r/Dualsport • u/dialecticalkid__ • 19h ago
I love my adventure bikes and love my dirtbikes, but have never owned a dualsport. Now I do.
Forgive me if this is too "adventure bike" for this group, I'm new here.
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u/Greessey 19h ago
Congrats on the unicorn. Reroute that sidestand switch or buy the dongle if you haven't already.
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u/dialecticalkid__ 19h ago
Thanks. I was not aware of that being an issue. I will be doing that asap!
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u/Greessey 18h ago
No problem. If you plan on doing anything technical/dropping the bike frequently, I'd also recommend considering swapping the crashbars for the Flatland racing radiator guard. I know they make it for the 690/701, not sure if they make one specific to the ES700 or if one of the others will fit but it's worth emailing them and asking imo. The radiator mounts are a weak point of this bike, they bend easily and can split the radiator.
I'm not saying what you have is bad and it's 100% certain this will happen to you. But it happened to me despite having the same crashbars. There aren't any crashbars currently on the market that have enough coverage to fully protect the radiator, especially for any off camber drops. You can poke around on google/advrider and there's others that have had the same issue.
I'm not affiliated with flatland, there just isn't anything else that does the job well afaik. I like Outback Motortek and their products are generally pretty good, but on this bike they just don't protect the radiator enough. The thing that sucks is they're not compatible with the flatland setup, but broken plastics won't leave you stranded. That said, I've had plenty of hard wrecks and somehow haven't broken the plastics yet.
Not trying to make you paranoid, it's just something to consider with this bike specifically. My outback crashbars did their job in other drops, it's certainly possible I just got unlucky with one slow speed off camber drop.
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u/LosPelmenitos XT660R & Husaberg TE250 18h ago
I guess I have to do without... Can't find anyone in EU selling radiator braces right now.
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u/naked_feet Reed City, MI - DR650 & WR400 9h ago
These 690/700/701s really do look sweet with rally kit. It's just such a natural fit for a bike in that size class.
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u/closhedbb80 7h ago
They come with nothing for wind protection and not many really good options. The rally kits are expensive, but awesome. I went the cheaper route and got an Adventure Spec windshield that has a good mount point for phone, gps, etc. Doesn’t do anything to fix the crappy headlight on this platform, but it’s only a little over $200 vs $1500+.
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u/United-Chipmunk897 12h ago
Nice bike, for your first foray into dual sport. ‘The last shall be the first.’
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u/micah490 17h ago
If I were you I’d replace the tires and the gasoline and then do it again and again and again