Posts
17872
Joined
1/6/2011
Location
Ogden, UT
US
Edited Date/Time
5/11/2016 9:09am
hey bros, anyone ridden both or either?
i'm looking at them to do for a long distance adventure style bike (Baja, Colorado, Alaska, etc). i was pretty bummed when i went and looked at them today, the $11000 price tags gave me a Fearection. the price tag is enough to make me want to send Meg back to the strip club so i don't have to double mortgage the trailer.
anyway, any thoughts or opinions are very appreciated.
i'm leaning towards the KTM 500, but that 701cc is very appealing. the KTM 690 looks sweet too, but i feel the 690 and 701 may be a little too MUCH bike? how do they handle single track? also, my 5gallon tank will bolt right on the 500, but can you get bigger tanks for the 690 and 701? i need at least 5 gallons.
i'm looking at them to do for a long distance adventure style bike (Baja, Colorado, Alaska, etc). i was pretty bummed when i went and looked at them today, the $11000 price tags gave me a Fearection. the price tag is enough to make me want to send Meg back to the strip club so i don't have to double mortgage the trailer.
anyway, any thoughts or opinions are very appreciated.
i'm leaning towards the KTM 500, but that 701cc is very appealing. the KTM 690 looks sweet too, but i feel the 690 and 701 may be a little too MUCH bike? how do they handle single track? also, my 5gallon tank will bolt right on the 500, but can you get bigger tanks for the 690 and 701? i need at least 5 gallons.
The 500 is more of a dual sport bike, where the 690 is more of an adventure bike.
I looked long and hard at the 701 and the 500/501 is the bike. I just sold my 2012 XC500 (made street legal) with PDS.
It was a an awesome bike.....great in the tight stuff, in the mountains (Rekluce and trials tire) and a great DS bike.
Soon I will get the Husky 501....not the Husky 701
The 701 and or the 690 have their place....you just cannot beat the 500
The Shop
i'll need something comfortable on stretches of highway and dirt roads that will still handle the more technical stuff well, which i why i was looking at the 701. all the videos i've watched about them, they seem to do everything well. i'll still have my 300 for the tight mountain stuff, but this would be for the bigger longer harder stuff.
If i was buying , id be using it as a road toy, and would buy the 701, it looks great , but for any type of offroad , id go with the 500.. its designed for off road, you can pick it up unassisted, and i reckon geared and ridden right , it will go anywhere.
i would say the fact that you have a 300, means that maybe the 500 will be too similar , in terms of what it will do , the 701 will have very long legs on the highway compared to the 500
if i never ride one of those again then it will be too soon
IMO-
The 500 will be fine for the highway stretches you'll do in Baja since they're generally slower. In the states it would get old after 30 miles.
On the flip side-
I think the 690/701 will do better in the single track than you think. Like a XR 650 but probably better. Speculation but that's my assumption. I've thought about getting one of these for Baja myself, some singletrack trails might be tough (near RSV and some in the Catavina area), but I think I could swing it.
i'm thinking the 500 or the Husky 501 would be the right bike for me, still handle ok on the highway and high-speed dirt roads but be good on the rough fast and the single track.
the 690 or 701 would be awesome to try out though, especially for the longer distance stuff i want to do up here.
https://youtu.be/-rwXUeASwe8
Pit Row
Having said that, I wished for many miles that I was on my 450. The terrain down there just screamed for a lighter more nimble bike. Spend some time and $$$ setting up the seating and comfort items, and don't look back. The new 500's (both Husky and Ktm) are fanstastic. Lot's of set up ideas at bestdualsports.com
i'm just trying to find a happy balance. the 500 or 501 is probably the ticket, i'm not a huge dude (6'2 and 160) so the bigger bikes might be a struggle. like UTrider said, the big bike would be great in areas but that lighter 450 was awesome down there so maybe the 500 or 501.
my 300 ate this shit up but really struggled on the long distance dirt roads and especially on the highway. and Xeno, i don't prefer highway but sometimes you gotta grind the pavement down there. the main thing is Baja is such a small part of my yearly riding so i don't want a Baja specific ride. i want something that will kick ass down there, but handle everything i throw at it up here. single track, dirt roads, and some highway here and there to transfer to the next area.
LMFAO, ROFLOL, EYES WATERING IM LAUGHING SO HARD, STOMACH HURTS IM LAUGHING SO HARD, GF THINKS IM INSANE IM LAUGHING SO HARD, ETC
Edit: I see your comment about the single track in Utah being different
than in Baja so maybe I'm not sure.
On a 350.
In '17 I will be getting the "New" FE501.
I also looked at a 690 before I bought it. I would suggest watching some go-pro videos of people trail riding one first and see if you think it will work for what you want to do. I get the feeling you're probably a pretty decent rider so maybe you can haul ass on it. Keep in mind the turning radius, frame, and the bike in general is not like an xr650, I would not expect it to perform like one off-road.
Tough decision, I concluded for me there really is no perfect "do everything well" dual sport bike. Just depends what you want to do.
I originally was debating between the Husky 701, the KTM 690 Enduro and the FE 501S. So I then narrowed it down to either of they Huskys, but it took forever for California to get the Husky 701 due to some sort of emissions problems and the maping.
After hearing a few rumors regarding the 3 bikes I decided on the 501 S
I love camping and fishing just as much as desert riding, and so do my girlfriend so since the 701 was more passenger friendly than the 501 S I wanted the 701. But No dealers here in Cali had them. Also one day we were out at a major dealership looking at them, and I saw a new KTM Adventure 1190R for $16,000.00 and the KTM 690 enduro was priced at almost $12,000. So I figured the 690 and the 701 prices were getting close to the prices of a "REAL" adventure bike, and since I do eventually want a "REAL" adventure bike, I decided to wait on the 701 or 690 and get a "REAL" adventure bike in a couple years from now, since I will most likely be retired near that time, and would have more time to actually do some real long distance adventure rides. Also I got the 501 over a 350 in case I need to ride a passenger. I need to find passenger pegs for the 501 though
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