KTM790 Duke
Class-leading Austrian side-by-side twin has an enormous £1500 lopped off its list price this year — and this means a super-cheap PCP deal that's too good to refuse
This is the most KTM device in the KTM range. It’s the 790 Duke that best captures the orange brand’s reputation for building engaging, vibrant, to-the-point motorcycles. Rider’s bikes. Yes, I know, the ludicrously powerful 1290 Super Duke R is faster and more advanced, and they knock out adventure bikes with a wild combination of genuine dirt ability and superbike-like performance. But they simply don’t share the 790’s balance of power, handling and straightforward fun.
It’s just a hoot. Tweak the light twistgrip and the 799cc parallel twin responds in a fraction of a nanosecond, delivering urgent touchy-feely drive. Nudge a ’bar, brush a control, and the super-slim and delicate chassis (it’s just 169kg dry) reacts and dances with similar immediacy. The way it steers is fabulous. Engaging and confidence-swelling feedback flows through all the contact surfaces; suspension is sportily firm but push on as encouraged, into its operating range, and the Duke’s damping is oily with grip-finding suppleness.
On a tumbling country road, the agile KTM is as speedy point-topoint as anything. But it’s not all about going fast. With its thumping midrange, stubby gearing, rapid reactions and barking exhaust, the Duke is exciting and fruity at legal speeds too. Or at least close enough to legal speeds that you’re not reduced to a gibbering paranoid mess. When someone invents a fun-o-meter the 790 will be off the scale. Several years ago, I remember writing about how the old 990 Super Duke was like a BMX with a whacking great V-twin wedged in its middle, and how nothing skipped so easily up the twisty hillside roads near my modest dwelling. It was so impressive the 990 won group tests. ‘Gloriously light, responsive handling and a peachy twin,’ babbled our wildly appreciative August 2009 issue. ‘Motorcycles don’t get any more fun. If you want an exciting, involving, communicative experience, buy a Super Duke.’ Or buy the 790. With similar power-toweight, the Duke captures the spirit of the old bike but takes its magical mix of instant oomph, agility and rideability even further, thanks to being slimmer and even easier to control. It’s so compact you have to doublecheck the stickers to make sure it isn’t a 390. This means it’s crisper and even more entertaining than a Yamaha MT-09, and perkier and more responsive than a rival Triumph Street Triple R – or than the Speed Triple S we have here, for that matter. No wonder we made the KTM our 2018 Bike of the Year. Yet this tingle-inducing twin has a price that appears to be a typo. At £8999 the Duke appeared realistically priced compared with rivals, but this year KTM have sliced a humongous £1500 off the list. Yes, the 790 is just £7499 – only a few hundred more than a Honda CB650R. And this means affordable finance. With a £2000 deposit (so that’s a 15-year-old Suzuki SV650 in part-ex) and a 2500 mile per year limit, you can have a new 790 Duke in your garage from just £56 a month.
PCP might be glorified renting but, for perspective, this is a 103bhp razor-sharp naked with lean-sensitive traction and ABS, TFT dash and umpteen other twinkling attractions for less than £1.80 per day. You can’t get a small Starbucks coffee for that.
It’s not perfect. We love the two-piece cast aluminium subframe that doubles as the airbox and the amount of tech for the money, but there’s a slight plasticky air to the Duke – especially after the Triumph, with its finer finishes and luxurious 1050cc engine, or when parked next to the classy BMW. Both the larger machines are less frantic when you just need to see off miles, too, and are better at absorbing corrugated B-roads. So is the Enfield. We’ve also had KTMS with slight electrical wobbles including the 1290 Super Duke R we have on long-term test, meaning a hint of worry over the longevity of the many clever bits.
Thing is, the unfiltered sensations and smirk-inducing dynamic of the 790 are so enthralling that it’s easy to shrug off such peripheral whatnots. If you ride bikes for the sheer enjoyment – and appreciate value for money – then little gets close to the Duke.
‘If you ride for pure enjoyment then little gets close to the 790 Duke’