Fellow Ktm 990 Adv riders...... Your thoughts please!

[Digitdion]

Hello Boys and girls. Just wanting to get a bit of feedback from Fellow 990 Adv riders. 2 things I would like to find out YOUR experience with.

1) Oil. My bike is now out of warranty, so I can use any oil. Motorex is top Quality. I know that. I also know that KTM own them. HAve any of you changed the type of oil once bike is no longer under warranty. What are your thoughts? Note I have everything intention of looking after the engine of course, but if i CAN save a few bucks at the same time.

2) Tyres. I have picked my way thru the tyre thread but no real luck. The perelli scorp is a great tyre in my opinions and there are not a lot of options for a tyre of this size. I would love to run dual sport knobbies but I have to draw the line, so a cross over tyre is fine. Are some of you running a knobbly on the front with scorp on the back? What other adventure tyres are you running? Any better than the scorp?

Thanks for your replies. If any of you are ever down in the Queenstown area look me up.

Cheers Dion

[warewolf]

Not a v-twin owner, but the 640 has nearly the same oil spec. I run everything on Mobil 1 (for 4T m/c). I'm not having a different brand of oil in the garage for every bike!! Compared to the Motorex stuff it's the same shite, different smell. Get it wherever you can get it cheap.

PS even in warranty, you can use any oil that meets the spec.

[cooneyr]

Not had my 950 long enough to do an oil change yet. Going to use Mobil 1 after I use my one any only bottle of ridiculously expensive Motorex oil. Do a search of Adv rider - there is a few threads about 9x0's and oil.

Re tyres I'm currently running a D606 front cause I really rate them and a MT21 rear for a laugh. The MT21 rear is not going to last very long! Done 300kms on it and lost about 2mm of 14mm tread. Also I've run the same route on it as the Mitas E07 I took off and the MT21 has more braking traction but other than that the E07 is just as good if not better. The route is seal, gravel and dirt track. I'll be sticking to the D606 front and E07 rear (140 wide) unless the rumours come true and Mitas finally makes the E09 in a 140 or 150 wide rear.

Cheers R

[Crisis management]

Oils, I believe the manfacturer and look on it as a cheap insurance against premature wear, however I'm equally sure that other reputable oil suppliers have a similar quality product. Is there really a price difference?
With the 990 I bought a full filter kit to have spare set of the screen filters so if you planning on that now is the time to order online from KTMtwins.....substantially cheaper than here ($90 here).

Tyres, I liked the Scorpions for seal but not loose stuff and for a while ran a TKC80 on the front & Scorpion rear which worked well. I like the front well planted but am ambivalent about the rear, 7000 kms so far out off the front and lots left.
I currently have a TKC on the rear as well and thats great for improved traction in loose stuff and its wearing reasonably, I expect 3 to 4000kms out of that.
In the slippery wet sealed surfaces the Scorpions stick a bit better, the TKC's step out in a very controllable manner but you need to be prepared for it. I haven't run MT21's on it but would expect (like the 606's) bertter off road traction and less on road traction

Depends where you want to ride, on any firm surface the Scorpion or similar will do it but if you want to get into loose stuff try something more aggressive with the MT21 & 606 being more aggressive than the TKC.

Ducati Jim (he of the throttle snatch & fuel consumption) runs T63's and is very happy with them.