Gents,
good topic, if I read the stories I get drawn back to the trip... I was 42000 km on a 2000 model Adventure (that I bought with 16000 on the clock). Met Jerome and Dave on the trip of this Thread, good to chat... And good luck guys for the future... My failures were only few ones...
1. the front wheel bearing failed at km24000. But they were the originals and in 2000 the OE weren't of high quality. So the new ones are still in today...
2. The Revmeter failed at 25000 km, in the f... desert. Well, I pulled the plug and its still off and I finished the trip.
3. clutch basket made rattling sounds at 30000 km. I exchanged and upgraded to the 2004 solution.
4. Piston failure in Chile after pieces broke off following the Bolivian 70 octane gas at km 50000. At KTM Chile (by the way a super dealer) I got all new parts. And at that time (as the bearings made these funny noises since 5000) I exchanged everything, basically build a reman engine.
5. Rear wheel bearings failed at km 55000 in Patagonia.
Everything survived 100 Rivers (up to the light), 60 degrees, 5300 meters altitude, minus 15 in Bolivia and so on.

Besides the engine (which I do not blame the KTM for) all these little things were for me more or less wear and tear...
And it never let me down...
Super Bike.. Cheers Ras

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Rasmus
www.panamericana.info

So far:
2006 Adventure. 5000km into Africa trip - in Egypt.

Sidestand - aftermarket from KTM Sommer. Broken 2 bloody centre stands (the bolt) with it and now its bent and won't work. Dont bother putting it on, waste of money. You get used to the centre stand with panniers etc.

Leaking a small amount of oil from the sighting window on the RHS of the engine. The seal on the window has gone.

Apart from that, great bike which is doing the job well. Just wish you didnt have to remove the tank to get to the spark plug...

Ok... posted an ironic comment on this thread 19th feb regarding Adventure vs Dakar. Now I have decided to give the KTM 640 ADV a try and bougth one
last week......

Havent started to ride it yet but the history from previous owner is:

2005 mod
5000km
Neutral bulb changed.

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Dizzie

Congatulations - and happy travels. Keep us posted!

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Just curious, to some of you who posted on this thread a couple of years ago, do you still own your Adventures and if so what kind of mileage are you up to now? I own a 03 and so far other than a rocker cover oil leak it's been pretty much trouble free for 41,000 km. regular wear and tear items:
12,000 km new sprockets and chain
17,500 repad brakes
20,500 replace worn needle/needle jet
23,500 sprockets and chain
26,200 new float +needle valve assembly
30,300 new countershaft seal + o-ring
31,000 rear wheel bearings+ renew exhaust hanger bushings
37,100 chain and sprockets + countershaft seal and o-ring
38,000 repad brakes
41,000 rebuild water pump + replace cam follower and main cam bearing + replace float needle/seat + new jet needle {preventative maintenance}

So far so good.........

Island Hopper,
Your experience mirrors mine with my '02 640 Adventure at 20K miles-32K Km.
I have not had rear wheel bearing problems though. i just removed them, regreased them and put them back in service.
Hope I don't regret that decision.
With regard to your other problems, I think I had them all.
Bill

The only problems I had with my 2004 640 advt. was:
5000km Leaking fork seal after 3500km of badly corrageted gravel roads and station tracks in the Pibarra region of N.W. Wester Australia.
9500km Slight weeping of oil from the cam cover seal - replaced under warranty with no problems they even gave me a loaner bike for the day whilst the seal was changed [ Thanks Motorcycle City.]
I have found this a fantastic bike for gravel road and dirt track touring.
My wife was also on this trip riding here 640 hard enduro fitted with the 18 litre tank and also had only minor problems eg:blown headlight globes x 2 and a minor oil leak and 3 broken front wheel spokes.[ we had spares]
I have found these 640 bikes to be ultra reliable and economical 520 km range from the advt. on gravel and loose dirt mix at speeds averaging 80 to 100kmh.
These bikes have been riden hard and well prepared and maintaned but definatly not pampered.

Not long after my last post my 03 640 Adventure suffered a major failure. From what I could see it started with a broken piston ring and went from there. I completely stripped the engine down to nothing and started replacing the damage. The list of parts is as follows:
complete set of gaskets
new crankshaft
new crank bearings
new crank seals+ keys and end nuts
cylinder replated
new piston kit
cylinder head remachined to remove pugmarks {from piston hits crunching ring debris}
complete valve job {new seals +2 intakes and 2 exhaust guides}

I feel KTM is extracting to much performance out of this engine at the cost of reliability and have done a couple things to change that:
#1 Had the machine shop take a little extra material out of the combustion well to reduce compression a wee bit {could also be done with a thicker base gasket}
#2 I switched the ignition to the low octane setting for a softer hit and will leave it like that.

With these changes I hope to make it past 100,000 KM without to many more problems. This is a mark that seems rare for the LC 4 engine to reach without having some kind of major meltdown sometime before it's reached.

Hello...

I ride a 2000 KTM 640 LC4 Adventure R.

It has been a GREAT bike, and required periodic maintenance of course...
but I have only had two 'failures', and they are both known.

1) ~ 4,000 miles: Clutch cable break.
2) ~ 8,500 miles: Front wheel bearings replaced.

I have just ordered the SW-Motech sidestand so that I can retain the centre stand but still mount and dismount such a tall bike with the Touratech ZEGA panniers mounted.

This bike ROCKS. It's absolutely capable of anything, has great power and versatility, rock-solid reliability, and is (relatively) devoid of all the superfluous crap that would make a lesser bike less good.

i suppose I'm preaching to the choir in this thread, but I thought I'd sing the LC4's praises anyway. I am looking forward to a long lifetime of exciting adventure touring on this faithful steed!

Cheers,
-southpaw, Seattle.

I bought a new 640 Adv ( 06 model ) last year. It was run in properly, had it's first service plus a service at 2,200 miles before leaving for Morocco.
The bike was standard apart from luggage and changed tyres (TKC80,s) and took me to Morocco from the UK with no problems.

Whilst crossing the Atlas mountains I experienced carb icing at 14000 metres with a temperature just above freezing, which later cleared at the same altitude on the descent the other side. The front brake discs warped, the usual oil weep from the sight glass and I had to be recovered from France on the return journey when a tooth on the starter motor sprocket which engages in the gearbox failed. I was not impressed with the reliability or the responce from KTM ( who failed to honor the warranty) and I sold the bike back to the shop at a great loss. Need I say anymore. Just hope the 690 Adventure will be more reliable.

'02 KTM 640a
40K km-blew the headgasket, please see this:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-warning-29819

Using a Proiler for chain lubrication,
chain and sprockets are lasting 25K km.

Only other failures were carb float needle plus needle and needle jet and the countershaft sprocket seal.
b.

yo

Adventure 2002 about 20,000 km

Fork seals 3000 and 7000 km
Battery contacts 5000 km
Stator holding screw fell in and destroyed stator 13,000 and 20,000 km
Rear wheel bearing 17,000 km

but still runs strong and is a lot of fun to have ....

mattmexico

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www.andreaswmatthes.com living in Friuli, Northern Italy

2004 KTM 640 Adventure. 17,000 miles.

1. Cam cover gasget (more than once).
2. Summer engine and tank bars broke to pieces after 1500 miles, had it repaired by my ktm dealer. Lasted les than 600 miles and broke again, now given up and taken off the bike. Not happy with this product and dont recomend it to anyone.
3. worn and perished fuel pipes.
4. Perished vacume pipes.
5. Badly cracked sump guard, had to get it strengthend.
6. Their is a cliking noise coming from the top of the engine, not the tapheds but posibly something to do with the decompresion. It only hapend ocasionaly in the bigining but now its all the time, have tried raising the tickover but didnt do much diference, need to fix it this winter.

If anyone can advise me on the cliking noise from the top end I would be very gratefull. I would like to fix it my self to learn about the engine and to save on garage costs.

There has been quite a few reports on the cam follower bearings failing on the '04-'07 LC4 640
Might be prudent to have a look see, symptoms are the valve lash gets much bigger over a short period of time

Lar

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Laromo \ '02 KTM 300 EXC "Jake"
'05 KTM 640 ADV "Fatman"

Thanks Laromonster.