Cluster of clutch failures on KTM 790 Adventure
 

I have a KTM 790 Adventure and so far am happy with the bike but there's a pile of clutch failures being reported by owners.

And worse than that, KTM is refusing to accept liability leaving owners in some cases with a major bill for engine rebuild.

The clutch on the 790 is wet, meaning it relies on an oil feed and it seems the oil jet easily becomes blocked. It's supposed to be checked on each service but who knows whether this is being done, and with service intervals so far apart...

If you are a 790 Adventure owner you need to be aware of this problem and check the clutch for signs of oil burning and blocked jet. If you are thinking of buying a 790 Adventure I would suggest you investigate this issue before proceeding.

In the report below, to add insult to injuury the owner was unfortunately also let down by KTM's breakdown recovery: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1824...1919730120817/

didn't hear about clutch issues yet when I was on the market for 790R,
good to know. I would also add a note about potential problem with overheating rear shock because of cat proximity. There's been numerous reports of rear shock failures because of that. There is already heat shield available on the market. Mostly affected are R models though.

I think I should explain more so people get a feel for the scale of this problem.

Some owners have questioned why this apparently seems not to have affected the 790 Duke which was introduced a year earlier. The answer is we don't know.

Uli Schildt picked up his bike in Arizona and rode 3,000 miles back to Washington State. A week later his clutch failed but KTM refused to replace it under warranty. Uli writes, "[KTM] say the clutch is a 'wear item'. I tried to reason with them, to no avail. Left several messages at KTM in California but they have not replied."

Uli suggests, "anybody with a 790 to pull the clutch cover and inspect. This takes less than 5 minutes and requires almost no mechanical skill. You don't need to drain the oil, since the clutch is well above the sump (although a few drops may come out)."

And this is what David Bentley's clutch looked like when followed Uli's advice and removed the cover. It seems in perfect condition.

http://www.morocco-knowledgebase.net...id-bentley.jpg

But this is what Mark Ferbrache's clutch looked like with signs of oil overheating and burning.

http://www.morocco-knowledgebase.net...-ferbrache.jpg

Mark writes that he had to replace his clutch at his expense, "KTM just said wear and tear so had to pay myself." If your clutch looks like this you might want to investigate further, so take the three bolts and cover off, then take out each plate and check them for heat damage, loss of material, etc.

J P De Villiers writes, "After my first clutch burnt and the fault was put on me after only 2700 km. I put a [heavy duty] Rekluse torque drive with the hope it will be a stronger replacement. It took exactly 300 km, clutch started taking high an slipping exactly like before."

In Quintin Mclaughlin's case he had only just run the bike in and had the initial service before setting off on a road trip through France, Spain and Portugal. Clutch failure at only 2,000 miles and KTM's reaction is to leave him stranded for four days and having to arrange repatriation of him and bike despite supposedly being covered by KTM Mobility breakdown cover.

Laia Sanz's clutch had to be replaced at the Bosnia Rally. Laia is a thirteen-time Women's Trial World Champion, so you would expect SHE knows how to use a clutch.

Bill Cairns was one of the first to report a clutch failure to the community. Bill is a avid poster of biking action videos and KTM took one look at these and decided Bill was misusing the clutch. KTM would not allow the warranty on the rest of the engine to continue unless Bill spent close to £3,000 on a complete engine rebuild.

The 790 community generally believes the clutch problems are due to a lack of lubrication and possibly because the oil filters are not picking up small amounts of debris that is then blocking the oil jet lubricating the clutch, however KTM REFUSES to engage with any of the owners who have had problems, making a resolution impossible to determine. This is irresponsible in the extreme.

I believe these reports are only the tip of the iceberg.

READY TO RACE (but hey guys, please be gentle with the clutch)

From https://790adventure.net/early-fault...shock-failure/

There is a theory going around incriminating the catalytic converter... Some facts however don’t align very well with this theory:

This failure is only on the R, the S model is not affected at all;

There is at least one example of a failing shock absorber on a bike with the catalyser removed from day one. Ergo, the catalyser in that case was not to blame;

As bikes get more mileage, failure rate should have increased. This is not the case, the bikes with failing shock absorbers are all low mileage (less than 2k, very new).

This seems to indicate that the issue is probably not the catalyser but more likely a default on some [R model] shocks with a problem from the factory.

For balance, how many bikes have not had clutch problems?

Singling out a few (especially when the root cause is not confirmed) is defective analysis. At least say what % of bikes have shown any problem. I'm up to 7500 miles without any problems, including a fairly hot tour of southern Europe earlier this hear.

I've very happy with my 790 as well.

Clearly the vast majority are OK, though I will be pulling the clutch cover on my 790S to take a look once I'm back in the UK.

The issue isn't that there are failures, all mechanical things are subject to breakdown, the two issues are (1) that KTM is refusing to accept any clutch warranty claims, and (2) is declining to engage with owners to try to identify the root cause of the failures.

The bikes are sold as 'Ready to Race' so should be able to take at typical off-road treatment, but in the case of Uli Schildt above (who's 67 years of age) all he has done is to ride the bike across the States, mainly on asphalt and only a little bit on gravel road.

Is yours an R model?

Sorry to re-awaken an old thread but just wondering if anyone has anymore updates on the clutch issues or has anyone heard of any more similar issues?

Thanks :thumbup1:

The R and S models have the same engine, and the Duke is the same in that area. The R does have a different shock so if some of those are suffering from heat from the cat that could be a reason.

Some later feedback on the clutch issue suggests that blockage of the centre oil jet (just 0,3mm dia) could have been caused by excess Loctite on the jet from factory assembly, though this is not yet confirmed. Others think that wrongly adjusted clutch with no free play could have led to clutch slip generating excess heat.

Given that there seems to have been no more occurrences and that all the failures were on low mileage engines I tend to the former. While it's a poor show if KTM aren't picking up warranty I suspect this could be associated with owner attitude and dealer support as much as anything.

I've done 8,000 miles on mine so far with no mechanical problems and planning to do 20,000 round central Asia later this year. Don't let a few isolated events put you off what is a very good bike.

www.facebook.com/motosunburn

good to be optimistic and I wish you all the best on your trip but 8k miles is not that many yet, any bike or car today (even Chinese) ususaly do this without problems. Potential buyers are right they do research before they commit to buy. The only problem for me with KTM 790 adv is this bike is not too simple for RTW trips or similar.

It has complex electronics, for sure. There are two sides of that - one, if it breaks by the side of the road I probably won't be able to fix it, and two, hopefully modern electronics should be pretty reliable and NOT break by the side of the road!

I agree 8,000 miles isn't much but the clutch "problems" seem to be restricted to lower mileage engines. It's not like KTM have suddenly forgotten how to make clutch plates after years of doing it.

KTM 790 adventure R reliability issues
 

Finished recently 5,000 km off road trip in Central America. Started this section in Chiapas, Mexico with four 790s. The first one blew the rear shock after about 1,000 km and had to be loaded on a truck and sent back to the US. The bike had a total of 5,000 km, most of them on pavement. We replaced it with a 690. After another 1,500 km of off road, we had a clutch failure. We replaced it with a spare one we had. When I replaced the clutch I became very concerned with the design – the diameter and wear areas are very small for a bike of this size (smaller than the 990 and even the 300 – 525 EXC series), and the mechanism to convert the cable pull to a disc separation id very cumbersome. We understood that we cannot use the clutch the way we use it on dirt bikes and on 990 – the clutch should not be used during up hills except for gear changes. If you slip the clutch it will burn very quickly. Actually, in the Rally Mode you get a lot of torque at low RPM and you can avoid using the clutch most of the time, except for very slow crawling up hill. With a minimum use of the clutch, I still burned a clutch on my 790 after additional 2,000 km. The other 2 790s has aborted the trip by then. By the time we finished the trip the clutch is almost done again. The 690 has done the same route with no issues.
So with all the hype that KTM created around the 790, it has clutch that is not suitable for serious off road riding. I don’t know the reasons – the use of mechanical vs. hydraulic clutch to save money, the resultant weak clutch springs, the small diameter and wear areas of the discs, or whatever. So if you are going on a serious off road adventure ride, either forget about KTM 790 or bring plenty of spare clutches. I am taking for the next section 3 spare KTM clutches and will also test the Rekluse clutch that has more discs.

Annoying Orange
 

Had an hour's spin on a loaded up 790 last week.
11,000 miles iirc – only issue owner has had was an incorrectly fitted oval? coolant hose. A common fault he said, though you do wonder how you can fit that wrong.

Well, until we rode up over the High Atlas off-road. Then his near-full tank started oozing fumes and when he opened the backward-facing filler to relieve the pressure he got well and truly hosed. We thought it might be elevation gain (>1200m in an hour), or very slow speeds cooking and shaking up the fuel, but 790s must be designed for that so presumably a filler venting problem?

Not my CoT but loved the quickshifter once I realised it had one. Quite a revelation. Another amazing tech advancement while enables smoother and less distracted riding.
I wonder if the clutch mech is spec'd down as it's expected to get less use?

Other observations of mine: 'Comfort' seat is a plank but very low (a factor for many shorter buyers, I bet) and economy over 1100kms was disappointing: as low as 19kpl, never more than 22 (54-62mpg). And this was all below 100kph (apart from my short stint) alongside 310GSs getting up to 100mpg.
Engine was very smooth but lacked torque, I thought.
Owner thought so too, on the piste. Anyway, he was very happy with it.

KTM recall info
 

Might have the clutch looked at while having this recall service done on the rear brake ...

https://www.advpulse.com/adv-news/kt...-models-in-us/

stay safe ...

Sounds like a venting problem, the only time I brimmed my 790 and parked it with a hot engine, excess fuel dripped from the overflow tube.

Don't know if you had the standard S seat, which isn't strictly a 'comfort' seat though it is wider and lower than the R. It's certainly more road friendly, and I found I could do one full tank (about 400 kms) before my bum started crying for mercy.

The engine is lumpy under 3,000 rpm, most likely due to its 75-degree firing interval. Above that it's lovely. Torque is related to power and speed of course, I never felt short of power on my fully loaded Euro tour last year, though unsurprisingly the more you rev it the faster it goes. 95 bhp is plenty for me, though I know some differ.

As ever, it's good to have a variety of views on something ;)

On my Jan-Mar trip through Spain to southern Morocco and back I recorded odometer readings and fuel consumed every time I filled. The worse was a constant cruise control riding at 120 kph (GPS speed reading) on Spanish autovias where the lowest I got was 19.9 kpl (56 mpg imperial) and the best was on the N8 between Azrou and Marrakech where I achieved 25.3 kpl (72 mpg).

This is almost as good as my 690R so I was well pleased. Obviously a bike with less than half the capacity would be more economic.

I found the fuel computer on the bike to be optimistic by about 8%, so these fuel consumption figures were calculated from how much I used to top up the tank to completely full.

It's the Economy...
 

I also always measure volume over distance (with odo correction off GPS or autoroute markers); an old habit predating digital consumption read-outs. Though I do wonder about dodgy fuel bowser calibration sometimes.

Maybe the venting problems affected this particular bike.

I'd imagine 70 is as good as you'll ever get from a relatively powerful 790.

This talk of the 'CRF800L' using an NC motor could be interesting wrt economy, though it probably wont't be any kind of KTM in the dirt.

I wouldn't want to own one, but the 310 appears to be an exceptional economical machine; even on a Himalayan I only ever averaged 78.

The more I think about it, the more a 690/701 fills a sweet spot for an all-terrain travel bike: enough power for the highway, great mpg and as light as can be expected. Maybe the PR7 is the same. Modern Teneres.

I also thought about the KTM 690 enduro R as my next adventure bike but new AT850 could be as well if they not go cheap on suspension like Honda usually does. Advantage of new Africa is better reliability, better wind protection, better carrying capacity and better economy all which are beneficial on long hauls.

I don't like having to make loads of modifications to a bike, which was why a decade or so back I liked the XT660Z Tenere as it was ready to go 'out of the box'.

If I was buying now I would be temped by the 701LR with its 25 litres of fuel capacity. It's a pity Husqvarna didn't go the whole hog with a rally cockpit. And the instrumentation has taken a backward step on the 2019-20 models of both 690/701.