Cycle News

2020 K TM 1290 SUPER DUKE R R I D E R E V I E W P88 CHATTING WITH THE SUPER DUKE ' S DAD, HERMANN SPORN I f it were not for Hermann Sporn, perhaps the Super Duke would never have emerged. Hermann has been the project leader of the Super Duke since its inception and he's likely forgotten more about The Beast than most of us will ever know. We caught up with him for a quick chat at Portimao. There's such a huge amount of change with this bike. Talk us through the chassis updates. We know from the old Super Duke that we have not the right anti-squat behavior. This was the reason why we had to adjust the chassis, so we don't have this running wide out of the corner. The bike needed to be stable, that the weight transfer is not so much to the rear. It means when you acceler- ate hard out of the corner, that you can stay your line. Additionally, when you bring up the center of gravity to the level, we have you get a better handling. This was what we have done for the rear and we get more control for it. But what was also really important is we knew also our frame was really a soft frame, or a supermoto frame, that was not really correct for racetrack behavior. This was the same frame KTM used on the Adventure bikes, correct? On the first Super Duke, it was more or less the same. The Adventure chassis was a little bit shorter, and a little bit stiffer, but it was not enough when you have the higher amount of forces you have to withstand, so we gave the chassis more torsional stiff- ness. With the new chassis, we have increased the torsion stiffness three times over. This helps to get better feedback from the front. Additionally, we have now two engine hangers, that means we can adjust the torsional stiffness of the chassis. This is really important. At maxi- mum lean angle, the suspension doesn't work so good. At this lean angle, you need a good behavior from the chassis so that it works from the front and for the stiffness for the swing- arm you have to have the feeling from the rear. Additionally, it's important that you have the right amount of stiffness from the rims. Altogether it gives a package where you have the safety feeling on the road. You know every time what is happening with the front tire. If it's slippery, if you have grip, you can push, or you have to go back. It helps you on the street, but also on the track. On the track, it's really important when you go to the maximum that you feel what the tire is doing. The swingarm is the same length as it was before, but it's now raised up higher in the chassis? The pivot is higher. Additionally, we have also changed stiffness on the swingarm. We did it without increas- ing the weight. The reason is that the brace we had before on the top, we put to the lower end. The neutral point is lower. That means with the same stiffness from the swingarm, we have less movement on the tire. That helps you a lot. And the engine is now 38mm higher in the chassis? Yes, engine is 38mm higher, and an additional five millimeters we have lifted the swingarm pivot in the engine. So, for a total of 43mm. The shock itself is not shorter. The shock is the same length, but it has more travel? It is completely the same length. The main difference we have is before we have only 57mm shock stroke, with the direct link to the swingarm. Now we have changed to a linkage. The linkage gives you much more pos- sibilities to adjust to the right amount of shock progression. Also, this affects how the movement is on the shock is with more bumps on the street. What's different with the front? We now have a fork offset of 32mm instead of 29mm and new triple clamps. Then on the fork we have now a preload adjuster. We have an aluminum cartridge, and the aluminum cartridge is also bigger than before. This also helps for a better response from the front. You start looking at the motor as well. Now we have 90 per- cent or 80 percent of torque at 3000 rpm, something like that? Yeah. This is what you need for the road. When you have a motorcycle where you have the torque at maximum rpm, also the maximum power, this is as we know, when you are in these revs, with the second gear, you were somewhere over the speed limit. Here on the Super Duke you have also the possibility to drive with third gear with a midrange torque from 114 Nm (84 lb-ft) at 4500 revs, and you have always the right amount of torque. That means when you ride on the road, you never know how the curves are, if you need this gear or this gear. With the Super Duke it makes no matter!

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