KTM 1290 Super Duke GT: A Powerful Attraction

That title sounds like clickbait, doesn’t it? “This Editor Started to Write His Column, And You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!” “7 Ways To Consume 10 Words. #5 Will Shock You!”

In this case, though, the title's true because I own the predecessor to KTM's new 1290 Super Duke GT, the 990 SM-T. That lovely bike­—lovely but slow selling—was discontinued after the 2013 model year. I assumed KTM wouldn't produce a more modern version, but then they did in the GT. Which provides me a kind of odd perspective. Having a ton of experience—more than 22,000 miles—on the old version gives you rights to an opinion on the new one. Not the first time this has happened for me. I've owned first-gen Yamaha FZ1s (better than the newer replacement), a previous-gen Kawasaki Versys 650 (not as good as the new one), and a Suzuki DR650SE (er, exactly the same as the new one).

I won’t keep you hanging: The GT is miles ahead of the SM-T in terms of performance and sophistication, no surprise since it has risen from Super Duke R ingredients. (That’s one spicy SCOBY.) It’s not even the same concept anymore. While the 990 came from the Supermoto R with some of the same minimal changes—softer suspension, more fuel, a small frame-mount fairing—the 1290 starts so much higher up the performance scale that a direct comparison is unkind. My beloved SM-T feels quick and handles marvelously, but the GT is genuinely, knee-clenchingly fast. Where my 990 is, save for very good ABS, a totally analog bike, the GT follows the trends with ABS, traction control, semi-active suspension, and ride modes. Almost sounds reasonable.

Any idea that the GT is not just completely mental dissolves the first time you twist the throttle on the 1,301cc, 75-degree V-twin. Compared to the Super Duke R, modifications to bring the engine into Euro 4 compliance result in combustion-chamber tweaks and the addition of an exhaust-system valve, and help move the torque peak down the range by 1,000 rpm, now at 6,750 rpm. Still, there are 173 claimed horses up top, and the engine retains its free-revving, thrust-at-all-speeds character. Truly, this engine defies easy description and gathers hyperbole the way a librarian collects books. Smooth and collected at low rpm, and emphatically easy to modulate thanks to marvelous ride-by-wire programming, the GT’s engine begins pulling hard by 3,000 rpm, where it starts taunting the Bosch traction control to keep the 190/55-17 Pirelli from spinning.

Hold it open and the GT’s mill begins howling through the airbox under your chin and shivering through the footpegs and tank sides. My SM-T does, too, but at what seems like half volume and maybe a third the aggression. Every bit of gushing we’ve done as a magazine—and I’ve done personally—about the Super Duke R’s ability to blur vision and draw the next corner to the front wheel like some kind of two-wheeled tractor beam applies.

And while I still admire the durable WP suspension on my SM-T, the GT has it beat with pushbutton adjustment and a range of damping that is plush one instant and seriously taut the next. With my 990, I can have one or the other. Aerodynamics and braking are also superior on the new bike. I think I prefer the SM-T’s compact ergonomics, but the GT isn’t overly large and manages that balance between sportbike and lightweight sport-tourer.

As soon as I got home, I rode my long-term BMW S1000XR, which doesn't seem like it should compete with the GT (especially as many people, wrongly, think it's an ADV machine). And I thought: Wow they're more similar than I thought. That will be an interesting comparison test. I almost wrote: "Twins Share Their Shocking Secrets For the First Time Ever!" Be glad I didn't.