So KTM had their big orange demo truck at the SBK races this past weekend. And seeing as how I've been lusting after some type of V-twin powered sporty bike for the past little while, I decided to see what all the fuss is about.
I walked up to the table and said, "I'd like to ride the Super Duke." and the guy said, "Okay, come back at 12:30." He checked my license, stamped my hand, and gave me a lanyard with a card reminding me when to show up and what bike I'll be riding. That was easy enough.
12:30 rolls around and we have a quick riders meeting and then go to get on the bikes. I have some difficulty mounting the bike as the seat is kinda tall (I'm short, 5'-6") and then with my right foot on the ground, my left foot has a difficult time reaching the kickstand to put it up. Plus, my riding boots limit the motion of my foot somewhat so that added to the difficulty of hooking my heel around the kickstand to get it to swing up. Once that was done with, I started the bike up, tapped it into gear and we rolled out.
My first moving impression is that the bike has an extremely comfortable riding position. The seat, bars and pegs all feel really good. The levers are easy to reach, the dash, overall, is nicely laid out. I felt the gas gauge was a little hard to read but the speedo and tach are nice and legible. Everthing just feels really good and has a quality feel to it.
My second impression is that either fuelling at low throttle settings is extremely sensitive, or the throttle spring is too light, or I have really sucky throttle control at small openings. I can't tell which one it is but I had a hard time not being jerky going from off throttle to on throttle situations. Over the years, I've tried (and I thought had gotten fairly successful) to work on being smooth with the throttle, especially since my VFR is fairly sensitive to ham fisted inputs at low throttle openings. But I was consistantly bad on the Super Duke. Other than that little issue, fueling felt great and the motor felt fantastically strong while giving off some nice throbby vibes that didn't intrude or feel out of place with the bike's character. The transmission was very 'snick-snick'. No notchiness or clunkiness to it at all. The ratios seemed well spaced and suited the power output of the engine well.
The route we took was all twisties and much nicer than the route Triumph took me on a couple of years ago. One of the roads was a smaller, single lane road with some very tight turns and a few bumps that really highlighted the bike;'s ease of turn in and stiff suspension. It would be nice to play with the suspenders a little bit as I'm sure it was set up for somebody heavier than my measely 135 lbs. The Super Duke really flicks into corners well though, and it felt sure footed while doing so. I did not get much of a chance to test out the brakes much at all as we were traveling a little slower than I would have liked.
We did get up to 70mph for one brief moment. The wind blast wasn't too bad. I expected to feel more like a sail than I did so I guess the shape of the gauges helps deflect some of the wind but I couldn't gauge if it would deflect enough to not get tiring for longer stints.
When we returned, I again had issues with the kickstand. KTM should have welded a little tab onto the kickstand so that a person could catch the tab with the heel and flick the kickstand down or up into position. But no such luck and I was left struggling to hook the kickstand with my toe to get it down in position. I eventually got it down without dropping the bike.
Overall, I really, really like the Super Duke. The motor felt fantastic, the bike is comfy, the components are quality, and the thing just looks freakin' cool!
But, and there's always a but, the stinking seat height and kickstand issues bug me. I can sorta live with the seat height, but I am not going to put up with a bike if I have to struggle with the kickstand all the time.
Eventually, I plan on getting my grubby paws on a Speed Triple, Monster and Buell for some comparisons. It'll be interesting to see how the Super Duke compares.
