Welcome to my review of the outback motortek ultimate protection combo for the KTM 1290 super adventure R.
๐Why did I buy this Kit?
First of, I bought the ultimate protection combo which consists of the following items:
- the skidplate and bracket
- lower crashbars
- upper crashbars
Outback Motortek performs crash tests on all of their newly develloped equipment and they put
all those test video's online here: Outback motortek youtube page
I bought this kit because they are one of the only companies that make protection kits that actually work in real offroad circumstances.
๐Where did I buy the kit?
Outback Motortek works with a dedicated dealer network. For my location that's allroadmoto .
The kit costs 765 euros. This might differ depending on where you live. It's quite a bit of money, but if your bike crashes it will cost you more in repairs.
๐ Installation
You don't get any printed instructions with the gear. However, on the plastic packaging you'll find a QR code, when you scan it, it brings you to the installation video on their YouTube chanel
I'm not going to cover all this since that is done by Outback Motortek, it is pretty straight forward when you follow the instructional video's.
๐ Overall quality and Issues
The cons ๐
- I've noticed that the videos aren't always consistent with what you receive. By that I mean they will talk about what screws and bolts to use in certain locations, but I found myself not having the same type of bolts or screws in the kit. For example longer bolts than mentioned.
- Also some bolts were too short to work. I had to repurpose some KTM bolts to get the lower crash bars to attach to the support bracket.
- The paintwork is not the best quality,not to say it is bad but I received the bars with slightly damaged paint but it was not clearly visible when mounted. I will say they do a good job of packaging everything to avoid this.
- I also think they could provide better quality bolts with the kit, I'm afraid the bolt heads will get round very easily.
- You should also keep in mind that this kit adds significant weight to an already heavy bike, it certainly isn't light.
- To my surprise, I found that the fuel pump high pressure line was exposed on the left side due to the skid plate design and that's a really big minus for me. See the picture below. The original KTM protection is higher and does provide more protection in that area.
The pros ๐
- Once everything is assembled, the bars feel very sturdy.
- The skid plate provides better than stock protection for the engine cases and exhaust. It can also be easily removed for maintenance.
- The lower crash bars are firmer than stock and offer better protection.The cross braces are well thought out and provide the stiffness that was missing from the stock bars.
- The uppers provide extra protection for the side panels and are very rigid. they also allow the mounting of small panniers for inner tubes or other small items.
- The looks, the kit looks really good on the bike, it's not just functional, it also works aesthetically.
- The kit fits just right, no need to bend things to make it fit, everything fits really well.
๐ End result
๐ Conclusions
I have no doubt that this kit will protect the engine better than the gear supplied by KTM. After all, we all want to protect our investment.
You might think that the list of negatives is quite long, but those are in all honesty minor things. none of those things should be a deal breaker.
If you look critically at a product, you will always find room for improvement, but that does not make it a bad product.
So in conclusion there is always a bit of a trade-off, it is a very well thought out product that does exactly what it is supposed to do. The thorough product testing by outback Motortek speaks volumes about their dedication.
- The added weight
- A little more hassle when working on the bike
- Unprotected high pressure fuel line
๐ If the above mentioned stuff doesn't bother you, I'd say this is the perfect kit for you.
Bye for now ✌