All Tests – 1290 Superduke R: the king of motorcycle rallies facing the beast of KTM! – Super Duchess of the road and the circuit!

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1290 Superduke R: the king of motorcycle rallies facing the beast of KTM !

All Tests - 1290 Superduke R: the king of motorcycle rallies facing the beast of KTM! - Super Duchess of the road and the circuit!

According to KTM, the 1290 Super Duke R is a ferocious beast whose 180 hp require courage and control to be tamed … Carefully, MNC left to Julien Toniutti, official KTM driver in our rally team, the task of titillating him. ride-by-wire !

Super Duchess of the road and the circuit !

The bike is lively and precise when entering curves, without being too reactive to the change of angle like its big sister was. It also shows great stability even at highly prohibited speeds, thanks to a longer wheelbase of 32 mm and a slightly more open caster angle..

Its additional 3 kg are not felt, except a little inertia certainly due to the increase in displacement. I bring up the rear and the group of pilots in front of me don’t seem to be bored … They even seem to be having as much fun as I am and are rather generous on the electronic gas grip. type ride by wire, already appeared in 2011 on the 690 Duke and resumed on the Adventure in 2013.

So I go back to Sport mode and twist the right handle without worrying about going wide on the angle: the effective anti-skating plays the guardian angels by cutting the power very slightly just before takeoff of the flight "gliding non-stop until the hospital "! Its intervention is also manifested on the dashboard, via the flashing of a small warning light … orange, of course. !

Even if the omnipresent electronics on this bike avoid asking too many questions, it remains very complicated to put them in default, whether on the road or on the Ascari circuit where we had the chance to do several sessions for – try to – push the beast to its limits.

The impressive angle grips, knee on the ground, and the frank accelerations ever greater over the laps even make you totally forget that you are wearing sporty tires for the road, allowing only a few excursions on the track !

Verdict: a benchmark is born !

And even if in this much more favorable context than on the road we have conscientiously tried to find the limits of the bike, it is clear that we will have found ours well before, both the whole chassis and the cycle part. homogeneous and well balanced make the bike riveted to the ground. The new 1290 Super Duke R is due to arrive in KTM dealerships at the end of 2013 at a price of 15,690 euros. One thing is certain: you will not have to hang around sending your letter to Santa Claus, because even at this price there the most powerful roadster in production is likely to be highly coveted under the tree this year….

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