After riding one a mate bought, I was keeping my eye out for one. Not really thinking of selling the K1200R, but when a 1290 popped up for a song, I couldn’t help myself. The engine is ridiculous! It was pretty much stock, only had a tail tidy and decat pipe.

I can’t help but modify bikes to my taste, and this one needed a few tweaks.

So far I have done

1. Bar end mirrors from Highside.
2. Tank ring for tank bag.
3. LED headlight conversion.
4. Oopart shorty exhaust.
5. Cobrra Nemo 2 chain oiler (with Scott applicator).
6. Healtech Quickshifter.
7. Bellypan.
8. Powerparts luggage.
9. Rear seat cowl.

I did a 5 day ride with a couple of mates shortly after purchase. Pretty good on the touring. but fuelling pretty snatchy and didn’t pull cleanly in top below 4000rpm. I have now installed a Rapid Bike EVO. It took a bit of effort as the Healtech quickshifter and the EVO are not compatible. The bike threw codes and wouldn’t run with both connected. I ended up also purchasing the Rapid Bike quickshifter, which I think is even better than the Healtech. The fuelling is much better now. It pulls smoothly from 3000rpm in 6th.

I had to modify the belly pan as it scrapped whenever I went hard in the twisties.

Update on Oopart exhaust.

I’ve had the mount point fail twice on me now, so time to find another exhaust. My preferred option is a Austin Racing high pipe, but VERY expensive. After powder coating it comes in at $2100. I put out a message on Facebook and managed to find an AR pipe from another owner for a great price, and he was only 5km away!

I removed the fibreglass belly pad and replaced it with I high quality SW-Motech item.

The Gen 1’s have a known problem where the rear hub bearings fail. I discovered mine failing 450km from home when I felt the rear wheel steering when going on-off throttle. I risked limping home, and fortunately made it.

The repair by a shop with genuine parts would have been around $1,000. I bought some high quality Japanese bearings and did it for around $150.

The next common failure is the radiator. It is hung from top mounts which split the top of the core. KTM don’t acknowledge the issue, and a new one is $900. I took it off and got it repaired for $120.

I bought the bike with 7000km, now got 42,000km. Still a great bike, but getting itchy for an upgrade. I thought if I sold it, plus the Yamaha XT600, it could be a low cost upgrade to a gen 2. So I did.