KTM 1290 SUPER DUKE GT
The KTM looks and feels like the most adventurous out of our trio of touring bikes. It’s big, hefty and the moment you swing a leg over it, you feel as though you could take on the world. But, by gum, it’s expensive. Its £16,799 price tag is by far the strongest out of the three bikes on test, but on paper it’s easy to see why. It would certainly win you a game of Top Trumps with its electronic suite consisting of everything the Yamaha has, and more – shifter, blipper, wheelie and traction control, cruise control, heated grips and the holy grail of modern motorcycling that is switchable ABS. And with more power and torque (claimed), and a gigantic 23-litre fuel tank, the KTM ought to run away with it, surely?
There is no question about it, the KTM is a perfectly premium-feeling bike. The dashboard is definitely suitable for a £16k-odd bike, the throttle has a lovely action and the hydraulic clutch is nice and light – everything just works.
Cowering behind the tall screen on the motorway with cruise control engaged, I really felt like I was living the dream on the big 1290. Whilst you are moving it’s fantastic, and it’s pretty good when you decide to slow down, too – the Brembo callipers do a smashing job of hauling you up if you need to decelerate in a hurry, but if you do find yourself wanting to have a really steady ride on the KTM it can get a bit chuggy. What I mean by that is that the motor doesn’t like to rev too low. The 1,301cc engine is actually pretty smooth when you have it in its sweet spot, but if you let it drop too far below 5,000rpm things get a bit lumpy, and it actually cut out on me once when I asked for a big handful of throttle from really low in the revs.
The KTM’s luggage was pretty sizable and when we got to Calais to load her up I had high hopes for the Katoom’s carrying capabilities. Unfortunately though, it took a little bit of time to get into the thing’s paniers as you need the key to get in them and we couldn’t remember where it was, or even who
had it. You see, the GT comes with a keyless ignition system, which is all nice and futuristic, but we didn’t see it as very practical. When you want the key, surely it’s better if it is hanging out the ignition barrel and staring you in the face. Was it in somebody’s pocket or stashed in a cubbyhole on the bike somewhere? Well, we eventually found out that it was the latter – there’s a secret compartment close to where the ignition would normally be, which is great if know it’s there, but we didn’t… so it wasn’t.
Once we had figured out how to open the KTM’s paniers (there’s a really odd handle mechanism that you have to open and then pull to release the panier lid), we started firing booze into them. Altogether we managed to squeeze 48 beers, four bottles and two bags of wine in the KTM’s luggage compartments which came to 24.64 litres, which was quite a bit more than the Yamaha, but not as much as the Kawasaki.
Once we had ditched the booze at the B&B and found some proper roads, the KTM kept on showing us what it was good at. Wheelies were 10 a penny and the awesome brakes made sure that stoppies were, too. One joyous little feature that KTM have built into the Super Duke’s electronics is the ability to disengage the traction and wheelie control, and the ABS without having to pull over and stop the bike. It’s actually not the most straightforward thing to do and it does require some menu navigation and button holding, but it’s entirely do-able.
When we got on the really tight roads with hairpins aplenty, the KTM did feel a bit heavy, lethargic and, well, just a bit clumsy. The combination of it being such a tall bike, such a heavy bike and it having an engine that doesn’t like to be revved too slowly did make it awkward sometimes. But let’s face it, walking pace hairpins aren’t what motorcycling is all about, are they?
Another little niggle that Frodo and I both had with the KTM was the high-beam switch on the left-hand switchgear, which kept flicking itself on when you reached for the clutch lever – if it had have just been me that had the problem I would have blamed my ham-fisted digits, but since my more delicate colleague had suffered with the same nuisance, I’d go as far as to say something ought to have been designed slightly better. Really though, its nigh-on impossible to slag the KTM off properly. It’s got all the mod cons (maybe a little too many), it’s comfy, fast and can go for miles without having to worry about fuel. It’s probably just what you want from a motorcycle of this persuasion. But it’s a little bit fussy for me, and that price tag is going to really, really sting.