I think it was regretable that the 630 came on stream heavier than the already heavy 610 it replaced. Any reversionary step is not a strong selling point. As sweet as the 630 looks, weight is a legitimate bugbear when the technology to hand is/was around to make a reasonable attempt to shave weight. As usual we will watch this spot for updates to the rumour mill. Just a bit worried we are being fobbed off with old BMW stuff and charged with revamping things via better frames etc. This is not a long term fix, just a short term panacia to cover genuine deficits in production capacity. Dont want our brand to end up as a German discount line.
My take is they should build a TE611 based on the Te511 with a wider trans and bigger tank which holds more oil. 260-270 dry weight range. Typical light weight DS bike market stuff. Then build the TE650 based on the GS650 motor but in a slick new frame and good husky bits for the adventure / long range DS crowd. Add the Nuda and every segment is covered.
Exactly & maybe a bigger gas tank(or is that what you meant?) Include a beefed up rear subframe which will support some saddle bags and a good sized stator & a 65-80w headlight. I'd make it a TE 649......... No reason these bikes have to be over 275 lbs dry.........
An updated version of the G650 X Challenge with Ohlins, Husky Geometry and the ability to use a larger fuel tank would be perfect. The Rotax engines are definitely robust, there are a lot of the G 650 X Country's pushing 20K + miles
I would be happy with that. I owned a 650 X-Challenge and it was a pretty good bike for its intended purpose.
It will be interesting to see how much competing with KTM enters into the picture. Even with the lower MSRP, the TE 630/610 never met the sales numbers of KTM's 690. Will BMW try to out do KTM in the big, high-performance thumper market or go for the softer Japanese DR/KLR/XRL/XTZ thumper and BMW GS/X-series crowd? Simple market analysis would lead to the soft thumper answer because there are more buyers in that group. However, that would mean BMW would have to leave KTM's 690 without an anser. Hmmm.
In this neck of the woods the KTM690 is a rare sighting, if there is a market for the big bore single, primarily off road oriented bike I dont know where that market is. Frankly I think my 511 makes a better 610 class bike than the 610 was. The soft-roader or gravel road/commuter is where the meat of the market is and I bet Husky only shifts about 10-20% towards the dirt from the standard G650GS. I will pay up with one cup of Starbucks instant coffee to be delivered from my motorhome at China Hat Oregon the last weekend of October, if I am wrong that is. That said, I still dont understand the Nuda as SuperMoto concept instead of dirtier GS so what do I know.
have you ridden the 690? Nice bike but not the end all in this segment if you ask me. Many like the 610 as much or actually prefer it. It is huge and tall. Good bike but i would think a 650 X-Challenge with husky magic sprinkled on it (better components and design, more racy, far better looking, etc) would stand up to the 690 EZ. Maybe. We will see. I see very few 690's around.
Having owned both over long periods of time / miles I completely agree. Way lighter, real off road race bike feel, rails the street stuff, rails the dirt stuff, runs better, is quicker, more comfortable (with seat concepts seat), WAY better suspension, way smoother motor. If the 511 held 2 quarts of oil instead of one, had a 3.5 gallon tank and taller 5th and 6th gear this 511 would be the best REAL DS bike on the planet IMHO. My KTM DSing buddies who rode it agree.
Correct. But those are quite a lot if ìfs´. Once you´ve got it all sorted out (together with it having to be street legal in Europe), you end up with the 630.
Actually, you end up with a 630 that works better and only weighs 270# stock, which gives it the true versatility everybody wants- whether they know it or not. Let the end buyer figure out how much weight he wants to add to the bike via panniers, bags and other goodies. Don't build them overweight from the factory.
I bought the 630 because I do a lot of street riding (not by choice). I wanted my oil change/valve intervals measured in thousands of miles, not single-digit hours. The smaller TEs just won't do that. If Husky gets out of the big thumper game, then I have to look elsewhere. DRZ400, WR250R, 690 Enduro, and that's all I can think of. The pickins are getting slim.
Looks like they are fully into this market and working on a new bike which is what this thread is about.
I bought a 610 because it's the closest thing available to a modern, street legal, EFI, E-start, XR-600. I also realize that most of the guys that buy D/S bikes balk at anything more expensive than a DRZ. I have a couple of friends that have them and they are perfectly content. They both drool all over my 610 and my TE250. Depending on where we go I bring the appropriate bike. They bring the same bike where ever we go. It's easier to market a race bike with a plate than a D/S that needs lots of $$$ to make it decent. But if all you are after is a decent bike with a plate the Japanese have you covered. Back in 1979 I bought an XL500 instead of the XR500 because I only gave up 1" of travel and I got a plate. Put in the Rotax motor, build a decent sub-frame, 4 gallon tank, and loose 20 Lbs and we'll talk. Until then I've like what I've got. R/ Mike
I certainly hope you are correct. No doubt this is a small niche market. I have not ridden a 690 or a 610/630 but have ridden 20,000 miles over a few years on a KTM 640 LC4 enduro. It is my only bike so it has to tour, commute, sprint across the desert, and be a single track machine. It works well enough at all these things and is a fair sport bike in the twisties. Give me a smoother engine, a little more power, a sixth gear, and you have the perfiect all-around motorcycle. Something like the 630 or maybe the 690 with a wider-ratio tranny. The DRZ is slow and has a crappy tranny. The 690 is fast with a crappy tranny. WRRs and KLXs are real slow and overweight for 250s. The XRL makes a Harley seem like a modern design. DRs, KLRs, XTZs, and GS/Xs are street bikes that will travel fine on dirt roads but lack any kind of grin factor when you pick up the pace on pavement or dirt. All the adventure twins and multis are way too heavy for anything but easy off road jaunts. The 630 is Goldilocks' favorite higher-performance, do anything, on or off road bike and now it is gone. BMW has brought up the quality level of the Husky line but they also have a long history of totally flaky decisions with big singles. Coming in with major improvements over the 610 with the 630 and then killing it is right in line with BMW's MO. Given BMW's track record, it is hard to have confidence for what they may decide to follow the 630.
Has anyone said that the 630 is about to be killed off? The Nuda is not a single and the 630 is now the only 600cc performance single on the market now that Husaberg has taken out their 570.
I hope you're right, and I hope it's not a big fat pig like most adventure bikes. I want as close to a plated MX bike as I can get, with a highway friendly transmission and service intervals that won't have me spending 2 hours in the garage after every ride. Heck, with 8-hour oil change intervals, one of the smaller bikes would have me changing oil almost twice a day on a trip. I can't have that. So far, I have seen 2012 documents released for several models. The 630 is not in there. Does that mean the bike is going away? Maybe. Maybe it just means that nothing is changing for 2012 so there's no need to release any news about it. But, the recent huge markdown on the remaining 2011 630s just stinks of "closeout sale". I have mine already. What I'm concerned about is future parts availability on a bike that had such a short run.
