Introduction

My 701 would only be overland ready when it would have larger fuel tanks, a proper windscreen and a place for some navigation. When trying to find some solutions to buy a kit, I came across quite a few options and I got a bit lost. There is a lot of info, but it is not really condensed into one place which makes reasoning about it quite cumbersome. Here is a little write up of my three main contenders.

Omega Rally Kit

Website: Link
Price: ~ €6.064,76 (6956USD)
Shipping: ~ €260 from South Africa (300USD)
Fuel Capacity: 29l (14l front, 13l rear - stock) — 27l?

Components

• Custom front fuel tanks, both 7l
• Navigation tower (Carbon)
• Bashplate (Carbon)
• Low front fender
• Seat
• Screen / Fairing
• Lights (Halogen)
• Decals

What’s to like?

I’ve had a chat with Thomas from Omegafibre over the email and he’s a really friendly guy, responds really quickly. While discussing price and shipping he threw in the unpainted version of the carbon nav tower instantly because he felt everyone needed it as it was so cool. This meant that because of the carbon is visible, they would have to be more precise when laying it and make sure it’s 100% perfect.
I kind of agree with Thomas there. It definitely looks cool.

Looks

In terms of design, this feels like a refined version of the factory rally version. The way the baseplate (especially the white version) ties into the tank, the included lower fender, and the way there is no exhaust header running underneath the bike, makes for an extremely minimal look that I find very pleasing.

Exhaust system

The stock exhaust system stays in place. While the system itself can be made to be more performant with another silencer and maybe a less harsh curve in the header, this means that there isn’t really a way for energy from baseplate impacts to be transferred onto the exhaust / engine, which is great.

What’s not to like?

There are some things that won’t matter from a racing perspective, but will matter quite a bit from a traveling perspective.

Carbon nav tower

While it looks really pretty, is extremely light and strong, if you crash into something and it breaks while you’re miles away from a big city, you’re fucked… Going for an aluminium nav tower is a much more resilient option if you’re traveling. It’s just bent sheets of metal, so you can always replace it with some more bent sheets of metal relatively easily. Also, metal bends instead of breaking (mostly).

Custom fuel tanks

Same thing here as with the carbon nav tower. If you crash your bike and pierce the fuel tank, you have to ring Thomas and have him ship another one to you (starting with him making one). While I'm 100% certain he'll get one to you asap, even in remote places, the preferred option would be a set of Factory Rally tanks. With KTM and their relatively big dealer network, one can just ring the KTM dealer in the next big city and have them order one and pick it up along the way (without waiting for one to be build).

Lack of auxiliary fuel system

The KTM 690 and Husqvarna 701 fuel pumps have been known to fail. Both the Aurora and the KIT690 ones have the stock fuel tank and another one in the front with a switch on the dash making switching between both quite easy.

Aurora 701 Rally Replica

Website: Link
Price: €5500 excl.
Shipping: Unknown, company is based in Greece
Fuel Capacity: 29l (14l front, 13l rear - stock) — 28l?

Components

• OEM front fuel tanks, both 7l *
• Auxiliary Fuel Pump
• Navigation tower (Carbon)
• Bashplate (Carbon)
• Low front fender
• Seat
• Screen / Fairing
• Lights (OEM Hella + BAJA Squadron Sport)
• Exhaust Header
• Decals

What’s to like?

The Aurora stuff seems to be battle tested. No beautiful studio shots, only images from the bike in action.

No Frame Cutting

When I eventually purchased my kit and I had to cut some tabs of the frame, it kind of hurt and it cutting stuff off your frame will void the warranty in some countries. Knowing this kit doesn’t void the warranty is a nice thing. I’m uncertain of any compromises that have been made to do so (in the Kit701, the seat and bits of the tanks are in place of the tabs).

OEM tanks

Having a set of OEM tanks means that the full KTM dealer network can help out getting one of those tanks to you in case you pierce one.

Pre-assembled nav-tower

Any work you don’t have to do yourself is nice, and assembling a rally nav-tower might be something you’d rather have done by someone who’s done it quite a bit.

Auxiliary fuel system

Like the Kit690, this one comes with the Factory rally fuel pump (Keihin) which, apparently, it pretty much bulletproof :)

What’s not to like?

While most of it looks to be sound, there are some question marks.

Fuel Range

There is a bit more on that later, but if Aurora does use the claimed OEM tanks, they are 7.5 liters (not 7l as claimed) and combined with the 13 liter original, this makes for 28 liters. Not the claimed 29. While this is a lot, the Kit701 does better at 33 liters.

Custom bash plate

I like having the option of adding the KTM factory water and toolbox. The Omega one comes with a toolbox (I thought I saw it with a water compartment as well), and the KIT701 can fit the Factory parts (although not advertised, Jon from kit690 told me this). I’m not sure if the Aurora setup will fit those.

Kit701 (Kit690)

Website: Link
Price: €6490.00 excl. shipping
Shipping: €300 from Romania
Fuel Capacity: 33l (15l front, 18l rear)

Components

• OEM front fueltanks, both 7.5l
• Auxiliary Fuel Pump
• OEM Rear fueltank + Tail Tidy
• Navigation tower (Carbon)
• Bashplate (Carbon)
• Seat
• Screen / Fairing
• Radiator grill
• Lights (OEM Hella’s, optional BAJA Squadron Pro)
• Stainless exhaust Header
• Titanium exhaust Silencer

What’s to like?

With the Kit690 already being produced for some time, the Kit701 seems like a nice addition to the range for these guys and they have quite a bit of experience. The kit is the most expensive, but also most complete one.

Factory fuel capacity

While most of the kits switch out only the front-tanks and leave the rear alone, this one also upgrades the rear to have a whopping 33l. This means around 650km’s of range.

Auxiliary fuel system

Like the Aurora, this one comes with the Factory Rally fuel pump.

Full exhaust system

I was looking to upgrade the silencer to a full open system as the original weighs quite a lot and is a bit restrictive in terms of air flow. So having a titanium exhaust in the package is nice.
Also, the exhaust is rerouted to the bottom right of the engine and stays well clear of the tanks. The Aurora kit reroutes just the exhaust headers and it seems to do so by running them right underneath the tanks (see: Picture). I can only imagine how incredibly hot it must get underneath there.

OEM tanks

Having a set of OEM tanks means that the full KTM dealer network can help out getting one of those tanks to you in case you pierce one.

Fuel Range

The Kit701 kit has the original Factory Rally tanks, not only front (15 liters), but also rear (18 liters). This means it has around 5 liters of extra fuel capacity.

What’s not to like?

There is one note here.

Exhaust routing / mounting

The Factory rally rear tank has a mounting place for the exhaust on the rear left side of the tank, but the exhaust is routed to the right. The tank brackets are subsequently put onto the tank with silicon (sikaflex). While I’m certain it will hold up, I’d rather have a bolt through the exhaust mount, especially since it’s there are mounting holes in the tank already.

Edit – Looking at this issue more closely, it woud involve moving or changing the side-stand, which will probably add to the price of the kit by a lot. This seems like a reasonable solution*

Conclusion

Initially, I was quite a big fan of the Omegafibre kit because it looks amazing with all the carbon and the minimal look. However, the custom fuel tanks eventually put me off. All the other stuff I could live with, but not being able to ring a KTM dealer for a replacement was a bit off-putting for me (imagine the company goes out of business while being in the middle of Africa with a broken tank)...

So, the race was between the Aurora and the Kit701.

For me, someone who wants to travel, the most important thing is fuel range. Eventually, that is what made me go for the Kit701. The lack of water in the baseplate I could have lived with, but the extra 5-ish liters of fuel (in system, without a ropax or something like that) was the dealmaker for the Kit701.

---

Sidenotes

Omega's Custom Tanks

I couldn't find any information on these tanks, they don't state on their website where they get them from and since they have space and heat protection for / from the original exhaust and they relocate the original fuel pump to the right front tank, the only assumption I could make is that they are made in house.

Fuel Capacity

Both the Omega Rally Kit and Aurora Rally Kit have a bit of a weird view on maths, or the OEM fuel tank of the 701. They claim their front tanks are both 7l (14l in total) and they claim their total capacity is 29l. This would make the rear fuel tank 15 liters. Which it is not, it is 13 liters according to the Husqvarna website.

The strange thing is that Aurora claim to use OEM KTM Rally parts for their front tanks, which are 7.5 liters in 2015 and 2017 (can’t find info for the 2019 models and there is no specific 2018 model — See: Owners Manual 2015  & Owners Manual 2017 ).

This is a bit odd. The Omega uses custom build tanks so I can see those being 7l, but then again, the math doesn’t add up.

Import fees

If you, like me (and probably nearly every other country in the world), live in a place where the government wants you to pay tax for things you bring into the country, you might get ‘fined’ quite heavily for importing this. In the case of the Netherlands, this means 21% VAT and 3% to 4.5% for import duties, this means up to 24.5% extra costs (getting to around €7.5k). Luckily, within Europe this doesn't happen, so with the Kit690 you're in the clear (not sure about the Aurora one though).