SWISS ARMY BIKE

The KTM 690 Enduro R is a curious bike. In a lot of ways it defies easy categorisation and I suspect that’s because it’s not a simple fit for the Australian market. On one hand we have a country that adores the big bore — the 500s and 300s continue to sell well year after year, so you’d not be far off the mark assuming that bumping the CCs up to 690 and calling it an Enduro would draw a crowd. But the 690 weighs some 40kg more than a 500 EXC-F and produces only around 10 horsepower extra, so on paper alone it isn’t clear that it should be considered alongside what we call enduro.

Is it an adventure bike? Well, almost, except that the fuel range is limited to around 250km (KTM gave us two estimates of 200km and 300km) and the fuel filler cap is on the rear guard which gets covered