Congratulations to “Eff Emm”, who was the first to correctly answer this week’s “Guess That Bike” with the suggestion that Jeff M has just bought a KTM 1290 Super Duke GT to replace his Yamaha FJ-09!
As a reminder, here’s what Jeff’s requirements were:
1.) Cruise control
2.) Cornering/IMU-based ABS
3.) Factory luggage available
4.) Upright/comfortable seating position
5.) Reasonably low weight (500 lbs-ish or less)
6.) Reasonably low seat height/not too tall/huge
Here’s what Jeff had to say about it:
“You have funny timing…I just bought another motorcycle! Remember my whole gripe about “no manufacturer makes the dang motorcycle I want”? Well, while a few beers deep with some friends on the internet (as all good trouble starts), I actually went to the trouble of writing down my criteria. Aaaaand, well…
…I went around and around in circles: there seriously is ONE bike that meets those criteria. It’s only kinda pushing it in the weight department. And yeah, not too tall; the Super Dukes are surprisingly compact for what they are. I rode a 2014 SDR from here [San Francisco] to LA and back a while ago and it was amazingly comfortable — and tiny compared to the current crop of ‘Adventure Sports’ tourers. Indeed, the S1000XR/Multistrada/Super Adventure S are the only other bikes even close, but they’re all just too physically large and heavy. (My housemate has the XR and I have ridden it quite a fair amount.)
Originally another criteria was “about 100-120 horsepower” – but upon realizing I’d found a bike that met every single one of my needs, the only drawback was too much power. Oh nooo, heavens me, whatever shall I do? It even gets about the same (or better!) gas mileage as the FJ. What an astonishing engine. I do still wish I could buy a Street Triple RS with bags and a windscreen (or a Tracer GT with cornering ABS), but oh well guess I’ll just have to put up with 170HP.
Also of note: apparently the GT has been selling so poorly in the US that KTM have officially discontinued them in North America? I asked the question in a RevZilla article about the SAS that mentioned it in passing – I confirmed with a couple dealers, too. I am kind of shocked that basically no other news site has mentioned this, but I guess it speaks to just how dismally they’ve sold here? The Euro publications love the bike (the MCN long-term test is a great saga), but on the American news circuit the GT seems to have had all the impact of a wet fart. Apart from the initial Mallorca journo-lovefest, there don’t really seem to be that many American reviews or videos or anything for it.
The end effect of all this is that I just picked up a brand new 2017 SDGT for $15k. [Editor’s Note: Original MSRP was a dollar short of $20k] That is just a screaming deal for that much bike, in my opinion.