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KTM950 Supermotard
Boom Boom Bananas!
It’s just over a year and a half since I bought the SM from new and I still enjoy every single ride. (It’s standard plus AKrapovic pipes and Dymag carbon wheels).
Used mostly to commute the sixty mile round trip to work and back covering major and minor A-roads including semi-rural.
In this environment the bike excels. It is not a motorway Hoover but the strong and willing V-twin will blast you to 130 without drawing breath, (so I’m told) and a well executed ride need not be hard on the very capable Brembos as the engine breaking is solid, rapid avoidance notwithstanding.
So if you were the kind of kid, who, when your mum said ‘Don’t touch the plates, they’re hot’ would immediately go ahead and touch 'em, you may be interested in this big old orange and Black Bess. It really is the most excellent fun and induced the first truly spontaneous ‘Yeehaw’ since I was a young’un riding bare-back.
If you’ve ridden sports bikes for a number of years the first thing you notice is the ride height. This affords a head-up view of the road and adds greatly to your conspicuous presence.
The wider bars and the whole character of the bike lends itself to an elbows out ‘excuse-me-I’m-coming-through’ stance thus empowering the rider with a bantam cocksureness.
Aiding further to your conspicuous presence is the sound, not the loudest I’ve ever heard but a complete repertory of the deep rumbling variety. Low revs go from a Crompton Thumper (old diesel train) to a bear in a barrel. Throttle hard and you’ll hear a Fokker Wulf accompany you but the best of all is the overrun. Drop a couple of cogs and throttle completely off releases a volley of small explosions - boomboom bananas!
It has been known for car alarms to go off, dogs to bark and strain at their leads while small children cling to their mother’s aprons.
In contrast it is possible to let the bike run with a purr/growl and be pleasingly acceptable to young and old. At least my dear wife knows when I’m on the final downhill approach home.
The clutch and gearbox are both slick and positive with the ratios very well matched. The frame is taught, the long travel suspension give the bike a lively feel with lots of feedback. Honing a long bend with wretched cross-banding can feel like a bull ride but it all gets soaked up and it’s time for another ‘Yeehaw’.
This bike has certainly got plenty of character. It’s only annoying trait can be starting, the sensitive manual choke coupled with a torque limiter can often result in a ‘doof-doof-screek’ on depressing the starter but you soon get the knack.
All in all I love it, bags enough power, low centre of gravity, confidence inspiring handling, big road presence and an endless supply of black and orange branded merchandise to keep the most loyal consumer happy.
Did I mention the free KTM attaché case with KTM ball point pen? Welcome to the fun – let’s rock!
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| Submitted by |
| Coghurst Boy in Hastings, East Sussex on 30/07/2008 |
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The spirit of the TL1000 Suzuki lives on, in the shape of the Super Duke 990, reckons Alastair Walker from www.insidebikes.com mag.
www.insidebikes.com
I tested the KTM Super Duke in the summer of 2007 and despite the appalling weather, spent a week with a massive grin on my face. After 30 years riding motorcycles this one made me feel like a teenager again, let loose for the first time on a `proper’ motorbike.
The secret of the Super Duke’s old fashioned appeal is simple; raw power from the 1000cc V-twin engine, matched to a high-performance chassis which eats up twisty roads like a pack of chav youths guzzling alcopops in the park.
This bike revels in its arm-wrenching lunge, its cat-quick handling ability and sticks two fingers up at those who think we all have to wear designer stubble and parp about at 55mph on Sundays, in some kind of Viagra-man parade.
KTM have a different take on biking and the Super Duke has raw, red meat adventure in its soul, and a healthy dose of bad attitude into the bargain. It reminded me of the original TL1000 Suzuki – and not in a bad way either, as the KTM handles very well.
What I’m driving at is that the KTM has the sort of performance that makes you respect the bike, take time to get to know it before you really start to hammer the living daylights out of it.
Just like the old TL1000, the Super Duke demands experience, a high level of skill and riding talent and I think that’s great. Not every bike should be novice-friendly, soft `n’ cuddly. There’s room for mad bastards in the broad Church of Motorcycling.
KTM design their own engines and they’ve done brilliantly with this V-twin motor. It has meaty poke everywhere in the rev range, an excellent fuel injection set-up and a class-leading gearbox. It isn’t crude, but has got a rough edginess that a Japanese V-Twin usually lacks.
Chassis-wise, it’s hard to fault. The Super Duke is good enough to race – in fact there’s a one make series for it, although I think there should be a Super Twins series, so that KTM can take on tweaked TL1000s, Aprilia Tuonos, VTR1000 Firestorms etc.
The KTM’s skeletel tubular frame, massive 48mm forks and beefy triple disc brakes let you make the most of the claimed 120bhp engine. It all works with unerring accuracy on the road.
In the end, there’s a real balance, a harmony between the power of the KTM Super Duke and its chassis qualities, which makes this a machine for riders who know how to ride fast - and yet don’t want a sportbike, for whatever reason.
At £8000-ish it is undeniably expensive for a Roadster type of bike, but what a brilliant fun-packed way to travel.
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| Submitted by |
| northpoint in Chester, Cheshire on 07/02/2008 |
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