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/128382
corners snake together in rapid succession, there's not a sportbike in the world that can live with the big KTM. Picture riding a badass dual-sport bike on a fire road that's the 950 Supermoto in Tuscany. Ain't no way a sportbike is keeping up. And I don't care if Luigi was Giacomo Agostini. He was in over his head. Riding the big KTM is effortless. It just feels like a big, powerful dirt bike with street tires, making it the perfect option for someone who has grown up riding motocrossers or the like. Or for the firsttime street rider. Or for the sportbike rider who would just like to go faster. You can back it into corners like a dirt bike, slide it on the exits... heck, you can have your foot down dirt-track style if you feel the need. The biggest dilemma you face on the 950 Supermoto is when you get to a corner: It's difficult to decide whether to put your foot down or drag a knee. What you definitely don't get is the scrunched-over feeling of riding a sportbike, but you still get the benefits of one - at least in the twisties. Perhaps even more so. And you're more comfortable, sitting upright even more so than on your basic naked bike. And it feels nice and thin. And nice and light. Call it the best of both worlds. KTM says that the idea behind its newest model was to "bring the category of Supermoto to a new level." And if KTM knows anything, it's Supermoto. In 1998, KTM broke into the Supermoto segment with the introduction of its 620 LC4, and it's never looked back. The 950 is a continuation of that heritage. Powered by KTM's 75-degree V-twin LC8 engine (the same powerplant that provides the kick in the 950 Adventurer and the Super Duke), the 950 Supermoto is most definitely a street bike - even though I just spent a paragraph basically telling you otherwise. As KTM likes to say, the 950 Supermoto isn't just an Adventurer with small wheels something it backs up by adding that more than 90 percent of the bike has components not found on the Adventurer. The LC8 engine also has a few updates over the one found in the Adventurer, including a new 3.2-liter aluminum oil tank that sits directly in front of the engine. The powerplant puts out a claimed 98 horsepower at 80DO rpm and features a six-speed transmission, and it really doesn't lack for power - at least not on the type of roads that we were on in Italy. This isn't your basic Supermoto bike that falls on its face when it gets to 70 mph. This one will get you over the IDO-mph mark with ease, and there's really no reason why it shouldn't work well as a freeway commuter bike as well. Where the bike really excels is when you grab a handful of throttle coming off corners. The 950 has tons of torque with this model, getting an increase in that department thanks mainly, according to KTM, to the new positioning of the header pipes under the engine. It also does really cool wheelies, though I know this only from watching others. Those pipes feed into silencers, with each getting its own catalytic converter. The bike has a lusty sound, although it feels and sounds unlike any V-twin I've ever ridden. The chassis and suspension is another area where this KTM differs from its siblings. The rear suspension features a wide range of settings with the 950's linkless WP monoshock set up for street use. Even so, it still features 8.4 inches oftravel. In addition to spring preload and rebound damping, you can also adjust the high- and low-speed compression damping. The rear suspension is also marked for customers, with three basic settings shown on stickers: Sporty, Average and Comfortable. Even though there isn't a sticker that says "Full Moto," Catterson and I still spent a lot of time looking off the side of the road in the hopes of finding a trail we could attack. We came close to venturing down one particularly steep embankment, but not knowing exactly where the trail led or if we could make the climb back out, we thought the better of it. Still, something tells me the 950 would be perfectly at home sliding around a dirt road - like it's Adventurer brother. The chassis is like the rest of KTM's road-going models - a chrome-moly tubular design that weighs just 24.2 pounds, according to KTM. The bike has a short wheelbase of just 1510mm (the swingarm is just 575mm) with 10mm of trail. Whatever comes to mind when you think of a hairpin, erase it. Tuscany must be where the hairpin was originated. Some of the corners we came upon looped back in true hairpin fashion, but the big KTM had little trouble turning back on itself and making even the tightest corners easy to negotiate. Some of the corners were so tight, a trials