A little update. I now have over 1200 miles on this bike. Have I mentioned that I love it. Stratton, I owe you.
Since I put the TKC 80 on the front the headshake is gone, totally gone. This thing is planted up to 75 which is the fastest I have taken it for any duration. I have been running the tires at 18psi for mixed riding and plan to run 13-15 if I'm headed into long stretches of dirt.
During the initial baseline I noticed a bit of dust, quite a bit in the air box. This is a common issue with 690's with many guesses on the cause. Some say it is th paper filter, others claim the way the lid clamps the filter in place. I pulled the air filter out after about 600 miles and there was dust in the air box again so I decided to take care of it. This filter was the cheapest and easiest solution I could find.
https://www.twinair.com/news/news-item.php?itemdate=170217
It arrived last week so I threw it in. I also sealed the top portion of the box that has a tendency to leak with some RTV. The brass inserts seen here also suck and come out of the plastic air box easily. This is easily fixed with a dab of superglue and re-inserting them.
Here is the filter installed.
I have the Evo 1 air box lid that has a spine going perpendicular to the long slits in the cage of the twin air. I cut them with a dremmel and it fit great. This is a multi layer foam filter and it should do a great job. I'll post results later after a few hundred dusty miles.
Since I had the air box out I decided to check the valves. I had to tighten the exhaust valves when I did the initial baseline. That is unusual as valve clearance almost always gets tighter as things wear. The early 690's had some instances of rocker arms breaking so I wanted to make sure mine weren't getting worse. I took the valve cover off and turned the engine to TDC. At that point I noticed the timing chain seamed loose. Upon inspection I found the factory hydraulic cam chain tensioner was fully retracted. I had not released it properly on the first inspection! I rode this bike over 1k miles with no cam chain tensioner and it never jumped a tooth, it does explain the cam chain noise that I assumed was normal due to internet reports of these engines having a lot of timing chain noise. After releasing the tensioner correctly I checked valve clearance and they are all at the top end of spec (0.12mm) same as they were 1k miles ago so I am happy with that for now. I'll check them again in 2k miles at the next oil change.
With everything buttoned up I took her out for a spin up AF canyon which recently opened. I couldn't pass up a chance to test my shoulder that I injured a few weeks ago and test the bike on some singletrack. I peeled off FR85 and took trail 41 up from the bridge at the east end of Tibble fork. The bike did awesome with a little clutch work, even with my bum wing and super aired up tires.
If you want a true do it all dual sport, you need a 690/701. I love this bike!
690/300. FTW.
