All Test Drives – 2012 KTM 690 Duke Test Drive: The Road Movie Mono Way – The Joys of Mono

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2012 KTM 690 Duke review: the mono-style road movie

All Test Drives - 2012 KTM 690 Duke Test Drive: The Road Movie Mono Way - The Joys of Mono

This 4th season of the Austrian soap opera KTM Duke is undoubtedly the most fascinating … and the most surprising: while we expected a closed door, it is a great epic that is on the program … Test of the 690 Duke 2012 between sea and mountain.

The joys of mono

After arriving in Nice and having a good night’s sleep, Site decides to test the new 690 Duke in town. The temperature is close to 30 ° C in the shade and tourists have invaded the Riviera city.

It is clear that the 2012 Duke is not the ideal partner for this kind of exercise … Despite the lightness and the great ease of its cycle part, the KTM is quite demanding because of its rough engine.

As exciting as it is, the motto "Ready to Race" dear to the orange brand does not necessarily adapt to all uses. The 690 cc LC4 single-cylinder therefore protests fiercely when trying to ride peacefully in the city.

It bangs abundantly under 3,000 rpm, asking to be accompanied a little by the clutch. Do not hesitate to play with the gearbox – fortunately smooth and precise – to always stay on the right speed ranges.

Rather for piglets than for girls…

But beware of the 70 horses which are present and propel you with two strokes of the pistons in the bumper of the front car! In the same way, getting in between two lines of cars on a gas net is quite tricky..

A little tiring in the context of "normal" use, the Duke IV on the other hand will delight bad boys and other stunters: they will enjoy this terribly efficient and playful machine in an urban environment, which reconciles the naturalness of a roadster and the liveliness of a supermot ‘.

The KTM only asks to get up on its rear wheel at green light and to stand on its front wheel at red lights (by disconnecting the standard ABS). We just blame it for a fairly average turning radius, which it partially compensates by a great lightness..

In order to gain flexibility under 3000 rpm – even if it means losing a few km / h in top speed and consuming a little more – we would almost be tempted to make the Duke pull a little shorter … shorter by squarely blowing a tooth at the gearbox output pinion, as is practiced on some Italian motorcycles !

Hot in front !

Another annoying point appears by high temperatures: the Duke heats up a lot in traffic jams. The radiator fan therefore kicks in very quickly and conscientiously burns the inside of the left thigh … It is painful enough to make you want to escape the city center very quickly. !

Precisely, it is above all on small roads that a KTM is savored … and this is the program of our third day of testing: to bring the Duke home, to Lyon, carefully avoiding the highways. To do this, we choose the famous Route Napoleon !

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