Last year, at least 4 BikeMe members bought KTM Superduke 1290s. This is the review they should’ve written, ages ago. Instead, they’ve been selfishly basking in the glory of this motorcycle all this time, keeping their mouths shut and their keyboards dry. Well they can hide this secret no longer because What a bike. What…. a ….. motorcycle!
I got to ride Daz’s 1290 in the Snowy Mountains recently. I rode it from Cabramurra to Khancoban, a distance of 70KMs, 90% of which is tight and twisty mountain road. I cannot think of any bike better suited to this kind of road than the 1290.
I don’t usually immediately feel comfortable on a bike and start going fast. Even on the Tuono, it has taken me a while to get comfortable with it, playing with suspension settings etc. But the 1290, I got on it, thought I’d take it easy and then immediately proceeded to float the front wheel in second gear at a Hundred kilometres an hour. I throttled off at an approaching corner and suddenly realizing I was going a lot faster than I thought I was, slammed the front brakes hard. The bike pivoted around the contact patch of the front tyre threatening to lift the rear wheel, the front forks shook a little and I thought I’m going to lose the front on the first corner I hit. Fuck! But the bike settled, turned into the corner effortlessly and I laughed in my helmet like a loon.
I don’t usually immediately feel comfortable on a bike and start going fast. Even on the Tuono, it has taken me a while to get comfortable with it, playing with suspension settings etc. But the 1290, I got on it, thought I’d take it easy and then immediately proceeded to float the front wheel in second gear at a Hundred kilometres an hour. I throttled off at an approaching corner and suddenly realizing I was going a lot faster than I thought I was, slammed the front brakes hard. The bike pivoted around the contact patch of the front tyre threatening to lift the rear wheel, the front forks shook a little and I thought I’m going to lose the front on the first corner I hit. Fuck! But the bike settled, turned into the corner effortlessly and I laughed in my helmet like a loon.
I have written about my obsession and subsequent disillusionment with the previous generation SuperDuke 990. The 1290 somehow manages to improve on every aspect of the 990 while still keeping its heritage intact and being unmistakeably, a SuperDuke. The power and torque on this monster is ridiculous. 1st gear throttle wheelies are so 1990s. 3rd gear roll-on wheelies, now that’s what this bike brings to the table! I gunned it out of a tight bend in 2nd gear, saw a short straight ahead, short-shifted to third and snapped the throttle. Wooooaaaahhh, down boy! I was not prepared for that, at all. Forget traction control, wheelie control or launch control, this bike gives you adrenalin control! It’s like the throttle is connected straight to your adrenalin gland and a twist of the wrist is like squeezing the gland directly to squirt pure adrenalin into your blood stream. It guns out of corners with an intense connection to the tarmac. Despite the phenomenal torque, I never felt like I would break traction on the rear. In the wet it may be a different story but the throttle works both ways eh?
While we’re on the subject of throttle, it was immediately apparent that the throttle response is much improved over the 990. The 990 had immediate response but I found it a bit too snatchy, especially on rough roads. The 1290 is spot on. There is no lag when you twist but it’s not always trying to get off a leash. In fact, the smoothness of the whole drivetrain was refreshing. While the 990 was slightly agricultural, the 1290 is refined. The suspension is another area of vast improvement in my opinion. Sprung softer than the 990, the suspension is more compliant and soaks up real road surfaces much better while still providing excellent damping for hard riding. The front gets lively (and that’s how you know it’s still very much a SuperDuke) but it’s on the exciting side of lively, not the alarming side. You still sit right on the front wheel with a commanding position over the bike and the road. The turn-in is instant just like the 990. The cockpit is nicer though and the electronic dash adds to the feeling of modernity and refinement. It’s a comfortable bike too, more so than my Tuono. In fact, in every aspect, this is a better bike than a 2007 Tuono. There are few bikes I would say that about despite the Tuono being 9 years old. But the SuperDuke is clearly a generation ahead. The only place the Tuono gets one over the 1290 is mid corner stability on sweepers but then that’s just pure geometry. Not that the 1290 is unstable or anything but the Tuono essentially has the genes of a sportsbike while the 1290 has those of a Gorilla crossed with a meerkat.
When we stopped to refuel at Khancoban, Daz said it has a 300KM range and he didn't need fuel. I said I'm not giving the keys back, lets keep riding.
A bike that performs as well as it looks?
When we stopped to refuel at Khancoban, Daz said it has a 300KM range and he didn't need fuel. I said I'm not giving the keys back, lets keep riding.
A bike that performs as well as it looks?
When the final finishing touch on the 1290 SuperDuke was applied at the Austrian factory and the covers were taken off, the engineers stared at it for a long time and racked their brains to think of any way they could make this an even better bike. In a flash of eureka they realized that the only way to improve the 1290 was to add more Daz. So they went out and did just that.
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