KTM 690 Duke - Test ride

[D6Nutz]

Today was a good day, the sun was shining and I was in the mood to get out on the bike. I spotted an MCN thread that said KTM would be at box hill giving out test rides, well it would be rude not to go and have a butchers..

I took a gentle pootle over to box hill, used some of the old routes I used to ride when I lived in Farnborough. It's good to see that the roads hadn't been buggered about with too much. Was glad to get caught in a little traffic as I missed one 40 limit and there was a cop car keeping an eye on things.

Got to box hill and it was nice and busy, will post a few pics later. Spoke to the guy on at the KTM tent and worked out the bikes that where avaialble, the 1290 superduke was booked solid all day and the adventurer didn't really appeal to me so I decided to try the 690 superduke. I will be honest, I wasn't really expecting too much from the bike, Had to wait a couple of hours for my slot so decided to get out for a run round the local area and see if I could find some interesting roads. While blasting round I spotted the KTM gang coming the other way, that gave me a chance to try some of the route on the RSV before hand.

Got back and a bit of form filling later the key was in and it was time to go. Getting on the bike you could really feel the weight difference between the RSV and the 690, it really is very light. The format of the test ride was follow my leader, I was up front behind the lead rider with the 1290 behind me. We had been told that we could overtake each other but never the lead rider, so I was expecting to be seeing the tail end of a 1290 fairly early on.

Initially the 690 seemed very down on power until I worked out you need to wring it's neck a little to get the proper performance out of it. Then it's actually quite good fun. Despite being quite tall you can throw it into corners quite easily and provided you are halfway through the rev-range it will power out of the corners. It is very viby though and that would annoy me after anything more than 20 mins on the lanes. It is very easy to ride and gives very good confidence on many different types of road.

Would I buy one ?? No. For me I would want to try the 990 as it was lacking the power I'm used to and you would hope the slightly larger engine would be a bit less viby.

It did make me realise how cramped the riding position of a sports bike is, and also how much grunt the RSV has in the mid range.

[C00kiemonster]

I loved the 690 duke. Are you sure it was a superduke?

[D6Nutz]

I loved the 690 duke. Are you sure it was a superduke?

Looking at the KTM website you are probably right, he called it a superduke but on the 1290 officially has that title..

[C00kiemonster]

That's the 690 duke, same as I tested a year or so ago. Bloody good bike IMO. On tight twisties they are brilliant.

[duke63]

There was a KTM stand at Silverstone today. The 690SMC is the one to go for, IMHO.

The Superduke 1290 is nice but nowhere near £15k nice.

[Kwacky]

The 690 sounds like fun but not really a bike to live with..

[Deegee]

I took the SM990 out about 2yrs ago, loved the ride, similar thing to D6's experience where you had to wring its neck to make it hustle, however I'd lose my license in a matter of weeks if I'd bought one, there's a definite "hooligan" effect when you get on, maybe it's the orange paint....

[D6Nutz]

I quite enjoyed wringing its neck, but for the sort of riding I do I need / want a bit more oomph.

The vibrations really put me off though, and that says something considering i ride a twin.

[D6Nutz]

I quite enjoyed wringing its neck, but for the sort of riding I do I need / want a bit more oomph.

The vibrations really put me off though, and that says something considering i ride a twin.

[C00kiemonster]

I quite enjoyed wringing its neck, but for the sort of riding I do I need / want a bit more oomph.

The vibrations really put me off though, and that says something considering i ride a twin.

It is a single.... I thought it was amazing considering.