All Test Drives – 2012 KTM 690 Duke Test: The Road Movie Mono Style – Strong Warm-Up

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

All Test Drives - 2012 KTM 690 Duke Test: The Road Movie Mono Style - Strong Warm-Up

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.

Full-bodied warm-up

A strong program awaits this Duke 2012: leaving the KTM headquarters in Lyon, Site heads south towards Nice. It is already 3:00 p.m.: no more time to take the schoolchildren’s path, so it will be the highway…

No luck ! Not only is the traditional mistral not there to push us in the back, but we have to deal with a strong headwind oscillating between 80 and 100 km / h. With a motorcycle offering so little protection, it’s going to be hot…

A7, here we are !

During this summer period, the traffic on the motorway is very dense and the traffic regulation limits the speed to 110 km / h throughout the Rhône valley..

Suitcase prices

If, like us, you want to go on a ride on this welcoming 690 Duke 2012, you can dig into the generous catalog of KTM Powerparts accessories. Count 130 € for the rear bag of 18 liters maxi and 125 € for its support kit. For the soft side cases of 13 liters each it will be necessary to pay 370 €, plus 165 € for their support.

The two 13-liter semi-rigid saddlebags are not huge but are enough to accommodate the necessary for three days. The rear bag is fitted with a bellows which increases it from 12 to 18 liters of capacity. It will therefore be difficult to leave three weeks to two, but the Duke is not made for that.

It is not made either for the motorway and yet, in a few hectometers, the "duchess" is already flirting with the authorized limit. The length of mono is impressive: about as much as its total lack of protection !

The engine would easily support a cruising speed of 130 km / h – the more adventurous could even push the Duke to over 190 km / h – but the pilot’s neck gave way long before. Especially when a headwind of around 100 km / h is added to the speed displayed by the odometer !

We do not suffer from vibrations, except in the mirrors which are almost useless as they shake. The mono spins at 5,250 rpm at 130 km / h in sixth and last gear, loaded and with headwind.

As for the speedometer, when it works (see "Problems encountered" at the top of the right column opposite), it turns out to be fairly correct: it is only optimistic from 3 to 4 km / h compared to the GPS . The respect of the limitations is only stricter !

Pit stop

Between the density of traffic and the wind, complying with the legal 110 km / h is ultimately not a problem at all. So much the better for the permit! We alternate between the upright position and the dab position to save a little. Violent gusts fall on the chest and in the helmet: that this A7 seems long…

Fortunately, the saddle shows a comfort that is as unexpected as it is extraordinary. Perfectly designed, it is largely at the level of the so-called "comfort" saddles adaptable to other roadsters on the market. Knowing his supermoto genes, we must admit that we did not expect so much from the Duke !

Another good point for such an atypical motorcycle: its autonomy. Despite its small 14-liter tank, it allows you to exceed 200 kilometers on the motorway before seeing the trip and the reserve indicator engage. There is then enough to travel a small fifty kilometers.

We can therefore count on nearly 250 km of autonomy on the motorway and, above all, on nearly 300 km on the road. Indeed, if the Duke is rather reasonable on the highway with an average consumption of 5.3 l / 100 km, it is more than sober on the road with an average consumption of between 4.1 and 4.7 l / 100 km … while having a lot of fun !

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