HOT KTM IS LAUGH A MINUTE FUN MACHINE
In a rational world, a bike like this wouldn’t exist. But then, neither would love, poetry nor Italy.
For a start, it’s got more power than 100% of riders will use on the road, and 99% on track. It’s faster than the wind, but with no wind protection. And there’s no place for luggage for anything longer than a day trip.
Still, if God had wanted life to be normal, he wouldn’t have invented Donald Trump, and although it was completely pointless and impractical, I loved it. The bike, that is, not Donald.
Climb aboard and, on the left bar, a four-way joystick introduces you to 486,000 menus and sub-menus, but for simple souls, a two-way switch on the right bar toggles between the rider modes of Track, Sport, Street and Rain, and controls the heated grips. That done, you can then admire the typically perfect KTM riding position: upright and neutral enough to prove that you don’t need to be crippled by sports bikes to go fast.
You’re tipped forward slightly so you grip the tank lightly with your knees, you rest your pinkies equally lightly on the wide bars, and you’re perfectly positioned to fling into corners.
And fling you do. With trademark KTM smallish wheelbase, perfect weight distribution and steepish fork rake, before you know it you’re stitching together an exquisite tapestry of bends. Acceleration, as you’d expect with 180bhp propelling 209kg of bike, is hilariously fast, accompanied by one of the greatest sounds in the motorcycling symphony, the visceral snarl of a big V-twin. With more grunt than Seamus Murphy’s pig farm just outside Ballygobackwards, you can stay in third or fourth all the way from twisties to sweeping A-roads, and overtaking is such a point and shoot affair that I ended up laughing in my helmet.
The suspension is firm, but it suits the taut, muscular nature of the bike and it only caught me out once, when on a particularly frisky stretch of road it bounced my left foot off the peg.
Up to now I’d been proceeding in Street mode on damp roads, but with conditions drying out, it was time for Sport, and if I’d thought progress was hilarious in Street, it now became plain ludicrous.
So if you’ve got 15 grand to spare and are on the lookout for the most fun toy since your
Action Man Red Devil outfit, look no further.
Bike supplied by
Phillip McCallen