VOL. 52 ISSUE 25 JUNE 23, 2015 P61
GET ANGRY
But enough of the niceness.
Yes, this thing is docile enough
to get milk on; yes, it'll happily
drop the kids at school and;
yes, it's a much more grown up
version of the brat it was before.
But a leopard can't change its
spots, and when it's time to get
nasty, the KTM Super Duke
1290 R will punch as hard as any
machine with two wheels and an
engine this side of a WSBK grid.
Take the bike by the scruff of its
neck and kick it hard. Like pissing
off that Rottie in the backyard,
the Super Duke will bite back and
before you know it, you've already
put your license on notice that
you intend to part ways very soon.
The Super Duke goes from docile
to blisteringly angry, slicing past
the first four ratios like pastrami as
the revs climb at an exponentially
fast rate. There's a kick in the
rev range at around 6000 rpm,
the engine feels like it gets over
a crest and then all hell breaks
loose if you dare to keep the
throttle pinned. The acceleration
is nothing short of immense and
it just keeps coming – five, six,
seven, eight, nine, 10, 11,000 rpm
flashes past the dial before you've
had time to register it even arrived.
You'd struggle to get this level of
go from a full-blown superbike not
that long ago, now it comes in the
form of a bike your nana could
ride. Evil buggers, those KTM
engineers.
The press jargon that ac-
companied the Super Duke on
its release kept alluding to 'The
Beast', and it's in this style of
riding they're talking about. At
sensible speeds the Super Duke
is a puppy, at mental speeds it
changes entirely.
The chassis plays the two-faced
game as easily as the engine. This
is easily the most comfortable bike
bearing the naked bike moniker
out there today and every rider I've
told to sit on the Super Duke says
the same thing they can't believe
how roomy and well proportioned
it is. Ergonomics are absolutely
spot on. It's a bike designed for
normal people, rather than tiny Ital-
ian and Japanese riders. There's
ample legroom and no weight on
the wrists you still get a solid wind-
blast at high speed but that comes
with the nakedbike territory.
Surprisingly the 48mm WP
