Ktm 640 Lc4
KTM 640 LC4
The art of dual-purpose
JIMMY LEWIS
WOW! HANGING LIGHTS ON A DIRTBIKE never looked this good. For 1999, KTM called in an industrial designer to rework its dual-purpose Thumper, then someone in the engine department slipped in a few changes... and whammo! the result is the 640 LC4, a milestone in the evolution of D-P bikes.
Basically, the frame is the same as last year's R/C, but that's about all. The e1ec~ tric-staii, rally-spec 625cc motor (why it's called a 640 is anyone s guess) gained its displacement from a 2mm-longer stroke, up to 78mm, utilizing the old 609cc motor s j 01mm piston Good news is the addi \, tion of a Mikuni CK-59 carburetor `~ Front suspension is now Just like last 1 year's Adventure and Rally mod els a conventional WP Extreme 50mm fork. T~he WP rear shock as well as its linkage are similar to last / year's, but with internal valving changes.
Enough tech talk; dig the styling! Taking cues from its twostroke line, KIM gave the. LC4 I smooth, stream lined lines and a stunningly good look-it flows and it's functional. The gas. tank is. cavernous, carrying 3.2 gallons, but you don'~taqtice it `cause the wider seat interlocks so well
Last year'S brick-like foam
has been replaced with a softer, more compliant blend, too. A nifty luggage rack, looking like it was made from recy cled plastic, comes standard and is stout enough to use as a tic-down point. Even the front fi~nder is a two-piece space age design complete with faired-in bracing.
Bring the 640 to life and yes! the choke now works like it should, not flooding the motor. At sea level the jetting is a tad lean, but gain any altitude and you're just fine, all the way past 9000 feet. The EPA tamed and corked four-valver is plentiful in the torque department and its tall final gearing never seemed a problem, even out on the trails. Top speed is easily above 100 mph. Long, lurid wlieelies happen with just a touch of clutch. The added displacement helps here, but crisp carburetion, without the old bike's blubber in the
bumps, is the real reason. On the road there are a few surgy throttle positions and several bands of vibration despite a small counterbalancer,. but sweet spots are easy come by,
Suspension is much more well-rounded than last yea?s borngers We took our testbike on a 500-mile pre-run of the rough Vegas-to-Reno race course and felt we could almost enter the LC4 in stock trim It tackled AA trails (well until a rock broke the centerstand springs off) and handled alt the asphalt we could find everything from boring desert high ways to exploring the limits of the DOT knobs in the twisties Aside from the AWOL centeistand spring (replaced with a backpack strap, see photo), our only prob 1cm was the seif-jemsoning of the charcoal evap bo~ from under the fender-though we were going to heave it manual ly if it didn't leave on its own~
No secret that the KTM is gaining weight At 27 pounds dry, it's up 6 pounds from our last R!XC testbike. This is still some 5 pounds lighter than a Honda XR65OL and the KTM masks its girth better.
Should you lay out $6598 for one'? Welt, we rave every year about KIM's dual-purpose bikes and this is no excep tion, sort of a VFR800 with knobbies. Mark 1999 as the year that dual-purpose went vogue-and this time pert~rm ance came along for the ride.
Adventure R: The Range Rover of motorcycles? That would be KIM's Adventure R, a full-on, electric-start Paris/Dakar replica. Compared to the previous iteration, which knocked down Best Dual-Purpose kudos in Cycle World's annual Ten Best Bikes balloting, the `99 model is more off-road oriented, with an updated 625cc engine, 40mm Mikuni carb, high-mount exhaust and service-friendly centerstand. MSRP is $7498.
