Tell me about......

[Sadlonelygit]

Ktboom 620 lc4's
Fancy something silly for the winter, apparently been rebuilt, 41fcr, akra, excel wheels.
Cosmetically 'challenged', but aren't we all!
Did they escape the clutch basket of doom, sprags, gearboxes........ vibes!!!!!
Where's Trumps when you need him?

[KungFooBob]

What colour engine does it have?

[Taipan]

Don’t. Just don’t. Horrible vibey, unreliable rusting pieces of crap. Worse bike I’ve ever owned.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

There's loads of different engine specs for them, the kickstart only 625 SMC can be a bit fragile, the leccy start 640s seem to be okay, not sure if the 660 was ever sold as road legal bike, the SM race ones were powerful (for 2004) but fragile.

[Sadlonelygit]

What colour engine does it have?

IMG_20241128_231051.jpg (168.47 KiB) Viewed 380 times

[Ditchfinder]

Bad decisions make great stories

[Sadlonelygit]

Bad decisions make great stories

I've already owned a 610 husky, cb500t, this could make the unholy trinity!

[Screwdriver]

I rebuilt one once. Nice bikes really but they are not paragons of reliability. It was not really designed as a road bike and the engine is effectively a detuned competition motor with some extreme service requirements. They really need to be looked after a lot more than a Japanese equivalent.

Service intervals are microscopically short if you're after reliability. If I was looking for an LC4 again now, I'd be much happier with a DR400 or SM variant. They are bulletproof. The 610 is a bit of a dog, the SM570R is the weapon of choice for the discerning nutter. Can't be many of those left now though...

[Supermofo]

Owned 2 640 KTMs. A Duke 2 I had for 18 months, traded it for a 625SMC. Ridden as only transport for nearly 2 years. No issues at all with either and the 625 was doing a daily 60 mile round commute at the end.

No idea what I was thinking with the sticker kit!



The 620 Super Comp was kick only
The 660SMC was kick only
The 625SMC was leccy start and sort of a halfway house between the LC4 and 660. I loved it but it had a more revy engine than the Duke. Mine put out 58 bhp after some work.

I really liked both mine. And as I said no reliability issues at all, but lots of others weren't so lucky and 20 years ain't gonna help.

[Screwdriver]

I really liked both mine. And as I said no reliability issues at all, but lots of others weren't so lucky and 20 years ain't gonna help.

Don't get me wrong, they're great bikes, superb suspension etc. but you're right to count yourself lucky.

I did work in a supermoto shop for some time and while I don't want to make up numbers, the KTM was not top of the list for reliability. In fairness, many of the "best" machines were extraordinarily highly strung and you didn't really need them to do long distance. I couldn't really do much more than 20 odd miles on my old SM570R. After a while, your teeth would come loose...



Thinking about your comment regarding a 20 year old version. I wonder if the opposite may be true. I think what happened was you got a good one out of the box or a duffer (this was definitely true for the Husabergs!) so it could be an issue with production.

They are not stamped out like Japanese machines and errors/offsets in manufacture might mean a dodgy engine is never going to come good without some serious blueprinting.

So if a KTM lasted more than a year without shitting its pants, there's every chance it might keep going....