2017 KTM 1290 SUPER DUKE R
FIRST TEST
P60
P
re-ride press conferences can be
as boring as watching paint dry.
Most of the time they're an excuse
for company bosses to spout why they're
so great and how good the company is
doing and blah, blah, blah.
But you'd have to be stone motherless
dead not to get at least a little excited
when Thomas Kuttruf, KTM's Internation-
al PR manager and the man affectionate-
ly known as Mr. KTM, looks you straight
in the eye and spouts the words: "This is
the beast. It's not a kid's bike."
We ride fast bikes all the time but
there's something about the KTM 1290
Super Duke R that's always done it for
us at Cycle News. Maybe it's the edgy
styling, the comfy ergos or the rip-your-
arms-out 1301cc V-twin wedged in the
orange steel trellis chassis.
It's probably a combination of all three.
'Twas but three years ago in the sleepy
Austrian town of Mattighofen that the
KTM 1290 Super Duke R—the first of its
name—hit the motorcycle industry like
basketball-sized molotov cocktail. Its
arrival meant the bike dubbed The Beast
was instantly the largest V-twin naked on
the market, but it's seen little updates
since that oh-so-memorable explosion
in 2014. Step into 2017 and the Super
Duke isn't what you'd call all new, but it
is refined in almost every area—from aes-
thetics to engine, chassis and especially,
electronics.
The king of the Duke range gets a new
TFT dash, three revised riding modes of
Street, Sport and Track, Bosch Corner-
ing ABS, a nine stage traction control
system, anti-wheelie, launch control,
cruise control and optional extras like
Motor Slip Regulation (MSR, stops the
rear wheel from locking under braking)
and a quickshifter.
The new electronics suite brings the
Super Duke into line with the category's
Already a firm favorite at Cycle News, the KTM
1290 Super Duke R is back and better than ever.
We flew to Qatar to go for a spin on the big
daddy of super naked bikes.
BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KTM EUROPE
Beast Mode
2.0!
