2024 KTM 1390 Super Duke R Evo Review Daily Rider
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TechTranscript
00:00Good day everybody, Zach here with RevZilla and welcome to another episode of Daily Rider.
00:12Our guest today is the KTM 1390 Super Duke R Evo.
00:17That is a big ol' liquid-cooled V-twin stuffed into a fairly bare-bones chassis, sprinkled
00:21with just about every electronic feature you can get in 2024.
00:25It is very high performance, it is very orange, it is very much supposed to be a flagship
00:30statement motorcycle.
00:32That being said, it's predecessor, the 1290 Super Duke, always pulled off a neat trick
00:37whereby it was extremely fast and exhilarating, but also pretty nice and pleasant to use on
00:42a daily basis.
00:43So our mission today is to determine whether the 1390 has that appropriate balance of super
00:49and duke.
00:51Buckle up everybody, we got a lot to talk about.
00:53Let's go!
00:54Alrighty, before we get going here today, a quick reminder that this episode of Daily
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01:29Alrighty, 1390 Super Duke R Evo.
01:35Let's start at the engine, shall we?
01:38This is a 75 degree V twin.
01:41It is 1350 cc, that's 1350, up from a 1301 in the 1290 Super Duke via a little bit of
01:49bore.
01:50I think 110mm bores instead of 108 maybe.
01:53Same stroke.
01:54So foundationally, the engine basically just gets a little bit more bore, slightly more
01:57displacement.
01:59Not as much as the 100cc you would suggest from the name of the bike.
02:03But technologically, the engine makes a whole bunch of steps forward.
02:07It's a lot more complicated, both mechanically and electronically, which we'll talk about
02:11over the course of the ride to some extent.
02:13The big thing is variable valve timing, which acts on the intake cam only and changes the
02:20valve timing as the RPMs go up, which is pretty typical for any bike with a variable valve
02:25actuation.
02:26Honda VFRs, Ducati Multistradas, Harley Pan Americas, Suzuki GSX-R1000s, these bikes all
02:34have varying systems to accomplish kind of the same thing, which is to have good torque
02:39down low and good power up top by changing the cam timing as the revs go up.
02:44Pretty neat.
02:45The engine is also a stressed member of the chassis, which is why these frame spars kind
02:49of reach down part way and it doesn't connect with a classic cradle that you might see on
02:53an old motorcycle.
02:54The subframe is not steel, I think it's like a combination of cast aluminum and composite
02:58materials or something like that to try to keep the thing light instead of the trellis
03:02steel subframe that the old original 1290 Super Duke had.
03:07On the suspension front, you got a big old WP fork here, which is electronically controlled
03:11for damping.
03:12We'll talk about some of the settings that the bike has and same thing with the shock.
03:16It is a WP shock and has a whole bunch of electronic adjustability, which is pretty
03:22darn fancy.
03:23While we're at the back of the bike, we can check out the single sided swingarm, which
03:27I always think looks pretty rad and a fairly sleek muffler considering the size of the
03:33engine.
03:34But if you look underneath, of course, you'll see this big old bread box and whatnot under
03:37here.
03:38All this plumbing to deal with emissions regulations and that kind of thing.
03:41And also just these headers that are like the size of a diesel truck.
03:44They're absolutely massive.
03:46Brembo calipers up front, 320 millimeter discs, I think.
03:50Really high spec braking hardware and it's high spec in general, right?
03:55It's a $20,000 bike, more than that, which I think I failed to mention in the intro,
04:00but it's expensive and you'd expect this stuff to be nice.
04:02And it is.
04:03What else we got here?
04:05Yeah, this headlight assembly, which is like when you step back from the bike and you look
04:09at it, everyone's got their own opinion of what it looks like.
04:11There's lots of people that make fun of how angular and strange and sci-fi and alien and
04:15bizarre the bike looks.
04:18And that's fair.
04:19You can have your opinion of it, whatever you want.
04:20I don't care.
04:21I just think as a piece of engineering, it's kind of a neat assembly.
04:23It's just so tidy and small.
04:25I mean, it's just these two little wings of plastic with a sort of like center rail holding
04:30the LEDs.
04:31You can see the heat sinks for the LEDs are exposed.
04:34And yeah, it's sort of flanked by this running light, but the whole thing is just like, I
04:38don't know.
04:40It just like bolt off pretty easily.
04:42It's all very simple.
04:43And I appreciate how kind of raw the aesthetic of the bike is, whether you like it or not.
04:48Okie doke.
04:49I think we're ready.
04:51This little lock button here, press that sucker.
04:53And this five inch TFT will come to life with a little 30 years of Duke badge thingy.
05:02And the bike will tell you that the side stands down, which is something I already
05:07knew.
05:08Ah, so we can get rid of that and then fire this baby up.
05:13What do you think?
05:18That sound like a lot of horsepower on tap?
05:25Well, it's just getting warmed up, you know?
05:27So we'll give it a minute, I suppose.
05:30There we go.
05:31This is the 1390 Super Duke R Evo, a daily rider, kicking off.
05:37Let's ride to work.
05:38Yeah, I know about the side stand.
05:41Holy Moses.
05:42All right, off we go.
05:45Okie doke.
05:46A few specs to get out of the way early on here.
05:58Let's start with weight.
05:59169 pounds on the daily rider scales with a full 4.6 gallons of gas.
06:04The seat height is 32.8 inches, which feels pretty tall.
06:09Not unreasonably so, but at six foot two, it's sort of like easy for me to flat foot,
06:13but the bike does not feel low or short.
06:16As far as pricing goes, it's going to be $21,500 for a base Super Duke.
06:25And then in typical KTM fashion, there are packs to add to get upgrades for the suspension,
06:31the electronics, and what else?
06:34Maybe that's it.
06:35Anyway, we'll talk more about actual price of this bike a little bit later on.
06:39But $21,500 is the base and KTM claims 190 horsepower at 10,000 RPM and 107 foot pounds
06:47of torque at 8,000 RPM.
06:51It is a monstrously powerful engine, especially considering the bike weighs 470 pounds.
06:58As for what it feels like to sit on, I said the seat feels fairly tall, and to me, that's
07:02the biggest difference that I noticed between this bike and the old 1290 Super Duke.
07:05Not that I feel like it's necessary to make a lot of comparisons to the old bike, but
07:09it is an evolution, of course, and the seat feels fairly high and fairly flat, but also
07:16surprisingly cushy considering the sort of look of the bike.
07:19Actually, the feel of it is pretty comfy.
07:21And then the handlebar is fairly low and narrow.
07:24You feel like you have a lot of body weight over the front of the bike, and the foot pegs
07:29feel sort of appropriately high.
07:32Not ultra sporty, but definitely high enough that they feel like they're not going to drag
07:35on a racetrack, which I can confirm with street tires anyway, they did not.
07:40So overall, it's a surprisingly comfortable bike.
07:43I think based on the Instagram feedback that I got, it seems like some people were really
07:47expecting it to be just really, really kind of like blunt and uncompromising, you know,
07:53like too raw to ever be comfortable, but it's not that at all.
07:56It's definitely a little bit aggressive and a little bit sporty, but there's plenty of
07:59comfort and relaxation mixed into the ergonomics, which I really appreciate.
08:02It's a really nice blend.
08:05So let's experiment with 107 foot pounds of torque, shall we?
08:08Or at least some of it.
08:09So I'm going 30 miles an hour in third gear.
08:11I'm going to put on my blinker, check my left lane, and then open the throttle.
08:17And yeah, it is incredibly strong.
08:22That was just sort of the bottom of the revs, not even up where the bike makes a lot of
08:26power, but just sort of the stump pulling torque that this engine has.
08:30It's really, really satisfying.
08:32And I think I was able to forget in the many years that I have spent not riding a 1290
08:38Super Duke before I got on the 1390, just how kind of like immense and powerful it feels.
08:44It's different.
08:45Like a Ducati Streetfighter V4 has lots of torque.
08:48Yes.
08:49An Aprilia Tuono V4 has lots of torque.
08:51Yes.
08:52Even a BMW S1000 single R or a Kawasaki Z1000 or a Yamaha MT-10.
08:59Like they have good torque.
09:00Yes, they do.
09:01But it's not this.
09:03It's not.
09:04It's just not the same.
09:05Anyway, now that we are up to cruising speed here, 70 something miles an hour, I'm in fifth
09:09gear.
09:10So yeah.
09:11And that's actually a good segue.
09:12I was just going to talk about how I think the gearing is so pleasant and nice on this
09:15bike.
09:16I thought that about the 1290 Super Duke as well.
09:18And other V-Twins too, V-Twin Multistradas, 1200s and 1260s, as well as V-Twin Diavels
09:23and that kind of thing.
09:24I think that engine dynamic encourages companies to make the top couple of gears really kind
09:29of feel like overdrives, you know, where they're just sort of the bikes loping along when they're
09:32going this approximate speed.
09:34I will note that the 1390 has slightly shorter fifth and sixth gear than the 1290, which
09:40I think is a little disappointing because I really appreciated how kind of absurdly
09:43tall the upper gears were on the 1290.
09:46But this bike is not a huge downgrade.
09:49It's not that big a deal.
09:50I still think the gearing is pretty much spot on, which if you know anything about Daily
09:53Rider, you know that I often complain about companies not doing their utmost to understand,
10:00respect and utilize the dynamism and range of an engine in a motorcycle.
10:06But KTM has done that with this bike and I really appreciate it.
10:10One of the reasons that KTM did that is that this bike's not built around something, right?
10:13A Toronto is built from an RSV4 and an MT-10 to some extent is built from an R1 and bikes
10:21take transmission components and other pieces that are already built and they just use them
10:27because it suits the bike.
10:28But this bike was not built around any sort of other model or any rule book.
10:32And I think that's why it feels so good doing the things that it's best at.
10:39I'm not sure what kind of gas mileage we're getting right now at this speed, but I can
10:44tell you that overall, my gas mileage figures were around 40 miles per gallon.
10:51I think the low number I got was 37.
10:53The high was 41 or 42.
10:56And I'm sure you could do much worse or much better if you really tried.
10:59But with a 4.6 gallon tank, you have pretty decent range.
11:02I've been filling up at 160, 170 miles, I think, I think that's pretty good.
11:07I think fuel range is really dependent on what the bike's purpose is and what it's meant
11:12to do.
11:13Considering this is a brawny, big, high performance street fighter situation, then 175 miles or
11:21something is totally acceptable.
11:23Oh, it's a traffic brake.
11:27Turn on my four ways so that I don't get rear ended by this Mercedes.
11:34Are you paying attention?
11:36Please don't hit me.
11:40Well, the fuzz is kind of harsh in the end of our freeway review here, but that's okay.
11:45I was going to talk about mirrors and I can still do that.
11:47I can tell you that they're pretty smooth and I think it's in part because of that nice
11:51tall gearing, because at maybe 5,000, 5,500 RPM, like if you had to rev it that high to
11:56go freeway speeds, the mirrors do get kind of blurry.
11:59But in a certain RPM, around four grand, 4,500, I think in top gear, they're fairly smooth
12:04and it feels intentional.
12:06And again, I appreciate it.
12:08I also think they're just sort of like a nice shape and not too much bezel.
12:12They're kind of simple, but useful and seems like the kind of thing KTM cares about.
12:19Add some practicality.
12:20I like it.
12:21All right, I'm going to cut the engine and I think we are going to talk about the dash
12:25at this point, because I don't know how long this is going to be.
12:29Maybe not that long.
12:32Looks like we're all done.
12:33We'll talk about the dash later.
12:39The big takeaway for freeway manners really is that they're pretty darn good.
12:45It's a really reasonable bike.
12:48Not necessarily more so than a Yamaha MT-10 or Ducati Streetfighter V4, not necessarily,
12:55but good in a way that it didn't have to be.
12:57And just like those bikes, I appreciate that the company went through the trouble to make
13:01it nice.
13:02All right, off into the neighborhood and the round town challenge.
13:07Oh, it wasn't a Mercedes behind me.
13:10It was an Infiniti.
13:11Well, good for you, Nissan.
13:14So the stop sign challenge, let's see how the footless stops go on the old 1390 Super
13:20Duke.
13:21I was just talking about how docile and civil it is.
13:23That is a very, very juicy footless stop, little rollback and everything.
13:29Despite how clean that first footless stop was, as I pat myself on the back, I wouldn't
13:34say the Super Duke is ultra, ultra easy around town.
13:38Oh, there's two things that kind of get to me a little bit.
13:41One is the hydraulic clutch engagement, which is not, that's another very good one.
13:46My goodness.
13:47The hydraulic clutch is not a problem.
13:49It's well engineered.
13:50Hydraulic clutches are fine.
13:51I don't have a vendetta against them, but sometimes I feel like you just don't get that
13:55kind of really tactile, fine, kind of precise feel that you get with a cable operated clutch.
14:00You totally adapt to this clutch.
14:01It's fine.
14:02It's not even really a standout.
14:04I just wanted to call it out because I like an old school cable clutch sometimes.
14:09The other thing is the throttle response, which in general, aside from being adjustable
14:13in a bunch of different ways, I think street sport track, maybe something like that, it
14:17is ride by wire.
14:19And I have kind of the same complaint about this bike as I do about the 890 SMT we tested
14:23earlier this year on Daily Rider, as well as the Harley Davidson Nightster, which in
14:27general have excellent engines and are fun to use and just well engineered motorcycles
14:34in general.
14:35But there's a little bit of synthetic feel in the twist of the grip.
14:38In the case of the 1390, there's like a little bit of spring tension that you can work against
14:42in the throttle before it actually starts opening the throttle bodies, which makes it
14:47feel a little disconnected and a little strange.
14:50And I only really mentioned it because this is a $22,000 flagship premium product, and
14:56I think that that's slightly unbecoming, but you'll totally get used to it.
15:00And in general, the mapping is really nice.
15:02It's linear, predictable, and it's adjustable.
15:06As we sit at this stoplight here, I can talk about the heat coming off the bike.
15:10It is 64 degrees according to the 1390's TFT dash here.
15:17And regardless of what the temperature is, it'll be a little warmer for your right foot
15:20and your right leg because of all this massive plumbing coming out of the engine right there.
15:25I don't think it's horrible.
15:28Haven't ridden this bike on a truly hot day, but I don't get the sense that it's bad.
15:32It's just, it's notable because it's kind of a hot rod.
15:40Other general notes for round town manners and poise, the 1390 is really good.
15:44It's balanced.
15:45It's not really a heavy or a light bike.
15:48It's sort of in the middle of the road, but it's substantial, but it never feels crazy
15:51top heavy or super intimidating considering the size of it.
15:55It's also just kind of polite in some other ways.
15:57Like for example, the exhaust, the exhaust, which is surprisingly quiet.
16:03I feel, I don't say it's a bad thing, but you just get almost like more intake noise
16:07sometimes than you get exhaust noise, which is not, I don't think quite as flattering
16:12or as much fun on a big V twin as it is on like an inline four where that kind of howl
16:18is fun.
16:19Whereas in this bike, it just feels like, I don't know, I don't like it as much.
16:24But as far as, you know, riding around town, you're probably not going to tick off any
16:27neighbors with this pipe, which is, um, is a nice feature in my opinion.
16:38Okie dokie.
16:39Passenger test time on lover's lane.
16:41We can turn on cruise control.
16:42We can hit set and we can set it at 30, what are we going to do?
16:4832 miles an hour.
16:49I think there's a lower limit.
16:51What is it?
16:5225 miles an hour is the lower limit of the cruise control.
16:57Just so you know.
16:58Um, and yeah, we can pop back onto the passenger seat just for a moment here.
17:02And I can tell you that it is just sort of like a two thirds size version of the rider
17:08seat, which is flat, but surprisingly cushy and not that bad considering what the bike
17:12is.
17:13There's also more leg room than I was expecting.
17:15I would give it better marks than a typical sport naked, maybe aside from the MT-10.
17:22I don't remember.
17:23MT-10.
17:24No, I think the MT-10 might have pretty high passenger pegs actually.
17:27Uh, anyway, I think it's decent.
17:29I don't think you're going to do a lot of two up touring on this bike if I had to guess,
17:33but again, just another one of those things about the Zuperduke that's kind of like nicer
17:37than it needs to be, I think.
17:41Up into the hills here and we're getting almost precipitation.
17:46Apologies if your view is obscured by this strange substance coming from the sky in Los
17:51Angeles here.
17:52All right, as we dip into a misty, cool, twisty road section.
17:58I've got basically nothing but good things to say about how this bike goes through corners.
18:04It's nice and balanced.
18:06It feels really agile without feeling kind of twitchy.
18:09It's really, really good.
18:10On a twisty road, the engine dynamic is great for this kind of riding.
18:13You just sort of fire out of tight corners and if you're on a more open road, it's just
18:17going to kind of chug along and feel really at home, I think, in just about every circumstance.
18:24When I took the 1390 to a track day, I had more of those good feelings in general.
18:29I think that it gives up still after all these years and after all the talk of focus on track
18:35performance from KTM, it still does give up a little bit of that final kind of sharp edge
18:42on a racetrack to an Aprilia Tuono, a BMW S1000 Single R because those bikes are based
18:47on superbikes and this one isn't, and I think that the KTM Superduke benefits a lot from
18:52not being based on a superbike for street use and general use and daily use.
18:58It misses a little bit on the racetrack from not having that superbike DNA and I think
19:03it's a compromise that's totally fine because if you do fly around a racetrack on this bike,
19:06you're going to find that it's plenty.
19:10There's plenty of power and because the componentry is so good, there's plenty of adjustability
19:15in the suspension and electronics.
19:16There's plenty of power in the brakes.
19:19You're not going to be let down by anything.
19:21Only really kind of experienced and high-level riders are going to find just a little bit
19:25of maybe like lacking that killer instinct, that final, you know, 2%, 5% on the racetrack.
19:32But in general, bikes are just so flippin' capable these days, it's just you don't even
19:35really need that if we're being honest.
19:38Right, we're headed for this red light, we can talk about those brakes.
19:45Give them a good stab here, make sure no one's behind me.
19:49It just stands on its nose, two-finger pull.
19:53It's exactly what a 190-horsepower, $22,000 motorcycle should feel like when you pull
20:00on the brake lever.
20:01It should go BAM and just stop when you're ready.
20:06And that it does.
20:07All right, well, because we've got a little head start on this traffic and our little
20:14urban jump's coming up here, let's see how the off-road DNA mixed in with the Super Duke
20:18here with our little root jump.
20:23Pretty good air.
20:24And I suppose a good segue into talking about I am in comfort suspension mode, and that
20:30really backs off the compression rebound damping controls in the fork and shock, and it makes
20:35it fairly cushy.
20:36Of course, it doesn't change the spring rate because you can't really do that to any great
20:40extent electronically, but it does back out those parameters in the compression rebound
20:47and make it, I wouldn't say cushy, but definitely loose in a way that's good.
20:51Welcome.
20:52Especially if you're going to hit jumps like that.
20:55So this engine, I talked in the beginning about that neat trick that the 1290 always
20:59did.
21:00It was so vicious and raucous, but also could just sort of feel like a pleasant little mid-sized
21:05V-twin if you wanted it to.
21:07And does the 1390 do the same?
21:08I think it does.
21:09I think sometimes the sequel is not as impactful as the original movie because you're already
21:16in the universe and you already understand the capabilities of the characters at this
21:19point.
21:20And that's kind of how the 1390 feels to me.
21:21I'm not as surprised, there's not as much shock and awe, but it still delivers that
21:25nice sort of gentle feeling.
21:27I'm always kind of like baffled a little bit and yeah, in a little bit of awe that it can
21:34feel so gentle and pleasant.
21:36If you just want to putt around, if you just want an SV650, then just like don't open the
21:39throttle and you'll get a pleasant, easy bike to ride.
21:43And if you want to bend space and time, then you can open the throttle and let the wheelie
21:48control do its work.
21:51I was talking about engine heat and the cooling fan's on now, but unlike some bikes which
21:57show you the actual temperature of the cooling system and can make you worry if you know
22:01what the numbers mean, the Super Duke just has a little thing in the middle here that
22:04says okay, coolant temperature is okay.
22:10So overall, as we wind down the ride here, did KTM blend Super and Duke appropriately?
22:17As I said earlier, is it a good successor to the 1290 Super Duke?
22:22I think it is.
22:23I think it is.
22:24I personally don't think that it needed to become more powerful.
22:31I don't think it needed to become more complex.
22:33I think that some of the updates to the chassis, the slightly sort of taller and a little bit
22:36sportier, more aggressive riding position has helped it feel more appropriate as a super
22:42naked, hyper naked, whatever you want to call it.
22:45I don't think it needed the complexity.
22:46I think that's a difficult balance for bikes like these to feel raw and simple and visceral,
22:52but also they're flagships, right?
22:53These are the sort of like some of the biggest, baddest bikes that the companies produce,
22:58especially KTM, which does not currently in 2024 anyway, have a super bike or a sport
23:04bike really, especially in this category.
23:07So yeah, it's a tough thing to blend and I don't blame KTM for making this thing fully
23:12high tech and fully modern.
23:15Luckily, the Super Duke's foundation is really, really nice.
23:21It's just really well built.
23:23It's a little bit over-engineered.
23:24It's sort of more than you need in almost every category of power and brakes and chassis
23:30and comfort.
23:31It's really good at its core.
23:33So all the stuff that's sprinkled on later is gravy, but not necessary to experience
23:40the bike for what it is.
23:46So even though we already experienced what it's like to jump on Super Duke, now we can
23:56play around with some of the trash control and see what it's like to go down a dirt road.
23:59To dive into the dash a little bit here, tap right on this keypad, go to the menu.
24:03In the ride mode section here, you have a whole bunch of different range, street, sport,
24:07track, performance.
24:09Performance is basically a street mode that does not change the dash from street mode
24:14to track mode, but it does allow you to adjust individual parameters.
24:18So if I go back to the main screen here, you can see I can adjust ABS, I can adjust the
24:23trash control.
24:24I'm in level three here and with these little paddles over on the left side, I can add or
24:27minus with my index finger, the settings, so you see three, two, three, four, five.
24:35And then you can adjust preload settings in the shock to raise or lower the seat height
24:39practically.
24:41You can adjust the damping to be comfort, sport, track, a whole bunch of stuff.
24:46Let's see what else.
24:47I mean, you can adjust throttle response individually, track, street, or sport.
24:53I like street.
24:54I think it works the best in my opinion.
24:56Adjustable engine braking, different levels of anti-wheelie, low, very low, medium, high,
25:01very high.
25:02I have it off for what I hope are obvious reasons.
25:05Factory start option, which squats the rear of the bike and allows you to launch super
25:09fast.
25:10Bit of a gimmick, but kind of neat, I suppose.
25:12Launch control, which controls RPM when you're doing that start there.
25:16ABS modes I have in super motard, which is kind of neat, and then trash control and quick
25:20shifter adjustment, that kind of thing.
25:22It is extremely deep menu system, and because of that, there's this little custom toggle
25:28thingy over here.
25:29So if you pull back on this, it'll take you directly to the damping, which I have set
25:34to do damping.
25:35You can set it to do whatever you want.
25:36And if you flick it forward, it will go to, what will it go to?
25:41Oh, is it not set for anything?
25:42I thought it had it set for traction control.
25:44Anyway, there's a custom switch, which is kind of neat.
25:46Okay, we've been idling here long enough.
25:48Let's experiment with some traction control.
25:49I have it in five here, but I can set traction control up to slip adjustment, excuse me,
25:54up to nine, the maximum level, and then we'll give that a try, shall we?
25:58Let's see how it does.
25:59Oh, wow.
26:00You can just like open the throttle.
26:01See that?
26:02It sort of lets you accelerate, but it like spins initially and goes, and then reins it
26:09in.
26:10Let's try one.
26:11See what that's like.
26:14It's definitely a little bit more aggressive.
26:17And then I think if we hold it down, even while we're rolling, close the throttle release
26:21button, we are off, traction control off.
26:26And that is pretty foolish.
26:28You could really hurt yourself.
26:34You really hurt yourself doing that.
26:35All right, I'm going to turn it back on.
26:37Turn it on again.
26:38There we go.
26:39Yeah.
26:40I like having traction control on, especially when you can have wheelie control off.
26:43Why wheelie control off, Zach?
26:46Let's just experiment with that real quick, shall we?
26:49Let's go second gear, 2,500 RPM.
26:56I mean, the wheelies you can do on this bike, this bike will do power wheelies by accident
27:03in third and fourth gear.
27:04It's phenomenally powerful.
27:06It's an incredibly good wheelie bike.
27:09Just like the 1290 before it, it is, I think, maybe safe to say it's the wheelie king.
27:17I don't know if there's another bike I feel like I could do a longer or more ridiculous
27:21or satisfying wheelie on than this bike.
27:24One last sprint to work.
27:25We're almost there.
27:34As for can you back it in, absolutely you can back it in.
27:38It's so, so much all day and you can have wheelie control off, you can have wheelie
27:44control off, you can have traction control on and you can have rear ABS off and you can.
27:54It's so good.
28:01It's absolutely all the adjustability that you should have on a bike like this.
28:05It's dynamite.
28:06All right.
28:07So, yet again, parking is packed for the U-turn challenge.
28:11So we'll line up along this line here, go full lock left, feet up, just within two,
28:20I think, maybe just within two, maybe 2.1 parking spaces.
28:27The standard's high in my mind for a bike like this.
28:29It should be good at doing U-turns.
28:30It should be usable.
28:31That's yeah, one of the things that a big naked bike should be able to do.
28:37Oh, the sidestand's down, you guys, the sidestand is down, just so everyone knows.
28:42All right.
28:44Let's listen to that surprisingly quiet, surprisingly ferocious engine.
28:52Just it's got a, it's got a, it's got a menacing tone.
28:58Does it not?
29:00It might be quiet-ish, but when it barks, you get the feeling it knows how to bite.
29:05Okey-doke, Instagram question time.
29:08And the first couple are from people I know.
29:10I don't normally do this, but my actual friends had actual good questions this time around.
29:15The first one is from someone called Spurge Dunbar.
29:17I don't know if anyone here has ever heard of him.
29:19Friend of mine though, in case you're not familiar, he is all about suspension.
29:24And so he asked, does this need the shameless plug manual suspension upgrade from his friends
29:31at Solid Performance?
29:32Are you happy with the active suspension settings?
29:34In other words, the, you know, electronic gizmo mumbo jumbo.
29:37And then he says, same question, but now you're on a racetrack.
29:40This is a good question.
29:41And something that I think any astute buyer of a 1390 should be asking, like, do I want
29:45that stuff?
29:46Is it the best that it can be, or am I going to wish that I just had something simpler
29:50down the road?
29:51To answer the question, I think the semi-active suspension and electronic adjustability is
29:55great on this bike.
29:56I think it's good.
29:57I like the ability to go from comfort to sport and have the bike sort of tighten up if you're
30:00on a really tight road or, you know, when you go to the racetrack, you can adjust it
30:03totally manually.
30:04Like I said, that's a nice feature in this day and age for a premium product to have.
30:08And I didn't find that it was, on street tires anyway, at the racetrack, I didn't find that
30:12it was any different at the racetrack.
30:13I appreciated having that adjustability.
30:16I appreciated not having to get a wrench out to decide how much I wanted to change damping
30:20settings or something like that.
30:22So yeah, for, I think 98%, 99% of people, it's going to be exactly what you want.
30:27For those suspension connoisseurs, such as my friend Spurge here, you can get upgraded
30:33WP fork and shock that I believe are not electronically adjustable, but rather just have nicer higher
30:39end componentry inside.
30:41I think it's like $2,300 for the shock and $2,200 for the fork or something like that.
30:46You know, super high spec stuff, if that's really what you want.
30:49But I think that this is pretty good.
30:51I'd stick with it if I were you, Spurge.
30:55Next question is from my buddy Jackson Photo.
30:57This is a fun one.
30:58He said, if the 790 Duke was billed as the scalpel, what sort of cutting tool would the
31:031390 be?
31:05Is it a steak knife, a scythe, a chainsaw?
31:07Great question.
31:08And I would like to call this out.
31:10There are a bunch of answers on my Instagram feed from people who chimed in what they think
31:15the cutting tool analogy would be.
31:17And I'm not sure which one to agree with.
31:19Someone said bazooka, someone said machete.
31:22It's pretty forceful, this cutting tool.
31:25It uses force to get a lot done.
31:27Not that it's not precise, not that it's not refined, but yeah, maybe machete, I think.
31:31If the 790 or 890 is a scalpel, this is a machete.
31:34It's still sharp, but man, now it's heavy.
31:37Next question is from Camilo Botero Carrizosa.
31:41I'm sure I'm not saying that right.
31:43I am sorry.
31:44But anyway, he had a good question, which is, is this the most fun bike ever or do you
31:47think a Streetfighter V4 or M1000 Singular is better slash has a better giggle factor?
31:54So I had other questions from people bringing up the analogy I made with the last KTM I
31:58covered here, which was about Austria being between Italy and Germany and kind of being
32:02like, you know, not as flamboyant as Italians make their motorcycles, but not as sort of
32:06like pragmatic or stoic and kind of clinical as Germans often make their motorcycles.
32:11And I wanted to circle back, I think this is a good question about the Streetfighter
32:14V4 and the M1000 Singular, because in my mind, actually, I think the Streetfighter V4 is
32:21kind of the Austrian of the group.
32:23And I think the 1390 is more the Italian of the group, even though that doesn't match
32:27the nationality.
32:28The Streetfighter V4 is pretty serious, I think, especially for an Italian bike.
32:32It's pretty to the point.
32:33It's surprisingly comfortable and kind of easy to use, even though it has this outward
32:38aura of being kind of like belching fire.
32:41It's very potent and impressive, but also just kind of serious.
32:44And the 1390, I think is a little bit more playful.
32:46It's almost like the spiritual successor, as someone said, I think in my Instagram feed,
32:49two big V twins that Ducati used to make.
32:52In some ways, this is the evolution of that.
32:54Since Ducati flagships are now V4s, this bike feels like it's kind of holding that torch
32:58now of being really the flamboyant, wild, ridiculous big V twin.
33:03So I think that's interesting kind of flip flop and maybe backpedal of my analogy from
33:06before.
33:07Anyway, great question and interesting things to consider.
33:10Okay, last question here, another sort of comparison, which I think are very fun.
33:15I would like to call it that someone said, which 20th or 21st century dictator does this
33:19spike most represent?
33:20And I want you to know, if you ask that question, I just feel like comparing a motorcycle to
33:24a dictator is a slippery slope of politics.
33:27And you know, most dictators are kind of a-holes and I don't really want to associate.
33:30So I didn't, I didn't go down that road, but it was a great question and I very much appreciate
33:34it.
33:35Instead, we're going to answer the question from Justin.
33:37We have a situation which goes something like this, which famous Austrian person from history
33:42does it resemble?
33:44Another great question.
33:45I'm going with maybe the obvious one, but I mean, come on, how could this not be Arnold
33:50Schwarzenegger?
33:51How could it not be?
33:52It's burly, it's ridiculous, it's complex, and it's a bit polarizing.
33:58You know, some people, especially when Arnold was in office there, you got people who didn't
34:02agree with his politics or some of the decisions he was making.
34:05The point is it is immensely strong.
34:08It is complicated, modern and polarizing.
34:13It is the Arnold Schwarzenegger of motorcycles.
34:15I stand by that.
34:16And I think it's a great question.
34:17Thank you again.
34:18A lot of awesome questions this time around.
34:20I really appreciate all of the feedback and all of the help making Daily Rider episodes
34:24fun.
34:25Stick with me a little bit longer.
34:26We're going to throw the sucker on the Daily Rider Leaderboard.
34:30Here we are.
34:31Thanks for sticking with me.
34:32Inside RevZilla West and the Daily Rider Leaderboard, we have a KTM 1390 Super Duke ready to go
34:39on the board.
34:40The podium as it stands, 890 SMT from KTM, Moto Guzzi V100 Mandelo, BMW M1000 single
34:47R. You can see the Super Duke is both spicy and pricey, as we say here, because it's the
34:55better part of $22,000 and has 190 horsepower.
34:58I only bring that up because I was actually glancing at the other boards here, looking
35:02at other bikes that are both spicy and pricey.
35:04Diablo V4 from Ducati, CBR 1000 RRR SP, BMW S1000RR, Ducati Streetfighter V4, Triumph
35:13Rocket 3R, spicy and pricey.
35:15The reason I'm calling this out is that bikes that are very fast and very expensive aren't
35:19necessarily good daily riders.
35:20The KTM 1390 is.
35:23It is very fast.
35:24It is very expensive, and it is a good daily rider.
35:28The first bike I want to talk about is the Kawasaki Z900 SE.
35:32Whenever I bring it up, I think I say something like, it's really good.
35:35It's like a little bit vanilla maybe, a little bit forgettable, but really good.
35:40Like good brakes, good engine, good comfort, good chassis, good electronics, good, it's
35:43good, it's a good bike.
35:44The KTM 1390 Super Duke is sort of the Z900 SE accelerated, it's just more of everything.
35:51Has sharper handling, it has more powerful brakes, it has more horsepower, it has more
35:54electronics, it has more capability, it has more pizzazz, it has more kickstand presence.
35:59Point being, the 1390 is going to be up here somewhere.
36:03The next bike it seems like it makes sense to discuss would be BMW's M1000 Single R.
36:09Very, very capable bike.
36:11I brought this bike up, tangentially anyway, a couple times during the ride to say that,
36:15for example, the KTM doesn't quite have the scalpel-like precision on a racetrack as the
36:20M1000 Single R, and that is true.
36:22As a daily rider though, I feel like the KTM kind of does everything the 1000 Single R
36:28does, but a little bit better.
36:32The power's in a more usable place because of the engine configuration, does it sound
36:36as kind of like demonic and ridiculous when you rev it up, and does it have all the carbon
36:40fiber bits straight from the factory and all the like billet pieces and adjustable gizmos?
36:44No, it doesn't.
36:46But I do think as a daily rider, it has a slight edge.
36:50Moto Guzzi V100 Mandelo is an interesting bike to compare to a KTM 1390 Super Duke because
36:54the V100 Mandelo was flawed, as the 1390 Super Duke is in some ways, but just had that
37:01incredible engine, such a good engine, such an engaging and interesting piece of equipment
37:07to ride.
37:08And also, you know, adjustable windscreen, the V100 Mandelo in some ways is like a little
37:12bit more practical and pragmatic than the KTM 1390.
37:16Is the 1390 Super Duke better than an 890 SMT?
37:20It's sort of a little cousin or sibling there.
37:23In some ways it is.
37:25But I just think the 890 SMT makes too much sense.
37:29I know it's not as powerful, I know it's not as flashy, I know it's not as like ahhh, but
37:36I think it makes more sense.
37:38I do.
37:39So I'm going to give a nod to that.
37:41The question is, where does it finish here?
37:44So V100 Mandelo and a 1390 Super Duke are sitting next to each other and have to ride
37:51somewhere.
37:53I'm going to go with the Super Duke.
37:57And before you haters crack your knuckles and leave your comments about like, it doesn't
38:02ride in the KGMs for a while and then the top two of the leaderboard is for sale, how
38:06much did they pay you, man?
38:09Shut up.
38:10These are great motorcycles.
38:11Period.
38:12Absolutely stand by that.
38:13Also, I'm looking at a BMW R1300GS on the other side of the garage and something tells
38:18me the top of the leaderboard is going to be disrupted sometime soon.
38:21So to bring it back around, the KTM 1390 Super Duke is pretty high up on the leaderboard
38:26and it is lightning in a bottle.
38:29It's just as special and adrenaline provoking as it's always been.
38:36I don't think it needed to get so much more expensive than it was.
38:39I don't think it needed to get so much more complicated, but again I can't blame KTM for
38:43doing that.
38:44It is still just an amazing motorcycle to ride.
38:48I think by now I've written an article about the KTM 1390 Super Duke and you can go to
38:54RevZilla.com to find that article.
38:57It might even be a link in the description of this video where I'll talk more about some
39:02of the specifics of the suspension, the adjustment, the fact that it has 37,000 mile valve intervals,
39:08stuff like that.
39:09In the meantime, thanks so much for hanging out.
39:11Appreciate it.
39:12Ride safe.
39:14Those little quiet power wheelies are one of my favorite things about this bike.
39:19Not even going fast.
39:20It's just like, yup, lift the front wheel up, don't have to make a meal of it, you don't
39:24have to go in a zillion miles an hour, it doesn't make a lot of noise, it just delivers
39:28you a little bit of fun.
39:29It's like a little finger sandwich of fun.
39:30Here, have a snack.
39:31But as you take off, a little yip, just picks the front wheel up like a weightlifter picking
39:39up a child or something.
39:42It's like a kitten batting a balloon or something.
39:45Just pop!
39:46Front wheel in the air.
39:47How'd that happen?
39:48Oh my god.