Talk Me Out of a Kramer

He said "back in the day", which sounds like 30-40+ years ago, based on his age.

 

Which means that a modern single can be made to run at high speed for a long time.

 

Disagree

 

Tell that to the blokes who race them at the Isle of Man.

 

HKR-Evo 2 690 Service Manual says it needs a valve adjustment every 600ish miles and a new piston/cylinder every 3000ish miles.

So I guesss that depends on your defention of "long time" is.

 

Those things will get rebuilt before, during and after the event.

Are you really using that as the guidance on how reliable they are?

Is this gixxer.com?

 

3000 miles on race track is long time

 

Lets put a Kramer 690 in endurance next year and see how long it lasts at a place like RoadA.

 

My suspicion with the 690 Kramer is also that if you consider who is running this bike on the track, it is probably a wealthy, older person using it for trackdays and not really wringing the piss out of the things. Its probably fine for that application. I'm sure they'll last 3,000 miles at 50% average throttle.

 

Blokes are doing a season of short circuit racing on them as well without major rebuilds. Singles can be raced reliably at high speeds.

 

Really? 80HP 690cc? I doubt it.

My KLR650s make 40HP and I bet I could blow one up in 30 minutes.

 

Probably look like this one

 

So I guess sport bikes are not high strung,and can be raced many years without even changing plugs.
Singles on the other hand will blow up in a matter of seconds if you hold them wide open.

 

They have run many 5-hour endurance races on Kramers in the CRA MN. Thats at BIR, a 3.1 mile course with a straight that’s about 1/2 mile long. They have always finished without issues, and usually within top 5 overall teams against every size of bike.

 

Go check a maintnance schedule on your average MX avaiable today bike vs. an 600 from same and get back to us. Same high strung engine, right?

I'm not saying they can't, but they will need more maintance than your average bike. This is just a fact unless you want to ignore reality.

 

Sport bike will probably do same, if you can find place to hold them wide open for that long.

 

That's actually quite impressive. I still woudn't put one up against any run of the mill inline 4 as far as maintnance vs. reliability.

 

As I mentioned, I'm not an engineer or a mechanic. Why do parallel twins offer more reliability than V or L twins? Guessing because less crank/rod forces?

 

Saying that a 85hp SV650 is gonna last a lot longer than a 690 85hp single.

Unless the laws of physics don't apply to the internet.

 

I was concerned about the reliability as well. I’ve spent a good amount of time talking to Joe from Kramer USA. They are actually much more reliable than you would think. I can’t remember exact numbers, but I was shocked when he told me how much time they were getting out of those motors. If anyone is on the fence, I strongly encourage you to reach out to Kramer Joe, and talk with him. Hes a really great knowledgeable person to deal with, and will give you all of the facts and information that you need to know.