KTM 1290 SuperDuke test ride

My first thought was "What is the big deal about this bike?" I mean, really? The bike is just not that impressive. I went into the deal thinking that if this even remotely kicks my wheels then we'll have to talk trade or whatever. The SuperDuke was what I originally wanted last year and even had a deposit down on one. Trouble was I was forth in line at a big Southern California dealer that was only allocated 3 bikes at the time and we had no KTM streetbike dealer in Hawaii. Plus at my shop we work on BMW cars and I've had BMW motorcycles before. Well, now our BMW dealer is also a KTM dealer so things were looking ripe.

First off, the KTM is just not the animal my bike is and is not the animal that I thought it would be. Heck, a Ducati Streetfighter 1098 is much more evil than the KTM. I might even go so far as to say the old 990 SuperDuke was more of a handful and more fun to ride than the 1290. The 1290 does have a better top end rush but how often are you really in the very top end of your revs?

The KTM is a peach in the low revs but you have to really twist the throttle to get it going, and that is just fine but it doesn't give you that immediate "Whoa, hold on" thought. Yep it goes but the Streetfighter was just plain flat out nasty in that regard. Before I go any further I will add that I set the drive mode to "Sport" before I set out and even dialed up the compression/rebound settings on the front forks. My bike, in Dynamic mode yanks harder than the KTM and if I've got the S1000R is set in Dynamic Pro then it's lights out faster.

Now the KTM does feel lighter and flicks around easier. The more dirtbike than streetbike ergos have a lot to do with that so that would seem to go slightly in favor for the KTM but hold on. That lightness also translates to another kind of twitchness. If you do a fast yankover lane change it bobbles, it shakes a bit and you wonder if there is a steering damper on board. I don't know if one is fitted but if it is then it sure isn't doing squat. If there is no damper fitted then it sure needs one. The BMW moves very quick in it's own right but is far more planted in fast, evasive type movements.

The KTM does run cooler and is especially nice on the freeway where you could actually run between 3rd and 4th gear. The engine just lopes along without that I4 rev up noise the BMW has. On the other side of that the KTM stock muffler make the bike sound absolutely anemic and not anywhere the near hooligan noise of the BMW exhaust.

Mirrors? No one on a S1000R has any right to complain. :008: Our mirrors are wonderful compared to the KTM. On the KTM I kept thinking "Oh wow, colors!" when I was checking behind me. :008:

One last thing, for now, the shift lever on the KTM is absolute crap! The trans shifts real easily and light if you can find the shift lever with your left foot. Modifying the shift lever would be the first thing I would have to do. But, of course, I won't need to do that because I'm keeping the S1KR for now, even with it running hot.

Now, a 2015 Yamaha R1 might be something else...............