I
t's no secret we love the KTM 1290 Super
Duke R here at Cycle News. It's proven to be
one of the baddest naked bikes of all time
and easily our favorite KTM street bike ever
after we raced one at Pikes Peak this year,
but after three years of production, KTM has
decided to freshen up its premium road beast
with some engine and styling tweaks to keep
it at the head of the naked bike pack.
The engine is more powerful than before,
with KTM claiming 177 horsepower thanks to
new cylinder heads, intake, valves, pistons
and cams, and the compression has been
bumped up to 13.6:1.
The chassis has been refined but still the
fork doesn't have preload adjustment. It's a
newly developed 48mm inverted unit from WP,
with separate damping circuits for the rebound
and compression damping working with stiffer
fork springs, and there's a new WP shock out
back, again with a stiffer spring than before.
The Super Duke now comes with the Bosch
IMU to work in conjunction with KTM's own
MSC (Motorcycle Stability Control - i.e, traction
control) and Cornering ABS, bringing it in line
with the company's Super Adventure and Su-
per Duke GT in the tech stakes. And, there's
also cruise control!
As for the user interface, that's now the
new TFT dash that displays information in an
easier to read format than the orange dash of
the 2014-'16 model.
Aesthetically, the Super Duke looks sharper
than ever with a new LED headlight and sur-
round, sharper seat unit and rear bodywork, a
larger and wider handlebar and a new keyless
ignition system KTM calls RACE ON. Who
needs keys, anyway?
We'll be riding this amazing new beast in
early December so stay tuned for a full review
at Cyclenews.com.
To see the 2017 KTM 1290 Super Duke in
action, click HERE.
FIRST LOOKS
P54
2017 KTM 1290
SUPER DUKE R
Our favorite
naked is back and
badder than ever.
