Lim I’ve told you before to stop posting pornography on this site. Now stop having wet dreams and go and buy one. You know you want to and that so fits your riding style.
Very nice, love the lift music as well! Lol
I thought we got rid of the adult section?
I so really do want one…and now. Three problems…
1 I haven’t been able to find a dealer with one to test ride and I won’t buy before I try. In moto might get one in soon apparently.
2 The cost is more than I paid for my year old car. Somehow I have to justify it…
3 The ‘R’ version comes out in April 
Go on just buy it . I never even saw my superduke, just called the dealer haggled the price … and got it delivered to the door . All was as promised by KTM advertising dept 
+1 I bought my 690 enduro r unseen or ridden 
Really? It’s so big and orange you could see it from space! 
LiM. I can solve one of your three problems for you.
2 The cost is more than I paid for my year old car. Somehow I have to justify it…
It’s virtually impossible to justify owning a motorcycle like that unless you are a farmer with stock grazing in the Alps, or similar, or a despatch rider in Mongolia, so stop worrying and cross that one off your problems list.
surely the only justification you need is that every time you look at it, let alone ride it, a little bit of sex wee comes out. BUY ONE! TOMORROW!
Sell the car, buy a cheaper and put your profit against the KTM!
my 12 year old Alfa Romeo is still going strong, and at £1200 it was much cheaper than either of my bikes. It now even has a towbar and is happy towing the bikes to a track 
The only complication I can see is that the 1290 superduke is coming out next year.
i’ve got a feeling this justification wouldnt go down well with the missus :laugh:
forget the 690duke a 525exc supermoto is what you need for full on ktm madness
That’s cause the servicing will drive you up the wall…
quicker service that that ol tractor you got
At least I use mine every now and again! :Whistling:
ride them?? i thought you just spend a few ££££ on bling that’s not easy to buy then look at it
That’s probably cheaper than trying to run them on a day to day basis
So a full 8 months after I first decided I wanted a KTM 690 Duke I have just gone out and bought one- unseen and un-ridden…
…Only kidding! 
In truth, I finally got round to In Moto to test ride a stock one today and well…this is going to come as a surprise to some…and it was a bit of a surprise to me too…but in my opinion (and I’m going to have to whisper this) ‘it’s not as good as my lightly-modded 5 year old Yam MT03’
I can qualify that statement later but first here is my short-ish review of the 2013 KTM 690 Duke, for anyone who is interested.
The first impressions of a diminutive bike are confirmed once on board the Duke. The tank is really narrow to the extent that for the first few miles my knees were flapping about rather than ‘gripping’ the tank in the normal way. Having said that at speed it was nice to be able to tuck my knees in behind the flared tank- so you can see where they were going with that. Absolutely docile in town the fuelling on this thing is near-immaculate with a direct (well fly-by-wire) linear connection between degree of twist and amount of go. This immediately allows confident overtakes and since the power carries on for about 2000 revs beyond any other single I’ve ridden there always felt like plenty of ‘go’ on tap up to the red line. It also manages to feel like a KTM. By this I mean you feel sat quite high up, the front forks have a noticeable amount of travel, and it somehow weirdly feels a bit like its bigger Adventure siblings. I think it has something to do with the tyres too. My test route took me down a stretch near Westerham where the centre of the lane has a ribbon of quite badly denuded tarmac. Normally I would steer clear of this sort of surface but when trying out a bike it’s the sort of thing you head for to ‘check how it handles it’- anyway I do. Well, the KTM handled it well and the forks just soaked up the rough surface, although I could feel it a little through the rear shock, there was no sign of the bike tram-lining or deviating in any way. The foot-pegs felt a little low for my liking but I noticed there appeared to be some lugs higher up so maybe these are adjustable? The seat has very little movement in it. I was perched more to the front of it because sitting further back meant my bum was sort of ‘engulfed’ by the back pad of the seat. I suppose it felt a bit like sitting on a comfy cushion on the sofa (or even a horses saddle!) which is all very well but doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the experience! So the seat was okay, but not even in fact particularly comfy- I think the ‘Ergo’ seat would probably be better.
Anyway back to the ride…
Really solid round the bends too. So easy- just point and squirt and yee-haaa! The way it tightens it’s line on a bend with minimal effort, and at pretty much any speed is impressive. Under enthusiastic acceleration the front was going light through the first few gears and ‘ahem’ wheelies under throttle would be a piece of cake on a private road.
So, by half way round my one hour test ride I’d determined it’s light, it’s got plenty of power and it’s a piece of piss to ride. Certainly it was for me, similar as it was in many ways to my own bike…and there’s the rub.
Make no mistake this is a great little bike…
but as nothing is perfect…
…this is the bit where I try to justify my earlier statement that the KTM 690 Duke is not as good as my - 6 year old MT03-
It is fair to say the sound of the Duke with the stock exhaust was disappointing. You would expect a bit more of a ‘thump’ with a single but instead it sounds a bit, well, sewing-machine compared to the guttural wallop of say, -a 6 year old MT03 with K&N and akras- . I’m sure it would sound better with the Akrapovic but the stock exhaust is properly quiet (until you get up to about 6000 revs when there is quite a nice twin-like howl). The build quality of the KTM felt fine but the cycle parts of say -a 6 year old MT03- just feel that bit more plush, more solid. I’m sure the brakes on the KTM are much stronger but on the road the brakes on -a 6 year old MT03- work just as well. Not sure if the test Duke had ABS but I know it is available- which would be handy with the slipper clutch. Personally, I don’t mind slipper clutches on this sort of bike- and I can see why people like them- but I prefer the (somewhat severe it has to be said) engine braking of a ‘traditional’ single such as- -a 6 year old MT03-. And the vibes. Well, this must be a matter of taste but I prefer the low frequency vibes I get ‘all over’ on my - 6 year old MT03- compared to the higher frequency vibes felt only really through the foot-pegs (and after an hour slightly tingly on the fingers) on the 690 Duke. So yep this bike is twice as powerful on paper than - a 6 year old MT03- but honestly it doesn’t feel it. And that is not a reflection on the Dukes prowess because it is really sparky- and has comparable real world road performance to several multi-cylinder bikes I 've ridden. However, my - 6 year old MT03- I have realised is not as underpowered as I thought. It is also feels almost as light as the Duke (I have removed lots of the heavy bits) and almost as fast up to 70 (I have lowered the gearing too). Getting back onto it after the Duke I did immediately notice the solidity of it and the great feedback I get from the thing. It actually felt smooth compared to the Duke. That is weird given the gulf in technology but it does seem to have something to do with the vibe frequency mentioned before, as well as the feeling of build quality and even the girth of the tank.
So the upshot is…
I would love to own the KTM 690 Duke but getting back on my own bike after the test made me realise that sometimes the grass is not always greener…and there are bikes such as a (- 6 year old MT03-) that may not have the ultimate edge in terms of outright top end speed but which make up for that in other ways.
For now I’m still sticking to the MT03…until something better (for me) comes up…
and that next bike…well maybe it’ll be the MT09…who knows…:Whistling:
Any idea what power setting it was on? http://www.ktmforums.com/forums/attachments/duke/1d1219135861-690-duke-map-select-switch-switch.jpg
