Ktm 890r

[cg_ops]

Gowing down on I80 is a thing nightmares are made of.
Glad to see you still here and posting!

If history is anything to go by, it'll take more than that to get rid of me....

Yeah, it was a bad day. I was in the #2 or 3 lane, cruising with traffic at 65-70. I had no intent of riding like a goon, I just wanted to get out and enjoy the day on a casual tour around the area. I had cruise control on and a light grip on the bar. I used to commute through that stretch and always knew the poor surface was sketchy. I just didn't see it until it was too late. I hit the pothole slightly offset, like hitting a curb and a 30* angle, which pulled the bars out of my grip and caused a slapper. It lasted less than a second before it was so violent that it shot the front out from under me. Witnesses all claimed I was riding normally and was suddenly sliding on the ground. The bike spun and the tail slapped the car next to me, breaking of the rear grab bar.

When the officer arrived he was an absolute dick to me, for no reason. I suspect he didn't like motos at all and/or saw me in a sling and assumed I was riding irresponsibly. When I asked him if he could file a report and I told him I was riding with traffic and went down b/c of the pothole he said, "if I write a report it will say that you failed to maintain control of your vehicle and your insurance will go up as a result. Hundreds of bikes travel this road every day and they don't have any issues. You should have slowed down to a safe speed to see hazards". I countered that I'm a very experience/capable rider and that it's not reasonable to expect riders to always know when/where to slow down for shitty road conditions he got angry. He was so aggro about it I immediately gave up on pushing the issue. He had been trying to get ANY witness to validate his assumption that I was riding recklessly and/or speeding. 4/4 witnesses said I had done nothing wrong, so I (facetiously) think he was mad that I wasn't an easy target to help reach his quota.

Later, I went in for the salvage inspection and it was the same officer I had worked with a few years prior, when my WR250X was totaled after getting hit while splitting. He was happy to still see me out there and we chatted for a while. When I told him about the interaction with the officer on the scene he got PISSED. He said the officer was full of shit and that lots of motos have gone down on 80 due to the poor conditions of the road. He even asked for the officers info so he could scold him for how he handled it - unfortunately I didn't recall his name or badge after the 6 months it took to get the parts to get it road worthy again. He gave me his card to reach out again if I'm ever in a similar situation.

This crash is what caused me to start looking into why the 890's damper failed to prevent the slapper. Turns out, the thing seems to practically be there to check off a box for the marketing department to say it has one. Many think that it's so weak that it's nearly useless and that the jump to much higher oil weight has made their dampers much, much more effective - I will be updating mine this spring, once I can find someone to help me do it.

cg_ops, did you total an 890, and get insurance to replace it?

The bike was (is) road worthy after the crash. I rode it home after giving my insurance to the driver that got hit by the tail, scratching his door. Initially my insurance was going to just pay for the repairs but when their adjustor came out he did a more thorough job than the tech at Mach 1 did. They hadn't pulled off the plastics so they didn't see that the gas tank had a small dent/nick in the paint. With the tank, the total cost pushed it over the repair limit and they ended up totaling it. I decided to keep it and ended up using the money to just repair it and pay off what I owed (which wasn't a ton, since I sold my 701 sumo for the down payment).

The bulk of the damages/repair estimates:

Scratched headlight ~$300
Scratched gauge cluster/mount ~$800
Scratched bodywork (tank, not replaced) ~$300 ($1300)
Rashed stator cover (& carbon protective cover) ~$300 ($100)
Shift lever/passenger peg (not replaced) $200
Rear grab bar ~$100
Tail light/eliminator/blinkers ~$250
Axle sliders ~$100
Clutch lever/perch, brake lever ~$400
Mirrors (one scratched, one snapped off) ~$200
Labor ~$2000

I had already ordered the carbon fiber bodywork so that was already covered. I kept the gas tank since the damage was purely superficial. Rottweiler was able to send replacement sliders, so those were only $20. They were also able to send a replacement tail light for the Evotech fender eliminator - $30 for the light instead of a whole new kit for $200.

I still haven't replaced the shift lever, passenger peg, clutch lever, and a few other minor things.

wow, glad your still around! I have some evotech sliders enroute, I bought it from some guy whose racing in fl and then just got sponsored by woodcraft.

What are your thoughts about the aftermarket rearsets, did you have issues locking the heel/boot to the oem exhaust? That is next on the list, also your led are super cool did you have to buy relays or ohms etc? Or were they plug and play.

What are your thoughts about the woodcraft clipon adapters? Lol sorry for the 20 questions.

Here is a pic for attention, some new tanks pads and a unmarked wings exhaust shipped to me in cali from slovenia in 3 days..... absolutely amazing (shipping speeds) - still not as loud as I would want it.

Thanks! I think you'll like the Evotech stuff, everything I've purchased from them comes nicely packaged and feels like good quality. (Not premium quality, but very good, especially for the price)

I haven't gone with aftermarket rear sets yet. I'm still using OEM. I don't like fixed pegs, I much prefer ones that fold up/back. I haven't seen a solution for the 890 that has that option for a price in my budget. That said, I've seen a lot of posts complaining about burnt boots with aftermarket rearsets and OEM exhaust. Hopefully your Wings doesn't cause issues!

The blinkers on mine don't have resistors, so I do get a fast blink on the dash. But the actual blinkers look fine and blink as designed to. You might have to go in to settings on the dash and change the blinker type to LED - I did that before I installed the new ones.

As for the woodraft riser, I have no experience with them personally but I did meet a 790 owner with them at Alice's. They looked as nice as I'd expect from WC. Alternatively you could get their clip-on conversion kit, which looks sexy as hell!

I had TechSpec on there before I moved to CF bodywork. I just need to move them over. The grips do a lot for this bike, since the area where the knees hit the take has very little contour to lock-in, the grips really help control the bike when leaned over.

 

[EEL]

My 890 Duke R at thunder hill east. At this point, the bike has way more capability than I do.

ECU Telemetry is off for the throttle position but I will have that tweaked the next time I go out

[YOUTUBE]ZfrRdtUlcls[/YOUTUBE]

 

[cg_ops]

Nice - That's a really cool setup, can you walk us through your data logging equipment and overlay on the vid? What hardware/software are you using on the bike and while making your video?

I bought an adapter for the Euro5 OBD plug on the 890 but my OBDLink MX (not MX+) doesn't recognize many of the modules on the bike - at least I was able to see basic data like RP, fuel rate, etc. I use the MX on my truck to keep an eye on temps/pressures when towing and have reset some minor warning lights. I had hoped to fix an error code on the 890 with it but that wasn't possible with the devices I have. But, at least I have the adapter to read data from the 890 now...

I went on a ride this weekend and played with track mode a bit. I always keep ABS in supermoto mode, even in track mode - the ABS is good enough that I haven't feel it intrude into my riding, even at the track. I turned off wheelie control, kept launch control off, and had TCS set to 4 (from the default of 9). I will say that TCS is a bit aggressive at/above level 7. In the high modes it really limits the power it'll send to the rear wheel while leaned over. It's a weird feeling being WOT on corner exit and having the power increase as it stands up.... I didn't like it b/c it's hard to gauge exactly when it'll start sending full power to the ground and if wheelie mode is off, could cause a pucker moment in 2nd or 3rd gear by sending the front wheel towards the heavens. I tried to do a little power wheelie by chopping the throttle off/on in 2nd at around 30mph - to my surprise the rear broke traction and instead up standing up, it just wiggled its butt for a moment. It's taking some getting used to; I was spoiled by the torque/geometry on my 701 sumo, which would wheelie effortlessly in 2nd with a sudden twist of 30%+ of throttle. The Duke has more grunt but less instantaneous punch, if that makes sense. I really wish I could use the clutch lever as clutch ups would be stupidly easy on 890, like on the MT09.

 

[EEL]

Nice - That's a really cool setup, can you walk us through your data logging equipment and overlay on the vid? What hardware/software are you using on the bike and while making your video?

I bought an adapter for the Euro5 OBD plug on the 890 but my OBDLink MX (not MX+) doesn't recognize many of the modules on the bike - at least I was able to see basic data like RP, fuel rate, etc. I use the MX on my truck to keep an eye on temps/pressures when towing and have reset some minor warning lights. I had hoped to fix an error code on the 890 with it but that wasn't possible with the devices I have. But, at least I have the adapter to read data from the 890 now...

I used the same adapter cable and ODBII MX+ you have. This allows for gathering throttle position, RPM, coolant and intake air temperature

The speed, G-Force and lean angle info (not shown the video I linked) are values obtained from my 10hz GPS attached to the bike

All of this info funnels into my phone and gets collected with lap GPS info in RaceChrono (Phone App)

The Video is imported into Racechrono on my phone and the overlay is created automatically.

it sounds complicated but its just a lot of compnents you set up once. After than its literally push and button when you start your session.

 

[FXCLM5]

so EEL whens your next track day?

I agree, i need to do the steering damper oil weight mod,

I guess I can wait on rearsets - i like the rubber stock pegs - this makes it so you can tour this bike, I dont have clearance issues with the stock pegs on my fav road, but not exactly sure if my boots will not burn up on the track - my body position would be alot more exaggerated.

Also the profile of the tank, super tall and the actual hump is tilted towards the front end, makes it super hard to grip the bike to lock in and hang off, tank grips helped tremendously but feels like i only have like 10% of actual leg/thigh to bike vs other bikes

Also whats your guys mpg usage? I did 39 commute miles and it took like 1.002, I then did 68 canyon miles and it took 1.788 something, I was a little astounded since they were almost identical @ 39mpg

 

[Lonster]

I get 58 to 62 MPG everywhere.

 

[FXCLM5]

hmm, maybe i need to run the bike in non track mode and use the rain mode to commute on it....

I iz confused, ppl say the speedos are very accurate, mine is like 10%+ off from factory, now your report is like 150% more mpg then I get

Thats actually amazing mpg, your getting 215 - 229 per tank, i avg like 120 and the light comes on

 

[EEL]

hmm, maybe i need to run the bike in non track mode and use the rain mode to commute on it....

I iz confused, ppl say the speedos are very accurate, mine is like 10%+ off from factory, now your report is like 150% more mpg then I get

Thats actually amazing mpg, your getting 215 - 229 per tank, i avg like 120 and the light comes on

Ir all depends how you ride. I'm closer to 120 before I run out of gas. Light turns on at 100 but I ride it like it's stolen

 

[EEL]

so EEL whens your next track day?

Scheduled track day so far is at Laguna on may 23rd

Hoping to get a track day in prior to that in March

 

[Lonster]

I have heard that from others too.
I got low 50's stock, after it was broken in.
With the addition of the full exhaust, PCV and de-cannister, I get a 60 average wringing it's neck on HWY36.
Yes, 180 plus is doable on a full tank.

 

[FXCLM5]

whaaaat, no bike have I ever owned got better mpg after full exhaust and tuning

you got a unicorn man

we shud all go to track and pit together and run a barf banner buahahhaha

 

[Lonster]

lol.
I'll be doing some track days this year, so perhaps we'll bump into each other.
P.S. My 4400lb car got a 10% increase in fuel economy and a nice HP bump with the catless downpipes, cold air intake and a tune. Most times, getting the super lean mixture changed to something real makes a nice positive gain.

 

[cg_ops]

I typically average about 50mpg on my Duke. Gas light comes on around 130 miles and I'm usually filling up at around 3 gallons at ~150 miles on the tank.

I love the range on the bike. I have been hesitant to do an exhaust/intake/tune like I did with my 701. When I did it on that sumo I went from ~130 miles per tank to 100. But it was worth it on that bike, squeezing out an extra 12ft-lbs of torque and 10hp at the wheel. I haven't seen many dyno runs on the 890 with mods - I'd be curious to see what people are getting from it.

 

[FXCLM5]

hmmmm, today 730am about 38degrees out my bike wouldnt start on first ignition

weird, i rode 68 canyon miles on Sunday lol, researching the issue leads to batteries and immobilizer nightmares .... lol

also do not look at any dynomaps, the coober ecu puts like +10hp/trq in midrange, its pretty nuts!

https://cooberecu.com/collections/k...coober-lm-device-for-ktm-890-duke-r-2020-2021

they look like they have a better fueling map then rottweiler, they leave the o2 sensors in and only tune midrange, they state the upper range in the rpm the o2 sensors do so well adjusting with stock tune that they leave it alone

 

[Lonster]

I just got my bike back from a full warranty replacement of the ignition lock cylinder, the 'black box' and the tail section lock because of immobilizer failure. Turns out that the immobilizer black box is mounted between the coolant reservoir and the cylinder head. When mine got warm (read: hot), it affected the resistance and created an immobilizer failure. Luckily, there have been enough failures that the factory will warranty everything if a dealer supplies proof via voltage/resistance measurements. Mine would only fail if I warmed up the bike first and shut it off before leaving for a ride.

 

[Jammer]

I just got my bike back from a full warranty replacement of the ignition lock cylinder, the 'black box' and the tail section lock because of immobilizer failure. Turns out that the immobilizer black box is mounted between the coolant reservoir and the cylinder head. When mine got warm (read: hot), it affected the resistance and created an immobilizer failure. Luckily, there have been enough failures that the factory will warranty everything if a dealer supplies proof via voltage/resistance measurements. Mine would only fail if I warmed up the bike first and shut it off before leaving for a ride.

Good to know if you keep having failures, they're going to fix them. If only everyone had enough failures to be so lucky.

 

[cg_ops]

also do not look at any dynomaps, the coober ecu puts like +10hp/trq in midrange, its pretty nuts!

https://cooberecu.com/collections/k...coober-lm-device-for-ktm-890-duke-r-2020-2021

they look like they have a better fueling map then rottweiler, they leave the o2 sensors in and only tune midrange, they state the upper range in the rpm the o2 sensors do so well adjusting with stock tune that they leave it alone

Hmmm... I actually feel no need for more top-end power on this bike, but having 10 extra hp/feet-torques would be nice in the lower/mid-range if, for no other reason, than to make gear selection even more versatile. I say "more versatile" because, stock, this bike already has a tendency to let me forget about needing to shift. On longer rides, especially after ~1-200 miles of spirited riding, I tend to get a little lazy on the 890 and forget about downshifting: I end up finding myself riding around in 5th gear while going as slow as 20mph.

I think it's a mix of it having lots of torque (for a 400lb bike) and the Rekluse never really lets the RPM drop so low that it starts to chatter/lug. So, I sometimes find myself trying to power out of a tight turn and realizing that the clutch is slipping because the RPM are below idle at 20mph in 6th gear It's a great "problem" to have. I can drop 3 gears to wake myself back up or I can leave it and enjoy a lazy ride, as I enjoy the scenery while cruising. 10 more lbs of torque would just mean I can be even lazier! Never had this issue before - my i4's lost too much grunt at low RPM, the WR250 had no power anywhere, the 701/R3/SV650's gearing were too short, and never spent enough time on other bikes to notice.

TBH, this thread is making me want to try an 890 ADV R for longer weekend rides, like down to SLO or up to Yreka. Heck, by the time I'm ready to buy it'll probably be the 990 or come full circle to the 1090 ADV.

 

[EEL]

Hmmm... I actually feel no need for more top-end power on this bike, but having 10 extra hp/feet-torques would be nice in the lower/mid-range if, for no other reason, than to make gear selection even more versatile.

I respectfully disagree. I do a decent amount of track days and top speed is definitely deficient. We're not talking about a lot but rather a total of 10 HP.

The bike has enough torque already. Adding more wouldn't gain much more as adding more horsepower.

On top of that, this is not a point and shoot bike. Its purpose is to carry insane amounts of corner speed and maintain thru the turn.

Perhaps reduced gearing with the additional midrange torque would result in a higher top speed

 

[cg_ops]

I respectfully disagree. I do a decent amount of track days and top speed is definitely deficient. We're not talking about a lot but rather a total of 10 HP.

The bike has enough torque already. Adding more wouldn't gain much more as adding more horsepower.

On top of that, this is not a point and shoot bike. Its purpose is to carry insane amounts of corner speed and maintain thru the turn.

Perhaps reduced gearing with the additional midrange torque would result in a higher top speed

Good take - I suppose it just depends on where the bike's ridden. More track = more HP, especially up top. More street = more torque, anywhere I can get it as long as it's linear.

Given my experience with my 701 and many of the forum posts I've come across, I don't really trust KTM bikes to last with frequent track duty (especially as someone that can't really wrench) so I think of mine as my street bike that I occasionally take to the track while I abuse my R3 race bike at the track since it'll never see the street again. On the street, the extra mid-range is useful way more than peak HP - same reason why I feel that a 100+hp twin is a far better daily experience than a 100+hp i4. I think that's also why Yamaha did away with the R6 in favor of the R7; it's a better day-to-day experience for 90(~?)% of riding people will use them for outside of the track.

I also think mid-range generally doesn't get the respect that it should. It gives a lot of gear-selection versatility that you don't get when you load it all on the upper range. When I had M-works tune my 701 I specifically requested that he focus on the midrange, from 25-75% RPM.

 

[EEL]

Good take - I suppose it just depends on where the bike's ridden. More track = more HP, especially up top. More street = more torque, anywhere I can get it as long as it's linear.

Given my experience with my 701 and many of the forum posts I've come across, I don't really trust KTM bikes to last with frequent track duty (especially as someone that can't really wrench) so I think of mine as my street bike that I occasionally take to the track while I abuse my R3 race bike at the track since it'll never see the street again. On the street, the extra mid-range is useful way more than peak HP - same reason why I feel that a 100+hp twin is a far better daily experience than a 100+hp i4. I think that's also why Yamaha did away with the R6 in favor of the R7; it's a better day-to-day experience for 90(~?)% of riding people will use them for outside of the track.

I also think mid-range generally doesn't get the respect that it should. It gives a lot of gear-selection versatility that you don't get when you load it all on the upper range. When I had M-works tune my 701 I specifically requested that he focus on the midrange, from 25-75% RPM.

I hear you. I owned a monster 1100 evo prior to my 890 duke R. It was the 76 ft lbs of torque from idle with basically no top end.

I've experienced what you're talking about in real life. When you have additional torque with an ultra light bike, you just end up lifting the front end everywhere. Like my monster, the MT09 is a good non-discontinued example of that. Yes it has a very linear torque curve but if you've ridden one like I have, you'll see it's just becomes a party trick.