My KTM SMC 690 was stolen last month, and it hurt like losing your best friend. I bought it back in the late fall of 2022 and had so much fun with the bike. Put on 30k miles, went to so many track days, long trips, epic roads and adventures, even a crash at the track. Made so many new friends, learned a lot of riding skills, done so much work to it myself, tons of new tools and wrenching. In my opinion, this is the best overall bike out there, perfect for cutting through city traffic, surprisingly good on the long highway haul, great at harassing sport bikes on the track, and with a set of knobbies it turns into a dirt bike.







The most memorable experience is probably when I got lost in the trails in the woods at PA wilds with no phone signal and google map not displaying. Took a shortcut through a mountain gravel road that started splitting into smaller and narrower rocky trails, the google maps lost connection, and I spent hours getting myself deeper battling mud and rocks on street tires and running low on gas. Luckily for me I heard engines, rushed to them, and met guys on ATVs who got me back to the main trail leading back to the roads. Didn't get contact info, but the dude in the photo really saved me from ending up in deep **** - another 30 minutes and I would be out of gas deep in the woods, no idea what I would do then.





My other street bike is the BMW K1600 tourer. It is also in my opinion the absolute best bike in its category. BMW cars may have turned into soulless badge ***** magnets, but luckily bikes are immune from this disease. And the K1600 delivers! It's got all the comforts of a tourer bike - super comfortable seats, passenger handrests, tons of luggage room, butt and hand warmers, audio system, automatic windshield, cruise control, etc. At the same time it's got insanely advanced electronic suspension with no front forks. It handles, brakes and accelerates like a sport bike, you really don't feel it's weight. I've had the bike since fall of 2023, and put on over 12k miles onto it. Going on longer trips with the wife, this bike just eats the miles, and yet I even took it to the track last week and it was shockingly good for what it is.

Our most epic adventure was climbing Mt Washington. It started as a regular narrow road with trees on both sides, and about midway up the mountain there are no more trees, and we were riding along the side of cliff. At that point my wife discovered she is afraid of heights and started panicking. We have a communication system in our helmets, and she was crying begging me to turn around, lol. I told her no way we rode all the way from NY to NH to turn around, and to just close her eyes and be calm. We made it up, she was sweating like crazy and it took her an hour to calm down. On the way down she closed her eyes right away and only opened them when I told her to, so it was much better.




This when a crazy friend of mine and I decided to go out on a super cold winter day. It was 6 degrees up in Catskills when we got there, thank god for heated seat and grips.



I just generally can't get over what a beast this bike is. These angel eyes are so unmistakably BMW. Looks sick on the road and the track!





I want to get another 690 to replace the stolen one, but they just released the 2026 model which is substantially different, so I will wait until aftermarket catches up before I buy it. Need my upgrades and ECU flash, lol. For now I have my K1600 for street and my Beta 390 for dirt, so I have decided to get a dedicated track bike. I have long wanted a Japanese 600cc super sport for track use. Japanese cars have also turned into soulless appliances, but their 600cc super sports are as analog and old school as ever, true track weapons. My choice was between the Honda CBR600RR, Suzuki GSX-R 600, Yamaha R6, and Kawasaki ZX6R, with the most preference for the Honda and Kawi.

A fellow track rider was selling his track ready ZX6R, and I have just picked up! The bike is absolutely sick and pristine. Sharksinz track fairings, Ohlins suspension front and rear, ECU flash, track tires, etc. Not street legal, going to be my track only bike. It's dark outside, I'll take some more photos tomorrow. I have a track day coming up in June, I am so excited to take it out, I can barely wait!

 

 

Pretty cool and timely post. I was hanging out with my PPF guy at his shop today and he had a few motorcycles he has acquired over the years and he was going to take a 9 day off road trip with another guy I know. Here are a couple bikes he has that I took pictures of today.

 

Awesome @Och .
Looks good.

I wanted one of these so bad back in the day(see below).
How do modern bikes stack up for speed per cc engine size- compared to vintage bikes?

Guessing your's is a 600cc but may perform like a vintage 900cc?

Here's the bike I wanted but never bought.
Yamaha Radian 600

 

congrats! the new bike looks really nice!!!!

 

We were supposed to go on a 3 day offroad trip in the beginning of this month, but it's got rescheduled. Hopefully later this summer. For offroading I use my Beta RRS 390.

Now with a German, Italian and a German in my stable, I've got the full axis to invade Poland, lol.

 

It's not so much vintage vs modern, there are many different types of bikes and they are geared for absolutely different purposes. My K1600 for instance is 1600cc as it's name suggests, with 160hp, but the ZX6R is way lighter and faster with 636cc with ~130hp screaming past 14k RPM.

I had a 950cc vintage-ish Yamaha cruiser a while back, nice bike for what it was, but it's not performance oriented in the least with only about 70hp. These bikes are more about styling and easy cruising.

 

looks awesome! congrats!

 

Ohlins front and rear, tune, the bike is freaking sick.

 

oh **** the ZX6R that's awesome! the kawasaki ZX bikes are constantly swapping places with the yamaha R1 as my favorite sports bikes, they look perfect and make all the right sounds

 

Built my first minibike at age 12. Been riding dirt and street bikes ever since.

Current bike.

 

very non-pc comment, but very funny, lol

looks like you’re on mars.

och didn’t say who makes the zx6r, so thanks for that.
i know very little about bikes.

 

What the hell, I mean to type with a German, Italian and Japanese, lol.

K1600 - German
RRS 390 - Italian
ZX6R - Japanese

😂😂😂

 

Blast from the past. This was my 1978 Z1R 1000. Friend in California painted it in a similar pattern to how Kawasaki sold the turbo charged version. Pic is at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Guy was walking by and asked if I minded him taking a photo and offered to send me one in the mail. It's the only pic I have. Sure would have been nice to have an iPhone camera in the pocket.

 

Congrats! That's an awesome machine!