Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128350
The SuperMoto sports a good -sized fue l cell. Tank capacity is just under 4.5 gallons. The SuperMoto's 75 -degree, DOHC, eight-valve twin delivers rear wheel horsepower at 8500 rpm , more than enough get up and go for the street or the dirt. has drawn on its dirt bike heritage to dramatic effect, coupling it w ith the firm's fastgrowing, GP-winning tarmac technology to create a li erally unique motorcycle package, t which has no direct competitors in the present-day marketp lace. It's a stage or two beyo nd such ove rweight , soft-centered, tra il-to urer o ptions as the Honda Varadero o r Suzuki T-Strom , and it is more hardnosed in performance terms than a Ducati Multistrada or Voxan Scrambler, and lighter and more focused tha n even t he Aprilia Tuono or Ducati 54 Monster. Really, in order to re late the new KTM street supermoto to the rest of the V-twin road ster marketplace, you can only compare it to the wayan MV Brutale just blitzes everyt hing e lse in the equivalent fou r-cylinder stripper segment - exce pt tha t the KTM 950 Supe rMoto has a trick up its tw istgrip: It can do it in the dirt , too! T he ma n who get s the credit for dreaming up t he idea of creating th is dualpurpose dirt rod is none ot her than company president Stefan Pier er - himself an en thu siastic rider, but mainly o n the dirt , rat he r than on tarmac. "T his is my kind of street mot o rcycle, wh ich com bines t he feel of an off-roa de r with th e performance of a spo rt bike ," says t he dynam ic 47-year old en t re preneu r behind KTM 's emergence as a comi ng force in wo rld motor cycling. "And above all, it had to be fun to ride - wh ich, I'm glad to say, it is!" Philipp Habsbu rg, t he youthful pro ject leade r of the 990 SuperDu ke street rod now e ntering production in KTM's Matt ighofen plant, was the man charged by Piere r to head the R&D team tasked with creating the 950 SuperMo to - but the tw o pro jects are qu ite distinct ones, w ith minimal crossover, says Habsburg. "In fact, w hen we began work on it abo ut two years ago, the o riginal idea was to builda supermotard V-twin by stripping out a 950 Adventure enduro and fitting it with 17inch whe els and a smaller fuel tank," he admits. "That way, we could use the lessons learned from wo rking on it to speed up deve lopment . But after just a couple of months, we realized this wasn't the way to go, because the stee ring geometry was all wrong w ith the smaller wheels, and at anything over 75 mph or so it wou ld start to shimmy and beco me very unstable. Plus,having the oil tank mounted at the front, below the water radiator, as we llas trying to get sufficient fuel capacity without making it too tall, resulted in the bike being very wide at the , front - it was so ugly we broke it up into pieces and sta rte d all over again!" The seco nd time around proved mo re fruitful, lead ing to t he pro toty pe I tested in w hat is now close to its final guise , w ith on ly a revised 2- 1-2 exhaust system still to com e , which w ill see the headers running down be neat h the engine rather than to t he right of the cylinders, before ending in twin silen ce rs, each fitted with a cata lyst. "It' s so you do n't get your right leg barbequed with an BOO-degree pipe just Scm away from it!" Habsburg says. The 950 Supe rMoto still em ploys an Adventure 950 chro me- moly space frame chassis, but it is now fitted with t he sho rter swingarm and smaller 17-inch wheels of the 990 Supe rDuke , the fo rmer pivoting in both the fram e and t he engine cra nkcases to offer 30-pe rcent extra stiffness - but still not act ing as a fully st ressed chass is mem ber. Apart from these crossove r co mponents and the unmodified 2005- model 950 Adventure versio n of KTM's LeB V-twin mot or (w ith stronger cran kcases and vario us o ther updates derived from lessons www.cyclenews.com learned in t he first two years of productio n), everyt hing else on t he 950 Supe rMoto is new and purpose-b uilt to deliver a tight-look ing, sta ble-handling package that will live up to designer Gerald Kiske's purp oseful super moto styling. Steering geo metry and over all dimensio ns re main more dirt than ta rmac, howeve r, with a qu ite rangy 1510mm (60.4 inche s) w hee lbase and kicked -o ut, 25.4degree head angle, featu ring I 10mm of trail, eve n though the w hole bike sits a little lower than the end uro that spawned it. The 4Bmm WP central-axle upside-down forks measure 900mm in length o n the SuperMoto, co mpared to the 920 mm same-diamet er lead ing-axle front suspen sio n of the Adven ture - versus just 73Smm long on the SuperDu ke - res ulting in an unladen seat height of B95mm (35.B inches) , co mpare d to t he Duke's B55mm (34.2 inches). A tad less tall t han the Advent ure's, th is is just low enough to let a 6-footer throw a leg ove r the seat at rest; shorter riders w ill have to stand on t he left foot re st to climb o n, with t he bike pro pped up o n t he quite substan tial, idea llength sidestan d. The strange t hing is tha t, o nce aboard, the seating posit ion doe sn't seem to be nearly as high, mighty and handsome as the o nly slightly less etherea l Adventur e's. That may be a funct ion of the Super Moto's seat, which, wh ile it loo ks just as planklike as the enduro model's rea lly is, in fact is surprislngly soft and comfortable - accommodating, eve n. The one piece handlebar bolted to the 4Bmm W P forks' trick-loo king, 30mm-offset upper triple clamp - a de dicate d SM 950 part - is quite fl at, but just high and pulled -back eno ugh to deliver an excellent upright stance that is really com fy for corner-carving your way through tarmac twisties, as well as providing good leverage for collecting slides onor off-road. Handling is aided by the good grip and responsive cont rollability of the Pirelli Skorp ion Sync tires, which are ideally suited to this bike's nature and performance. It also delivers a huge steering lock (an important ingred ient for tail-out supermoto riding), far more than on the Adventure, where you practically need a reverse gear to make three-point turns. The SM950's tu rning circle isn't much wide r than do uble the wheelbase , which, com bined w ith its quite-high riding stance that allows yo u to see over traffic and plan ahead, makes t his a brill iant bike for city wo rk - especially with t he light clutch , q uite low footrests, w hich don't drag unduly, and t he zest ful-yet-user-friendly e ngine. This has to be the future mou nt of choice for the discerning delivery co urier. Like the rest of KTM 's V-twin models, the SuperMoto disdains a rear link for t he fully adjustab le cantilever W P shock , w hich features bot h high- and low -speed co mpre ssion dampings. Having been threaten ed with dire co nsequ ences by th e goo d King Philipp if I failed to bring this one-off pro totype back CYCLE NEWS • NOVE MBER 17, 2004 13