There’s some pretty big top end differences there, but that’s really not bad for a bike that is equally at home on the twisty local roads, or going to get groceries. An ECU map and letting the engine breathe would cut the delta down a bit. I recently sold my tricked out R6 which was an amazing track bike, and yet miserable on the street. The 890 feels much lighter and MUCH more comfortable on the road.
^^ The owner tried a couple of different flashes and removing the cat…basically no difference and we ultimately went back to the stock flash and pipe. The flash pumped up the midrange, but didn’t do much for the top end and the jump in midrange hurt ride ability. I do think there is more there, but we didn’t explore it past that.
Thanks for sharing Ken. I certainly felt that the SS built 600s started to pull a lot harder against the 890R on the top end. It's cool to see Andy working on it.
I'm 275 lbs, so keep that in mind, but I put a 1290 SD OEM spring on my shock (need to use the 1290 spacer too) and then got the stiffest fork springs in the KTM parts fiche, which I think are about .94kg/mm - technically still too light for me - but it worked so well, I'm not going to bother changing them. The crappy thing for fork springs is they are very long, so finding aftermarket is kind of a challenge, so I figured I'd just try the KTM replacements. I'm sure Ohlins and K-Tech etc. have something, but as I recall they're 370mm long? Anyway, it's not a common road bike length.
