VOL. 55 ISSUE 48 DECEMBER 4, 2018 P49
America is
lucky in that
the hard bags
come standard—
they're an option
everywhere else.
Creature comforts
The 2019 GT's redesigned front end
also features wider and more pro-
tective side pods to the unchanged
six-gallon gas tank—1.5-gal bigger than
the R-model's 4.7-gal tank. These now
contain a new pair of storage compart-
ments to hold stuff like freeway toll
tickets and credit cards to pay them,
quite apart from the key for the bike
which for the first time on a KTM now
features the RACE ON keyless remote
system.
You now don't even need a key to
unlock the fuel tank when refueling,
meaning that on this new bike you end
up basically using the key only for the
lockable panniers. There's also a USB
socket in the left-hand compartment
to recharge your phone etc., though
be warned that there isn't room for
larger such devices.
Conversely, the Brembo brake package and cast
aluminum wheels are unchanged, sourced as before
from the Super Duke R, with twin radially-mounted four-
piston Monoblock calipers gripping 320mm front discs
with a large 240mm rear, incorporating switchable
Bosch 9ME combined ABS (so, including cornering
ABS) with four modes: Street, Sport, Rain and—Super-
moto. Well, this is a tourer done the KTM way.
A REFINED BEAST
As before the GT boasts the same latest generation
75° V-twin eight-valve LC8 engine with chain cam-
shaft drive measuring 108 x 71 mm for a capacity of
1301cc as its 1290 Super Duke R-model sibling, but
with different tuning and some upgraded hardware.
The engine has same-size-as-before inlet valves
but now in titanium, whose lighter weight is largely
responsible for that 500 rpm higher rev limiter,
together with revised resonator chambers on the
stainless steel exhaust.
Aside from presumed performance benefits, this
also means that the previously best-selling Euro 4
compliant Akrapovic slip-on silencer in the GT aftermar-
ket catalog will now be a hard sell—the 2019 model's
stocker sounds great, muscular and lively at the same
time, if inevitably slightly muted.
However, while all this has resulted in a two-horse-
power increase in power from before to 175 bhp at
9750 rpm, the biggest difference is in the way that it's
delivered—a fact again confirmed by swapping back
