Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly® #186 August 2017
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e GT — Ready To Race ity WP Semi-Active suspension. It monitors the suspension as you are riding and actively adapts the damping rates in real time according to the data collected through the suspension. It also reads the load on the suspension and makes automatic adjustment according to the weight on board. WOW. If that’s not enough – It also has three modes (Comfort / Street / Sport). It’s noticeably plusher in comfort and stiffer in sport (still quite yielding on bumps) but regardless of the setting, it always feels taught, athletic and buttoned down in a way that only high quality suspension can. All bumps are smothered and rounded off while keeping the chassis sharp, accurate and on track. It’s fantastic, and I would have no problem adapting this GT from street to track by just changing the suspension dash setting. Did I mention the brakes?? They are only radially mounted Brembo M50 four-piston Monoblock calipers. The best Brembo makes. They have a radial brake pump for massive feel and grip 320 mm discs up front. The M50’s come equipped with a racing ABS system attached to them…..state of the art…..and once again – brilliant. The racing ABS allows heavy braking, even when leaned waaaay over. I’m running out of superlatives for them.
Photo by David Soderholm
READY TO RACE
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By David Soderholm
et’s look at a little KTM history. The founding began in 1934 when Hans Trunkenpolz opened a “fitters and car workshop” in Mattighofen Austria. The KTM name itself first appeared in 1953, and in 1954 three KTM R125 tourist motorcycles raced the “Arlberg-Express” train from Paris to Vienna. This was a distance of 1300 kilometers and the KTM’s won by over 2 hours. KTM was on the map. In 1992 Stefan Pierson and Cross industries took possession of and revived KTM. Looking at their rich winning race history he coined the term “READY TO RACE”. In 1994 someone in the KTM shop chopped up an LC4 powered 620 enduro with an angle grinder, fitted street tires to it and the first pure asphalt KTM – the 620 duke was born. The bike quickly established the aggressive attitude that KTM would bring to the street and “READY TO RACE” street bikes were born. Twenty three years later, that message still appears on the digital display of KTM’s when you turn on the key. That message appeared on the 2017 1290 Super Duke GT when I turned it on in the Moon Motorsports parking lot. After riding the Super Duke less than 5 miles, I knew KTM takes that phrase seriously. It’s not just a marketing slogan. Sports Tour my ass. This thing is a thrilling top notch race bike with an amazing suite of riding aids and ergonomics built in to make it work. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a perfectly livable daily sport touring bike, but that little devil in the KTM helmet sitting on your shoulder will never let you treat it that way. He’ll want you to set it in Sport mode (Engine and Suspension) and the throttle hammered WFO. That’ll leave you breathless to the tune of 173 hp and the world thrown in a fast forward blur.
mode calms the engine down quite a bit and would work well as a city mode also. Street gives it full ponies, just softening the power hit as you twist the throttle. Sport is as you would think. Sharp response and wheel lofting at will in the first three gears. Response in sport mode is thrilling, but street is probably the best daily compromise. Attached to that engine is a fantastic 6 speed gearbox. It snicks through the gears like the proverbial bolt action on a high quality rifle. The transmission comes equipped with a quick shifter. I actually found it amazingly smooth and useful on the street running up through the gears. On downshifts it’s also a smooth operator with the slipper clutch and Motor Slip Regulation (MSR), a system that monitors the back torque of the engine and blips the throttle to quickly match engine speed to wheel speed. This avoids tire hop or drifting at corner entry. The clutch itself is smooth and amazingly light in operation considering the ferocious engine that’s attached to it. The chassis and suspension easily keep up with that beast of an engine. It’s equipped from the factory with race spec qual-
The crazy thing with this amazing collection of race quality parts is the equally amazing set of parts that make the 1290 a great street bike. Fantastic ergonomics and saddle allow long enough riding stints to drain the 6.08 gallon tank in comfort. The multi adjustable windscreen provides just the right amount of buffet free air. The high quality bars and switch gear include comfort features like heated grips and cruise control. The GT also comes with a nicely finished, easily removed and robust feeling set of hard bags that look great on the bike. Granted, they aren’t the absolute capacity kings, but still hold plenty for a weekend getaway. It’s got all the goods to make a great daily bike. At the end of the day when you pull this SPORT touring predator into the garage, you will slowly get off and linger. Beholding the fantastic specimen of bike porn you just got off of. You’ll revel in the quality of the welds on the trellis frame, the finish of the engine, the architecture of the single sided swingarm, while caressing the edges on the stealth fighter body work. Then you’ll thank KTM for granting the wish you never knew you had. And remember……It’s READY TO RACE anytime you are. MMM would like to extend a huge thanks to Kyle and Joel Erickson at Moon Motorsports for providing us with this GT. They have an amazing collection of Motorcycles (Honda / Yamaha / Ducati / KTM / BMW / Triumph / BRP / Motus / Polaris) to choose from! Well worth your short drive up 94…….
Let’s talk about that engine first. KTM lifted the engine from the naked 1290 Super Duke R. It is nicknamed “the beast”. It’s a 1301 cc liquid cooled v 75° twin that cranks out 173 hp @ 9500 rpm and 106.2 pound-feet of torque at 6,750 rpm. That’s a lotta go power. It’s loaded with torque all over the place. The engine revs quick and pulls like a freight train. All the while sounding like a motogp wannabe. It has traction control (MTC) and three different riding modes to play with. The amount of traction control varies according to the riding mode used. Having it in sport and running around some of my favorite Wright county backroads allowed some darkies to be laid on corner exits. I’ve never felt confident enough to do that on the street on any bike, but was with this GT. Some of that confidence is from the brilliant chassis, but this MTC is extremely well dialed in and no doubt contributed in a big way. As far as the throttle response in the modes themselves, rain
MMM
Photo by David Soderholm
Street gives it full ponies, just softening the power hit as you twist the throttle.
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