Touring the 1290

Had fun over Christmas touring on the 1290 . Did over 4000 km in 6 days found the bike a awesome tourer but not great in wet weather . Pissed down for two days in Queensland .

Pffff didn't even popped in to say hello!

Nice trip! Good motoring 6 days and 4000 km.

That fact I was wet .

Looks like an awesome setup. Get the small windscreen you wont regret it for long travels.

Great pics mate. Little bit greener over that side of the country.
Done 3 days 1000km last week and found the bike to be pretty comfortable on the body. Probably the worst part was the seat pressing in on my inner thigh but not that bad. Not quite a 1000km a day bike but 600km would be easy enough.

I found this bike very comfy on long trips. I had 980km in one day last summer. Like scamb66 says, the worst part was the seat pressing in on my inner thigh after 850km but i did survive
I had like you wilks 4000km in 6 riding days. I can't wait for my next trip to the alps in may/june!

It's quite big and can expand if you need more room . Fits perfect you would not know it's there .

I never really used it to lean against it . I just let a mate use it for his trip on his 1290 he really liked it as well. .

I am going for a trip tomorrow and I have the powerparts large rear bag. But I am not able to fit the rain cover that was included. Is it suposed to be on the inside or cover the whole bag from the outside ?
There is no way that I can fit it on the outside .. Any tip would be nice!

edit; Found out that the raincover is ment to be on the inside of the bag!

Good one wilks.

While my SD is being fixed I'd thought I'd show my touring set-up. We did 3000km last Feb in the Vic high country & this set up worked really well. I wanted a lockable top box so I didn't have to worry about leaving cameras etc in a soft tail bag.





I removed the tank bag because I found it annoying and didn't really need the space. Also the MRA screen seemed like a good idea but created so much wind noise under my helmet that I removed it after the first day
The rear luggage is all Hepco & Becker, the whole setup cost about the same as just the KTM PP sidebags. The side bags and top box didn't affect my riding at all, even at go-directly-to-jail speeds I didn't notice them. Bags are mounted using H&B's C-bow system, so they are key locked on and are easy to remove, except with the top box on there is bugger all room to get your hand in to lock/unlock them. The top box is mounted on H&B's sports rack, which just replaces the passenger seat. All up it's a neat system that is easy to attach and remove, takes about 20 min to return bike to standard





I left the rear suspension on the standard settings but softened the front compression & rebound and although it's no gold wing, it was comfortable to tour on. And when we got to the twisties I was having way more fun than my mates on their GS's

i'm getting the full system fitted this week I hope it's not that close anyway safe riding mate

im using R&R bracket and mine is close too more like 15mm and no issues

by the way when I go touring small bag is plenty since I buy pack of 10 Jocks and just chuck tem out as I use them and same goes for the socks
thank god for K-MART and $1 Jocks

You can save even more space if you turn your undies inside out that way you can wear them twice

touring in Aus , bloody hell , by the time we get to Geneva from the uk you are just getting into the next town

I couldn't have it that close it would drive me mad , but each to their own , oh precision engineering hahahaha nice one

Many thanks for the post, my son is trying to convince me to do a trip with him from Melbourne to Cape york
The flying back ( putting bikes on motorcycle transport for trip home)

He is going to buy a Kawasaki KLR 650, and I will take my SD1290, which I think should be more than suitable.
Planning on taking 8 or 9 days to get there

The only negative I note from the post is that the seat can be a bit uncomfortable on long journeys
So possibly changing the seat over to the race parts ergo seat may be a thought!,
Also not sure if I should add a screen, although many talk about buffeting which can be annoying.

I think I will go with the large KTM rear bag

Did you have any mechanical issues on your trip?

Thanks again for the post

This is worth a read for anyone touring on the SD1290.

Very nice road trips! I'll probably have to wait until I retire to get enough time off to make trips like that!

I'll throw my hat in the ring on this one---

I took a 3 day 800+ mile motocamping trip to central Oregon a couple weeks back. The Beast can be a wonderful touring machine! I'd love to do a full Akra exhaust, but they aren't compatible with KTM luggage so I didn't. The ability to haul gear when I need to, but restore the clean look of the bike when I don't adds so much utility and enjoyment for me.

So far I've taken 3 motocamping trips like this, and 1 non-camping long weekend tour. No problems. I love this damn bike.

Washed and naked looks like the 1290 2.0 that lost the rear passenger cowlings.


Apparently that's the only photo that wants to show up correctly on this site. Here's links to to the other 3.





Ready to travel

https://imgur.com/YcgwU68.jpg

Campsite in Central Oregon
https://imgur.com/a/NUrSZqY

Major woody

https://imgur.com/Xo0qwb4.

We gotta figure out a better way to embed images now that Photobucket backed out of being an online host for forum images.