Everything KTM thread

KTM 1390 Super Duke GT is most focused version to date with new engine and semi-active suspension​


Knee down on the KTM 1390 Super Duke GT


 
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Yeah mate, the deal was good at the start of the year. This still takes residuals down even further though.
Luckily for me personally I have no plans to change for 3-4 yrs, but you get the feeling it will be a brutal part exchange
at that point.
Loving the SAR in itself though. SDR going in '25 as its just gathering dust since the SAR arrived.
 
990Glen said:
Yeah mate, the deal was good at the start of the year. This still takes residuals down even further though.
Luckily for me personally I have no plans to change for 3-4 yrs, but you get the feeling it will be a brutal part exchange
at that point.
Loving the SAR in itself though. SDR going in '25 as its just gathering dust since the SAR arrived.
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1390 SDR evo?
 
Not interested in more electronics anywhere really, which is why I bought the SAR over the S.
I'm more likely to get a wee supermoto to go alongside the SAR tbh, for days of back lane daftness
where hauling 200kg + around is getting a bit tiring at my age.

This is my 5th variant of the adventure and I've loved them all, so quite settled with this one for a
while as long as the gremlins stay away.
 
990Glen said:
Not interested in more electronics anywhere really, which is why I bought the SAR over the S.
I'm more likely to get a wee supermoto to go alongside the SAR tbh, for days of back lane daftness
where hauling 200kg + around is getting a bit tiring at my age.

This is my 5th variant of the adventure and I've loved them all, so quite settled with this one for a
while as long as the gremlins stay away.
Click to expand...
I can empathise cocker, I had a small faux parr in a gravel car park, my dodgy knee decided 230Kg of SAS and 110Kg of Yorshireman was too much on a loose wet surface and had to lay her down on the crash bars, no damage, just a few marks!

edit: embarrassment and probably a club award next year as some of the boys witnessed the incident and took photographic evidence. :(
 
BobTheBounder said:
I can empathise cocker, I had a small faux parr in a gravel car park, my dodgy knee decided 230Kg of SAS and 110Kg of Yorshireman was too much on a loose wet surface and had to lay her down on the crash bars, no damage, just a few marks!

edit: embarrassment and probably a club award next year as some of the boys witnessed the incident and took photographic evidence. :(
Click to expand...
Brave lads 😆
 
An American chap on the Rocket forum recently dropped his Rocket 3 on some gravel. Grabbed to much front brake when taxiing with his feet down on a tight lock and the front tucked and down it went. That's the trouble with big heavy bikes. Once the mass gets the better of you no amount of muscle is going to stop it going down. Two of them managed to pick it up. God knows how.. Fortunately there was zero damage. At least the centre of gravity is very low down on those bikes. The bike I'd least like to try and pick up is a 1200 Honda Crosstourer. I rode one once and the weight is sky high and carried high. Feels like the tank has been filled with concrete.
 
Gimlet said:
An American chap on the Rocket forum recently dropped his Rocket 3 on some gravel. Grabbed to much front brake when taxiing with his feet down on a tight lock and the front tucked and down it went. That's the trouble with big heavy bikes. Once the mass gets the better of you no amount of muscle is going to stop it going down. Two of them managed to pick it up. God knows how.. Fortunately there was zero damage. At least the centre of gravity is very low down on those bikes. The bike I'd least like to try and pick up is a 1200 Honda Crosstourer. I rode one once and the weight is sky high and carried high. Feels like the tank has been filled with concrete.
Click to expand...
What does the Rocket 3 weigh Jim?
 
Gimlet said:
An American chap on the Rocket forum recently dropped his Rocket 3 on some gravel. Grabbed to much front brake when taxiing with his feet down on a tight lock and the front tucked and down it went. That's the trouble with big heavy bikes. Once the mass gets the better of you no amount of muscle is going to stop it going down. Two of them managed to pick it up. God knows how.. Fortunately there was zero damage. At least the centre of gravity is very low down on those bikes. The bike I'd least like to try and pick up is a 1200 Honda Crosstourer. I rode one once and the weight is sky high and carried high. Feels like the tank has been filled with concrete.
Click to expand...

I was looking at a Rocket in the showroom the other day while waiting for the servivce - jeez, the front wheel looked like it's off a Scania truck.
 
Doesn't feel that heavy though. My Harley was lighter but felt heavier. You can sit astride the Rocket at a standstill with a full tank of fuel and roll it side to side and it doesn't feel top heavy, very manageable in fact.
The only time you really feel the weight is if you're foolish enough to park it facing downhill into a curb. Then you're fecked as there's no reverse gear.
And if you're paddling it backwards with your feet and the back tyre comes up against a stone, get off and move the stone. Trying to muscle the thing is a non-starter.
On the move it's incredibly nimble for it's size. But it likes to stay on the power through bends. If you shut off and coast just before tipping it in, especially on slow bends, you get a torque reaction from the longitudinal crankshaft and it under-steers. Keep the power on and it flicks like a bike half it's size. Plenty of ground clearance too.
 
Gimlet said:
Doesn't feel that heavy though. My Harley was lighter but felt heavier. You can sit astride the Rocket at a standstill with a full tank of fuel and roll it side to side and it doesn't feel top heavy, very manageable in fact.
The only time you really feel the weight is if you're foolish enough to park it facing downhill into a curb. Then you're fecked as there's no reverse gear.
And if you're paddling it backwards with your feet and the back tyre comes up against a stone, get off and move the stone. Trying to muscle the thing is a non-starter.
On the move it's incredibly nimble for it's size. But it likes to stay on the power through bends. If you shut off and coast just before tipping it in, especially on slow bends, you get a torque reaction from the longitudinal crankshaft and it under-steers. Keep the power on and it flicks like a bike half it's size. Plenty of ground clearance too.
Click to expand...

I had a V4 Diavel as a courtesy bike earlier in the year and was amazed how agile it was - low COG like the Rocket, but a fair bit lighter. I wasn't expecting it to be how it was with that back tyre.
 
Manufacturers are very clever at making unlikely chassis configurations handle well. Ducati probably started it with the original Diavel, which should have been a pig but wasn't. Triumph came up with an innovative front end for the Rocket. The bottom yoke is offset relative to the top one so the forks pass through the yokes at a shallower angle than the headstock. How this works I don't know but it's credited with giving the Rocket it's light steering and melting away the weight of that fat front tyre. All I know is it works.
I haven't ridden a V4 Diavel. Not sure that I should now I've bought the Rocket, but everyone who's reviewed it has praised the handling. The styling is a bit too futuristic for me but it underlines the point that the muscle cruiser format is nowadays a perfectly viable everyday bike that can do anything and do it in comfort. It's a far cry from the days of twin cam Harleys and the donkey-in-a-sandpit V- Max. People who think these bikes are just one-tricky pony straight line dragsters need to ride one.
 
KTMs and Ducatis go together like beef and mustard. If you like high performance V-twins thems the two. It would be foolish not to have one of each.
I'd still like to own an RC8R. Although they have very different characters, the old analogue RC8 era KTM big twins have the same spirit about them as Testastretta period Ducatis.
 
990Glen said:
Probs coz there's a decent handful of KTM owners on here. I've probs had more KTMs than Ducatis over the years,
but the garage is currently balanced with 2 of each.
Click to expand...
I've had one... like a rough old Ducati...
 
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