KTM 690 Duke: Seriously capable. Seriously fun.

I’m shooting along a steep, spectacularly twisty mountain road in Gran Canaria. The throttle is repeatedly on its stop yet there’s an almost eerie smoothness as the 690 Duke R revs to its 9000rpm redline with the enthusiasm that you might expect of a bike that makes a healthy 75bhp and has a dry weight of less than 150kg.

On that early-morning blast the road was slightly damp and gritty, but I hardly needed to worry about that because the KTM is equipped with Bosch’s brilliant cornering ABS and lean-angle dependent traction control system. The Duke R is quick, ridiculously light, remarkably sophisticated, outstandingly safe – and about as similar to a traditional lumpy big single as the Starship Enterprise is to a horse and cart.

This bike and the standard 690 Duke that I rode first in the morning represent the fifth generation of KTM’s road-going single, which has sold more than 50,000 units since its launch in 1994. During that time performance and refinement have increased repeatedly, and this latest pair of 690cc models represent another advance in both respects, notably with increased power and torque, reduced vibration and stateof-the-art electronics.

The first short stretch of main road was all the 690 Duke needed to demonstrate the LC4 powerplant’s main attributes. When I cracked open its throttle on exiting a roundabout the bike leapt forward, revving through the gears with a touch more enthusiasm than its predecessor would have managed – and with a distinct lack of vibration as the new instrument console’s tacho needle jabbed towards the redline through the gears.

The KTM engineers’ achievement in coaxing an extra 6bhp from the sohc, four-valve powerplant is admirable, especially when they’ve had to get the Duke through Euro 4 homologation at the same time. But the motor’s extra smoothness, courtesy of a second balancer shaft located in the cylinder head, makes more difference to how the bike feels. It’s not that previous Dukes vibrated particularly harshly when