KTM 890Duker
Take the award-winning 790 Duke, inject it full of steroids and tear off unnecessary clutter. Surely this has to be the perkiest and most exciting of all the current middleweight nakeds…
Forty miles per hour, third gear, leaving town and heading into sun-drenched countryside. KTM’S new 890 Duke R is side-by-side with the Triumph Street Triple RS in the same gear and doing the same speed. With a shouted countdown the throttles are cracked at exactly the same time… and the KTM clears off. We’re not talking edging out a few bike lengths and creeping ahead. The Austrian twin wastes the established British triple. Bike subscriber and occasional road tester Andy Gurski is on the Triumph and struggles to believe the difference. ‘You just buggered off,’ he splutters, wide-eyed in disbelief. ‘I had to check that the RS wasn’t in fifth gear by mistake.’ It’s a perfect illustration of why you shouldn’t compare the 890 Duke R and Street Triple RS on spec-sheet brags alone. With 119bhp, 166kg dry and a £10,399 asking the KTM appears almost identical to the 121bhp, 166kg, £10,500 Triumph. However, the twin has 26% more torque than the triple, doesn’t need as many revs, and with snappier gearing has a far more explosive response. Sure, the Triumph can go faster in each gear, but who cares? It doesn’t react like the KTM. Unlike the triple, the twin’s cunning electronics allow playful lifts of the front wheel under acceleration too, reinforcing the sense of punch (though it doesn’t loft as high as the mischievous Yamaha or mono-loving MV).
Disregard those matching claimed weights as well. The 890cc parallel twin is fabulously compact, the minimalist steel tube frame is slender, and the up-on-its-toes Duke R is so narrow it feels like your
knees are going to touch. There’s nothing to it – just pushing the bikes around it feels 30kg lighter than the others. The sensation continues on the move – the 890 has low-speed agility and steering delicacy that make the Triumph feel like its front tyre needs a few more pee-ess-eye.
With increased ride height over the 790 Duke the 890 has nimble and instant handling at higher speed too (there’s a discreet steering damper under the bottom yoke to make sure things don’t get too exciting). That said the 890 R doesn’t have the sucked-down sportsbike confidence of the Triumph in smooth, fast corners, but responds to a lighter touch and is always keen to turn – and is more composed than the MV and Yamaha. KTM’S granite-hard test rider Jeremy Mcwilliams reckons the 890 laps some circuits as quick as the 1290 Duke R, allow time to adapt to its instantly flickable feel and you’ll believe him.
The fully adjustable WP fork and shock are swankier than on the 790 Duke and sportily firm, though pleasingly not as likely to cause dentistry costs as the jarring Triumph. Curiously, the Street Triple seems plusher and more luxurious at low speed (helped by the feel of its softer seat), while the Duke R has the more absorbent ride at normal road speed. It hasn’t the ride comfort of the Yamaha, though. It’s quite a tall riding position, with a suggestion of supermoto – it’s nearest to the front-endy Yamaha in feel, placing you upright and near the sharp end, with lots of leg room and commanding stance. Takes a bit of getting used to next to the more traditional stance of the MV and Triumph, the oh-so-slightly prone positions of which give a bit better distance-covering comfort, but you soon acclimatise. Weather protection is nonexistent, but hey – they’re all naked bikes.
KTM’S latest colour TFT display is nicer looking and slicker than previous versions, and easier to control from multi-function switchgear. Town work is easy thanks to light controls and the tossability of a small bike, though pillions aren’t welcome unless they’re happy with no seat or footpegs and a leg scalded by the popping high-level exhaust. Traction, corner-aware ABS and riding modes are all present and correct, including a Track mode allowing all manner of lairy slip-sliding sideways action for people with more skill than me.
Back in the days of the 990 Super Duke, the R version was too stiff and focused for us normal folk. While the 890 Duke R is certainly sporty, it’s new-found edginess over the base 790 doesn’t completely sacrifice normal road use. And this is a big part of Street Triple fan Andy’s decision that he’d, ‘take the KTM over the Triumph’.
‘Thetriumphcan go faster in each gear, but it doesn’t react like the KTM’