Table of contents

• 4 1/2 motorcycles in a concept comparison Speed ​​comparison with parcours
• Yamaha Tracer 900 GT on the course
• Honda X-ADV on the course
• KTM Super Duke GT on the course
• BMW S 1000 XR on the course
• Kawasaki Ninja H2 SX on the course
• Comparison on the highway
• “There was only diesel at the gas station!”
• Speed ​​killer construction site: everyone at their own risk
• XAD-V rolls to the finish in front of BMW

Jorg Kunstle

36 pictures

Jorg Kunstle

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In a concept comparison, the five models BMW S 1000 XR, Honda X-ADV, Kawasaki Ninja H2 SX, KTM 1290 Super Duke GT and Yamaha Tracer 900 GT compete against each other.

Jorg Kunstle

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Smoke briefly before starting.

Jorg Kunstle

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A little later the flag is raised, and then it’s time to try individual time trials on the handling course.

Jorg Kunstle

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We spin around the race on the traffic training area that has been converted into a handling course.

Jorg Kunstle

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Here we go!
Route length: 990 meters
Timed laps: three

Jorg Kunstle

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How does the Yamaha Tracer 900 GT?

Jorg Kunstle

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Neatly packed by the horns, there is a little restlessness in the framework of Tracy – even at high speed on the highway.

Jorg Kunstle

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Wide, high handlebars, deep seat, adequate wind protection, good consideration in the mirrors: work place on the Tracy.

Jorg Kunstle

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The side cases are only standard on the Tracer. Unfortunately, they do not offer space for helmets.

Jorg Kunstle

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Unintentionally volatilized: Rolled to the rest stop with the last drop of fuel.

Jorg Kunstle

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Exactly 19.06 liters fit into the officially 18 liter tank of the Yamaha.

Jorg Kunstle

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It continues with the KTM 1290 Super Duke GT.

Jorg Kunstle

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Travel and speed: The Super Duke GT does both brilliantly.

Jorg Kunstle

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Instruments with any information, reliable remaining range display, proper wind protection. The mirrors sometimes vibrate very pronounced.

Jorg Kunstle

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The display shows an average speed of 182 km / h between two refueling stops. Before entering the gas tank, it should have been 189 km / h – you shouldn’t take the gas off too often.

Jorg Kunstle

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Works, but looks down-to-earth: position rail for adjusting the windshield.

Jorg Kunstle

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And the Honda X-ADV?

Jorg Kunstle

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Long done: All attempts to increase the top speed of the X-ADV came to nothing.

Jorg Kunstle

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The seating position is scooter-like comfortable, but the expansive chassis spreads the legs a lot. As the only one of the quintet, the X-ADV does not offer cruise control.

Jorg Kunstle

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Excellently crafted and attractive accessory pegs (549 euros) for off-road excursions. However, if the angle is deep, the parts touch down.

Jorg Kunstle

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With the BMW S 1000 XR, the speed level on the autobahn is quite high.

Jorg Kunstle

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Great: The BMW offers plenty of lean angle.

Timo Morbitzer

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30 minutes of waiting time that will become an eternity. Unlucky Timo stood in front of a closed gas station.

Jorg Kunstle

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In the lower of the two positions the wind flows clearly, but nicely evenly, towards the driver. It’s the other way around on the top.

Jorg Kunstle

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Widest handlebar in comparison, comfortable and confident seating position. The navigation system and some of the electronic driver assistance systems cost extra.

MRDGRP picture editor

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The next candidate is the Kawasaki Ninja H2 SX.

Jorg Kunstle

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The Kawa only brushes the sails in very tight corners. Slight chassis unrest at the highest speeds.

Jorg Kunstle

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Pioneer of a new era? The Kawa compressor is convincing across the board.

Jorg Kunstle

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Best wind protection, well structured information center with analog display of the rev counter, fine TFT display.

Jorg Kunstle

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A correspondingly high speed is immediately noticeable at the fuel pump. The shooting is fun anyway.

Jorg Kunstle

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We have always wondered what the travel group packs in their suitcases. We can only guess…

Jorg Kunstle

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1st place KTM 1290 Super Duke GT driven by Sven Loll.

Jorg Kunstle

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2nd place Yamaha Tracer 900 GT driven by Tobi Munchinger.

Jorg Kunstle

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3rd place Kawasaki Ninja H2 SX driven by Volkmar Jacob.

Jorg Kunstle

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4th place Honda X-ADV driven by Jo Bauer.

Jorg Kunstle

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5th place BMW S 1000 XR driven by Timo Morbitzer.

motorcycles

Super athlete

Concept comparison of motorcycles

4 1/2 motorcycles in a concept comparison
Speed ​​comparison with parcours

Content of

Meetings like this are all about speed. Sympathies arise quickly. BMW S 1000 XR, Honda X-ADV, Kawasaki Ninja H2 SX, KTM 1290 Super Duke GT, Yamaha Tracer 900 GT – which vehicle is popular number 1 in this test?

Volkmar Jacob

January 15, 2019

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	BMW S 1000 XR	Honda X-ADV	Kawasaki H2 SX	KTM 1290 Super Duke GT	Yamaha Tracer 900 GT
Lap time handling course (2,970 m)	3.36.88 min	3.36.49 min	3,37.48 min	3.36.47 min	3.32.98 min
Behind the best time	3.90 sec	3.51 sec	4.50 sec	3.49 sec	Best time
Backlog converted to motorway distance (436.59 km)	9.33 min	8.36 min	11.20 min	8.33 min	0.00 min
Time for the highway distance	228 min	188 min	164 min	152 min	170 min
total time	237.33 min	196.36 min	175.20 min	160.33 min	170.00 min
placement	5.	4th.	3.	1.	2.

It all started again with mental spinning over a beer after work. “Let’s do a speed comparison again,” was one suggestion. “Full throttle on the autobahn, five pilots, five sporty bikes, whoever arrives first wins.” Grins and nods in the group. But it shouldn’t be that easy. Chasing times in advance on a handling course also spices up the shootout. One factor extrapolates the lap times to the motorway distance. In the end, the pilot with the lowest total time triumphs. Excitement is guaranteed, because different concepts with different performance and different tank volumes contain plenty of material for speculation.

At the start are the BMW S 1000 XR, the Kawasaki Ninja H2 SX, the KTM 1290 Super Duke GT and the Yamaha Tracer 900 GT are exclusively sporty kilometer eaters. As with previous stories of this kind, there is also an exotic part of the game. This time the choice falls on the stylish off-road hybrid X-ADV from Honda. Bike or scooter? At the manufacturer, the part runs under the “Adventure” category. The important question, however, is: What can the adventurer do against the competition with superior motor skills? As a special feature, we pack suitcases on every bike, which the manufacturers offer either as an extra or as standard. We equip the parts with the maximum permitted load and check the driving characteristics at top speed. The exception is the X-ADV. For him, Honda only has two different top cases in its range. Such hardware is too embarrassing for us, which is why the vehicle is allowed to mix in without this additional storage space.

Yamaha Tracer 900 GT on the course

The first surprise awaits in the PS underground car park. Tobi, Jo, Sven and Timo have chosen their subset purposefully. What remains is the Kawa H2, with 200 HP supercharged the most powerful of the quintet. Aha, my colleagues think of 299 km / h with a pen! It doesn’t matter, departure for the first evaluation. A short time later we are converting a traffic training area into a handling course, route length 990 meters. Shoot in a few laps, then the rule is: Standing start, everyone rolls three laps against the clock, the total time is noted. The pre-start offers the perfect opportunity for nasty psychological games. Sayings like “Your bike is guaranteed to hit the main stand” or “During training I had a bad slide on the fast left” make the rounds. Tobi leaves that cold. The daredevil chases around the course in the finest racing style with the handy Tracer 900 GT. “The shock absorber is underdamped, the rear swings and the whole box breaks through in the depression down to the asphalt,” he later reports. “In addition, the main stand actually touches down.”

Honda X-ADV on the course

Nonetheless, Tobi thunders around the course with a time of 3.32.98 minutes. What this time is worth is immediately apparent, because Jo is already rolling to the start line with the X-ADV. A moody burnout to warm up the tires, then the flag is raised as the starting signal. After three laps, the stopwatch shows a gap of 3.51 seconds. “The running boards and the mounts for the cross pegs come on,” says the supermoto racer and stunt professional, explaining the difference. “In addition, I have to force the 240-kilo part through the narrow passages. The jump into the depression is really fun, the off-road qualities shine through here. “

KTM Super Duke GT on the course

Also Sven on the favored one KTM Despite their sporty genes, Super Duke GT doesn’t come close to Tobi’s time, 3.49 seconds behind. “This guy has a huge nail going right through his head,” he diagnoses. “How can you gas up like that here? After all, I was faster than Jo for the first time, I pressed two hundredths on his eye, great! “

BMW S 1000 XR on the course

“Super ground clearance, stable chassis, massive power out of the corners and great throttle response,” enthuses Timo about the S 1000 XR. The fact that he is still 3.9 seconds behind is also due to his finish line. “You have to let the gas stand still until after the finish line,” explains Jo. “Damn, I should also have used the Dynamic Pro mode better,” adds Timo. “On ‘Dynamic’, the traction control regulates a little too early for my taste. And a little more feedback from the front wheel would be good “.

Kawasaki Ninja H2 SX on the course

As the last starter, I beat the H2 SX for the course. Now just don’t overheat too close to the stacks of tires as in training, otherwise a case will be grazed again. It is completely unfamiliar to move such expansive bikes. Despite its heavy weight of 271 kilos (with suitcases), the Kawa can be angled surprisingly quickly, only in the very narrow passages it brushes the sails. In addition, the main stand grazes over the asphalt when there is bumps in the road. A fat slide in the target curve also shows the limit. Nevertheless, she is ultimately 4.5 seconds short of Tobi’s record. But time easily gets her back on the track. Or maybe not?

Comparison on the highway

A good eight and a half minutes (Super Duke GT, X-ADV), nine and a half for the S 1000 XR and around eleven minutes for the Kawa H2 is the delay determined by the special factor before the highway chase on Tobi and the tracers – pretty heavy packets. But at least we are glowing on what, according to our research, is the longest contiguous stretch of motorway in Germany without a speed limit. It leads on the A7 shortly after Fussen / Bavaria to Bad Hersfeld in Hesse. Length: 436 kilometers. To ensure a clear path, we start with the first daylight in the morning at 4.30 a.m. – attack!

Immediately the Kawa, the KTM and the BMW take the lead. On the first kilometers, the H2 uses its extra power precious little because of the winding route through the foothills of the Alps. Tacho 250, more is not possible. But a short time later it becomes more open, fire free! It’s amazing how greedy and wonderfully even the green zooms through the speed range. Shower at the stop, bye-bye KTM and BMW. From 10,000 rpm, the SX delivers an extra helping of thrust. Incredible how the supercharged Kawasaki is still marching on top: 260, 270, 280 – speed bolts in fast-forward mode. But then the fuel warning lamp lights up. I beg your pardon? Already after 100 kilometers? At the level of the service area, two of the six bars on the fuel gauge appear in the display. But a bar disappears less than 500 meters behind the notch – a real classic. What to do? The next refueling point is only 50 kilometers away, that’s never enough. Turning also falls flat. So take out the gas. A short time later, Sven rushes past at full throttle – shit! But nothing of the rest of the pack is to be seen far and wide. Uff, at least I have that under control. I’ll also sniff Sven later, after all, my box is 30 km / h faster. Suddenly the rescue truck stop appears next to the train – hallelujah! 18.09 liters fit into the 19-liter tank, which was just fine.

“There was only diesel at the gas station!”

As it turned out later, the colleagues were even tighter. “I drove forever on reserve with Tracy and then rolled to the rest stop, the engine has already stopped accelerating,” reports Tobi. He did the trick, in the officially 18 liter tank of the Yamaha To fill 19.06 liters – what a mess! Jo also ran the nozzle properly with the X-ADV before a refueling stop. “I had to hang myself in the slipstream of a truck. The Honda display counts down from the 1.7 liter reserve in tenths of a step. A nasty countdown when the next stop is tens of kilometers away. “

But the unlucky person of the day is Timo. “With the BMW, I was able to stay behind Sven at first. Suddenly the reserve blinked. According to the remaining range, that wasn’t enough until the next rest stop. The navigation system steered me down from the train to a haulage tank in an industrial area, the remaining range display was still zero kilometers. But there was only diesel! With the engine stuttering, I finally arrived at a normal gas station, but it didn’t open until six o’clock. I had to wait half an hour. Then 19.97 liters fit into the 20-liter tank. ”These scenes already make it clear: At the Autobahn-Bolzerei, the bikes draw an indecent amount of fuel through their injection nozzles. With his bad luck, Timo usually shoots himself out of the race for a top position. But he can iron at least the Yamaha (210 km / h) and the scooter (171 km / h) with the 250 km / h BMW?

Speed ​​killer construction site: everyone at their own risk

An estimated 15 construction sites on the entire route could thwart his plans. Real madness, at the moment everything is being built on German autobahns. For our shootout we have not set a speed limit for such cases. Everyone drives at their own risk, knowing full well that they need the rag for the job. Since I do not expect radar controls at this time and with the low traffic density, I scan the roadside carefully for telltale boxes, I drive fluently by feeling. And promptly run into Tobi with the tracer. Shit, where did he come from??

We have now made it a little more than half the distance, so it will be damn close to catching up on the handling course. Fortunately, there is actually no speed limit on our stage – with a few exceptions. But maintaining 299 km / h (no manufacturer restrictions with suitcases!) Is difficult. On the one hand, because the containers offer additional area exposed to wind and even the Kawa-Punch beams the load slowly to maximum speed. And on the other hand, because the H2 sometimes starts to stir with the front from around 250 items – more and more clearly with increasing speed. Letting go of the gas in such situations requires massive “cojones”. During test drives the day before without a suitcase, the Kawa slammed noticeably more smoothly over the track at maximum speed. Then the curve bolt with high speeds and correspondingly wide radii brings the ultimate kick, because you feel incredibly fast and crooked – a divine feeling. During these actions, however, it is vital to turn on your brain and sharpen your senses – remember, folks!

The now denser traffic allows such high speeds less and less. In addition, the innumerable permanent left drivers who stubbornly ignore the free right lane are annoying. Unfortunately, it rarely helps to pull up to the same height to the right of such sleepyheads in order to wake them up. So drive by? Risky! According to the catalog of fines, if one is caught doing this, there is a risk of a 100 euro ticket and a point in Flensburg. That needs to be considered carefully. Also a long-runner: trucks that deliver tough elephant races. When the tough guys pull out right in front of you, as they often do, things can get really dangerous. Open your eyes, dear truck drivers! Usually there is nobody behind fast bikes anyway. Please just let the machines by and only then pull them over.

XAD-V rolls to the finish in front of BMW

After two hours and 44 minutes I reach the agreed meeting point. At this time Sven is already sipping a cup of coffee with relish. “Was here twelve minutes ago,” he grins happily. His fuel receipt proves the arrival time. With it he chased the KTM with an average speed of 172 km / h over the distance – including three refueling stops. “Those were the most relaxed full-throttle kilometers of my life,” enthuses the speed freak. “The Super Duke is comfortable, runs Tacho 272 with a suitcase and backpack, and is extremely stable. The slight swing at top speed doesn’t bother. ”This is all the more remarkable as the manufacturer – like BMW – allows a maximum of 180 km / h with suitcases (Yamaha: 130 km / h), and only if you are concerned about the“ larger Crosswind sensitivity and the changed driving behavior slowly approaching the top speed “(O-Ton KTM).

Six minutes behind the Kawa, Tobi crosses the finish line on the Yamaha. “Strange ergonomics,” he growls. “Placing the toes on the notches of the tracer works only up to size 36. Bigger boots hit the heels of the pillion footpegs with their heels. This means that people of normal height have to place their feet in the middle of the rest of the body. In addition, the right heated grip heats up more than the left and almost burns the hand at the highest level. ”After all, he praises the passable wind protection and the not particularly active, but comfortable sitting position. In addition, the Yamaha lures with an extremely affordable price.

Even before the BMW, Jo rolls in on the X-ADV. Behind Sven: 36 minutes. “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a quad driver pushing his pedestal on the road at a construction site,” he reports, shaking his head. “He ran out of fuel, so I pushed him a few kilometers to the nearest gas station on the scooter. Shortly afterwards, a tire burst in a van right in front of me, so I was just able to avoid it ”. Years of experience within minutes.

Timo arrives with the S 1000 XR, a full one hour 16 minutes behind. It is possible that waiting at the first fuel stop pulled his tooth, which he vehemently denies. “I gave everything. Left-hand drivers without end, and when the track was clear, the XR sometimes swerved heavily from 220 to 230 km / h. ”Like the Kawa, the BMW also needed one more stop than the rest of the bikes with four refueling. That too, of course, holds back.

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