Quote:
Originally Posted by
stoic bloke
btw i regularly offroad along side 690's, me and the ten hold our own and don't need a van for riding in places like the s of france
 or events in places like africa
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Uberthumper likes this.
As for the OP, I think you need to explain your definition of 'compete'.
- Can you modify a Tenere so you can use it to beat Craig Bounds on a 690 around a UK Rally course? Extremely unlikely, but I suspect even having a 690 won't help you there
- Can you modify a Tenere so that *you* would be faster round a UK Rally course than *you* would be on a standard 690? Probably not, and certainly not for the price difference between the two.
- Can you modify a Tenere to get it 'close enough' to *finish* a UK Rally and have someone to race against (remembering that not everyone is on a 690, there's 990ADVs, GSAs, and CCM 650s on the results sheets. There will also no doubt be a few on 690's who aren't that quick)? Definitely, and you'll have something that's a far better bike away from the races.
For me, the last one wins. YMMV, especially since you're not coming from the angle of already having a Tenere and being quite attached to it.
I've had (small) enduro bikes the last couple of years, but I've found I never ride them away from the races - there's not much challenge (and thus less fun) to trailriding on an enduro machine, and it's a ballache having to put it into a van to get to the trails and continually worry about fuel. I'm certainly not going to use it to ride to work or pop to the shops on, so if I'm not doing a full season of racing, it's just a waste of space.
So I've decided to move the enduro bike on for the time being, and put the money that's tied up in it into the Tenere. I'll probably try to do a few BBRC rounds next year to satisfy the racing fix, but even if I don't, I'll be getting some value for money out of the mods using the bike every day, and when it comes round to the HUMM again.
In the meantime, I'm off out next Sunday with my local TRF group, all of whom will be out on a variety of EXCs and WRFs that they've had to van down to Wiltshire from the East Mids. A few weeks later I'm off to Wales for the BBRC training weekend with the aforementioned Mr Bounds, no doubt alongside a load of people on 690s.
What could possibly go wrong