FOR SPEEDY, NOT MUDDY, ADVENTURES

» Power: 158bhp » Weight: 220kg » Engine: 1301cc 8v DOHC V-twin » Price: £14,999

When there is a risk that the adventure bike category is becoming a touch too sensible, when practicality and comfort are taking precedence over feeling and performance, when somehow sat-nav and connectivity are deemed essentials above driveability and agility it’s reassuring to find that the KTM 1290 Super Adventure S is still bonkers. If you are looking for an adventure bike with attitude, this is it.

Of course, the electronically enhanced Austrian is stuffed with enough gizmos to satisfy the most gluttonous of gadget heads: cornering traction control and ABS; slip control; wheelie control and cruise control. And there’s more: hill hold; modes; connectivity; keyless ride; post-modern switch cubes; cornering lights; navigational aids; semi-active suspension; quickshifter and heated grips and (by the look of the seven inch screen) a colour telly. Still not sufficiently gadget-ised? Well then: auto turn indication reset (that’s self cancelling indicators); tyre pressure monitoring and (obviously) connectivity and navigation aids. Plus, this season’s most talked about distraction – radar, aka adaptive cruise control.

But all those trinkets aren’t really the point. Dynamically the big KTM is snappy, eager and agile. As a device to decimate hairpin strewn mountain swervery, or badly surfaced British B-roads this is an astonishing device. The microchips and sensors are a means to allow us to enjoy the bike rather than an end in themselves.

So somehow, despite housing 160bhp, 1301cc, a 23 litre fuel tank and carrying a claimed 220kg of dry weight the KTM’S controls are light, tactile and precise. The twistgrip isn’t just ride-by-wire, its synaptically connected to those throttle bodies. The clutch is smooth and perfectly predictable. The brakes have loads of feel and the rear pedal is perfectly positioned. The ergonomics are set for optimum control. And the quickshifter…

As revs climb for peak power the engine emits a delicious hollow bark, thwacking the throttle open and feeding in the gears like tapping out some kind of high tempo trance music. It is absolutely compelling. As you’d expect for a bike with 160bhp, it’s astonishingly rapid. Maybe the 1290 S is more refinement than re-invention, and maybe it is never going to have the broader appeal of a BMW or a Ducati Multistrada, but that it exists needs to be celebrated. The more you ride it the better it gets.

‘Like high tempo trance music. It is compelling’