Suddenly, 74bhp is exciting

KTM (and sister company Husqvarna) are the only people genuinely persisting with single-cylinder technology, and huge amounts of work has gone into making the LC4 engine more useable and less vibey. A second balancer shaft has been added, which has significantly reduced vibes and made the whole ride far smoother. Anything just above idle is a chainclattering mess, as you’d expect from a mono pot, but the rest of the engine’s power delivery is silky, enthralling and highly addictive. With a bigger bore and shorter stroke, plus a forged piston and cylinder head work, the Mattighofen engineers have preserved that archetypal bottom-end grunt, yet the 690 now revs with serious vigour all the way to the redline.

KTM claim 7bhp over the previous version but, given the engine’s intensity, it feels like more. Never has 74bhp felt so exciting.