Had my KTM Superduke test ride this morning. It all looked bad when I got my GSXR out of the garage this morning… and it started raining 
Luckily, when I got to the dealers (about 15 miles away) it was sunny with a clear blue sky 
Anyway, the first first thing that struck me about the Superduke was the riding position. It felt very similar to the KTM 640cc LC4 Supermoto that I rode at the bike show in November - very upright. So, I knocked it into first gear and with five people watching… stalled it! 
Second attempt was successful and I buggered off up the road.
Due to the upright position the bike is incredibly flickable and low speeds, much like the LC4. But it doesn’t seem to sacrifice any high speed stability or manouverability because of it. I was lobbing it into roundabouts and it felt completely planted.
The most impressive thing I found though were the front brakes. I thought they seemed good, so I gave a fistful at a set of red lights and, as hoped, the back wheel came off the ground 
I would never have attempted that on my GSXR 10 minutes after jumping on it!
The power delivery is a little strange to me as I’m normally used to riding 4-cylinder bikes and this is a twin. It redlines at 9,500rpm, so I kept hitting the rev limiter accidently (the GSXR is 14,000rpm). It certainly goes though, and I had 130mph out of it and although it didn’t have much left it got there quickly enough. Another surprising thing was that the windblast was not too bad at that speed.
Overall I’m very impressed, although it’s an expensive bike at £8400 (ish) and there are only 200 coming into the country this year (and it has to be the black one!)
Riding home saw me coming through the rain again, and this time a bloody hailstorm - you know it’s bad when you can feel them through your leathers. Riding position felt really cramped when I’d got back on the GSXR
Anyway, like I say it seems like a very good bike on first impressions.
