schizo. I’m only partially convinced.
- Fully up it like a special stage, head over the front guard and nuts on the tank, great. It’s predictable and responsive and fulfills the big-but-not-monster-dirtbike brief very nicely, albeit with the awareness of a rearward weight bias.
- It is ugly AF fully laden touring on gravel. With bags on and a full tank it’s hard to tell what the front wheel is attached to. Fine on straight gravel once comfortable with the sensation of towing a trailer.
You know when you see the Dakar guys at the ton with the bike shimmying along underneath them? The 790 does this, and shimmys from somewhere around the middle. I could happily let the 790 do it’s thing for hours on end (to be fair the journey to ‘happy’ had a large poo or two in it).
I couldn’t on the 690. It shimmies from the rear, not with a twinkly wiggle but a wallowy yaw that always demands concentration unless you love the feel of progressing into a murderous swap. - Slow tight gravelly corners? 50/50. Laden it just wants to dump you on the ground. Unladen, not so bad, but see 1 above.
Possible Caveats: Tyres. Std rear, knobbly front. The rear did a perfectly good job, lasted way better than anything open pattern i’ve used before, but we didnt see any mud. The knobby front was quite worn by the end but I would assume would bite better in gravel than the standard front. I’d like to run through a couple of different control tyres.
Now here’s the thing. A cobber with an identical bike, just with an accessory front tank and a Dakar tower, was on the trip. I.E more weight forward. Totally fucking different bike. Neutral, central. Loveable.
So where does that leave us?
I love the size (I can pick it up) the grunt & refinement (goes nicely on the road, no vibes, plenty of power) and really do want one. For an average chap that likes to get into dumb places the 790/890 is a little too big.
However it’s not loveable. I know how to make it thus but it’s $5k worth of accessories. That’s not cool. A halfway house might be an Akrapovic or similar – the silencer is rumoured to be a bit of a boat anchor – but again, $$$ and you still need a screen.
Hmm.
Motopinion 