Thinking of chopping in my trusty 950sm for a superduke GT. She’s long in the tooth, still great fun but technology’s come on so much in the last few years and I’m fed up of having to deal with carbs and porus fuel tanks.  Anyone got one? How is it?

Mates have, one took his to germaGe with me recently. Brilliant if a bit ugly

I’m an administrator here

https://www.ktmforums.com/forums

But arguably more GT owners  here https://www.ktmforum.co.uk

Would a porous tank be the reason why I’m only getting 100 miles out of a tankful on my new to me SMR?😁

100 miles on an SMR’s tank is good going.  I’ve had less than 100 out of mine on occasion & ive a 5L advantage!

latest bodge for mine is to take a pin to the tank stickers to stop them inflating. I swear there’s actually fuel condensate in some of the blisters.

Just an update on this. I tested a GT and a 1290SAS. The GT was good, but it was way too cramped for me and gave me cramp in my wrists and ankles. The tank is massively wide too. It was also a generation behind in terms of tech. The SAS though, I fell in love with. It just feels right, planted, logical. It gives me the same happy feeling as being on the 950sm does. It’s also wickedly quick with handling to match. I’m smitten.

for me the 1090 at the moment at £8999 is crazy money, i’d be doing that…

I’ve had a 1290S for nearly a year now and it’s an absolutely superb bike. For such a big lump it’s weight just vanishes once you’re riding it. Brilliant at touring, scratching and just pootling around.

I can highly recommend the heated seats and grips, not so much the GPS function. I got a great deal with luggage thrown in and a nice little discount on list. Mind you that was in France. I nearly bought from Premier Bikes in Oxford who were superb with test bikes and lots of advice. So if you’re in their area give them a try, the sales guy was called Stuart.

Great bike.

Just an update on this. I tested a GT and a 1290SAS. The GT was good, but it was way too cramped for me and gave me cramp in my wrists and ankles. The tank is massively wide too. It was also a generation behind in terms of tech.

Tested one end of last summer myself, got real cramp in my wrists too… Why? It’s the shape of the KTM grips! They have a massive flange at the end, was causing me no end of pain! Asked the sales guys could they be swapped for something with a non flanged end and was met with “why would you want to fit a non ktm part to a nearly new KTM sir” looks of derision (seriously, AMS in Tewkesbury are useless, I had been told to avoid them like the plague but felt I needed to find out for myself. AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE!). Anyway, back to the bike…

Aside from the grips (I guess much more easily sorted than AMS would have you believe), I found the position comfy, but I’m only 5ft10 and I have a couple of taller friends who’ve recently bought 1290 Super Adventures because they were bigger and roomier. The level of tech on the bike seemed an odd mix, electronic suspension but analogue rev counter and dash that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a bike 15yrs ago… I found the engine an odd mix of thundering torque, a complete lack of revs (it barely wants to break through 8k!), but it was far too vibey at anything under about 3500 revs still, which on a sports bike is forgivable, on a big sports tourer I found it quite annoying, and I like twins! In fact, my KTM RC8 (same basic engine architecture) is much smoother, and it’s still a little bit lumpy below 3k, but not as bad as the SuperDuke GT. Sadly, to me, it felt like what it needed was a V4. Oh, and a bit more involvement… Good as the electronic suspension is, it felt a bit anodyne compared to what I am used to.

So yeah, having expected to love it and it it be the “one bike for all scenarios” I came away thinking that it was too much of a jack of all trades and master of none. So I split my budget, bought a mint 2001 VFR800 for £1500 to do the bulk of my mileage on in comfort, and a lovely 10 plate RC8 to sit alongside it in the garage for high days and dry days!

Yeah the tech on the GT was weird with the dash the stand-out archaic component. I’m 6’1” and was simply too tall for it, even though I moved the pegs down and bar forward during the test ride (the ktm toolkit is, as ever amazing).

I bought the SAS just before Christmas and got a great deal from Teasdale’s in Thirsk. I specced a set of panniers and top box, satnav mount and the heated grips & seats which are great.

Its a pain they don’t do the Super Adventure with a 17″ wheel. I am not intersted in taking it off road but like the riding position etc. I know you could argue thats what the GT is but as people has said on this thread its not really.

Currently ride an S1000XR amongst other things, which is sort of that and has a sensible sized front wheel, however it lacks a bit of character.

however it lacks a bit of character.

Trust me on this… So does the SuperDuke GT! It’s like in an effort to make it as good a Sports Tourer as they can, they have completely wiped any of the fun SuperDuke DNA out of its makeup! I got off it thinking it was very impressive (albeit with a very lumpy engine), but really uninspiring!

Thats interesting Mboy, I was expecting it to be more practical SuperDuke R. What I really would like is Aprilia to put the V4 engine into something like a Caponord.

Its about time some other manufactures had some competition for the GT, XR and Multistrada

Thats interesting Mboy, I was expecting it to be more practical SuperDuke R

From being a KTM rider, admin on forums etc 99% of others love their 1290GT

@weeksy I should just go and ride one 🙂 Though thats one of the problems the lack of a sizeable dealer network.

I know where my local, BMW,Aprilia, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Ducati dealers are. No idea who is my local KTM dealer. I know the one in Fareham only does Enduro and MX bikes

The dealer issue is well known. We lost ours in Newcastle recently. I think they just handed the franchise back after being asked (forced) to stock a vast amount of merchandise at their cost. Hence I had to travel 60 miles to Thirsk. It’s probably a good thing, they were known shysters.

One of the issues I found with the GT and indeed the XR,was that they’re brilliantly set up for the ironed smooth tarmac of European roads. On our surfaces they skip and bounce all over the place. 125/147mm of travel just isn’t enough to deal with crumbling infrastructure. I found the damping on the XR particularly harsh, though it didn’t force me to fold myself up when climbing aboard. That said the 200/200mm on the SAS is possibly overkill.

Took mine out last night for a couple of hours blast during a brief gap in the weather. It’s stupendously good. The cornering headlight is magical – it even works on full beam so you get good cut-off.

Its interesting what you say about the damping of the XR, loads of people on the forums agree with you. I think it depends on what sort of bike you come from. If you come from the more sporty end of the spectrum it feels positively plush 🙂

I did manage to put a ding in my front rim on the XR on one of our less than favourable roads.

I’ve had an XR and it was superb road or track with no damping or handling issues even with race tyres on it