2024 KTM 1390 Super Duke R & 990 Duke At Portimao – Cycle News

We ride the all-new KTM 1390 Super Duke R and the 990 Duke at the world-famous Portimao circuit in Portugal. Enjoy!
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#KTM #SuperDuke

[Music] hello everybody out there in YouTube land welcome to portal one of the world’s most marvelous racing circuits absolute gorgeous ribbon of Road and today I got to have a go on these two things now you might be thinking to yourself well hang on a minute you rode both of these recently and yes I did I rode them at the world launch in El Maria couple weeks ago got more time on this one on the 990 I got two laps on this thing on a circuit that I’d never ridden before and then it started raining plus it was the one that does not come with the electronic suspension so it was pretty useless hence the reason we I didn’t do a video on the 1390 KTM Super jukar although I did do one on the 990 so we’re going to focus initially on the 1390 super jukar now I have an huge affinity for the super Juke range I raced them for a few years at hikes Peak they are spectacular motorcycles I mean they’re basically like big super motos that’s the way I’ve always kind of looked at them big super motos mixed with uh a 1980s muscle car it’s almost like someone out a Night Rider the the funny thing about this bike now is even though you know capacity is increased and horsepower is increased and talks increased it’s actually become a little bit more civil in in its mannerisms which you know it’s almost like you know you go to the gym and get bigger muscles and you actually become a nicer person it’s kind of strange um so I focus I had two I had two sessions today on the 390 $21,500 MSRP in the United States now good chunk of change although when you compare it to something like you know m1000 RS and all that stuff from BMW and still in the still kind of in the ballpark but you are dealing with the the premium end of the market now with with super J it kind of always were but especially this one now I love the motors on super J I always have um they have so much talk so much usable talk that you really have to recalibrate your brain when you’re riding them around a racetrack now we didn’t do any Street miles was just straight racetracks with this thing now because it has so much torque you can’t go down into second gear a lot of the time even in places like uh the hains here at portal I didn’t think I said second gear once if you go down there too much the thing starts to hop and be all skittery on the quarter entry so you have to go a gear higher than what you would normally think and the problem with that is that you go a little bit go a gear higher and then you end up carrying more roll speed into it and you think because the bike is hardly making any noise that you need to go down a gear and that’s just because it has so much talk that when you as soon as you get on the throttle it’s just you know it’s like big old V8 style you know you don’t R those things out you just roll that t curve and once you get into that that mindset of just riding the thing like it’s like a big old tractor this thing this is not a not a mini bike engine by any means you know this thing is just muscle everywhere and it’s really quite easy to ride sounds crazy for a bike that big but it is really civil it’s fast as hell like you look down at the dash and you’re doing I don’t I don’t remember what it was 250k an hour 260 whatever it was but it’s civil that’s the the amazing thing it’s not it’s not overly scary I mean it can be scary if you want it to be but it’s a vastly improved package over the old bike I mean I remember my my 2017 race bike that I had at Pikes Peak like that was quite peaky um you know it was a bit more of a hair Trigg not ha trigger throttle but it was just like bit more nervous everywhere whereas this thing is just bur just lovely bloody bike now the super Juke Evo which is what this thing is comes with the electronic suspension that’s the only one that we get in uh in America I got to say it’s on track I’m not totally stoked on it it’s not that predictable and it has a weird kind of feeling at the very top of the stroke on the fork when you go for the brakes it just has this kind of dead feeling at the top and once the front end’s loaded it’s good but what you got to remember is that this thing’s re-calibrating all the time you know it’s every M however many milliseconds it’s doing it it’s always anticipating what’s coming up so that it’s got the right damping ready for for a given situation and that’s not really what you want on the racetrack you know you want super consistency on the racetrack on the street great not a problem and we have still haven’t had the chance to ride this thing on the street I’m getting one when I get back into the states so oh can’t wait for that and I’ll go and do a big old ride on that and tell you what it’s all out but on the racetrack you can change everything with the suspension you know it’s got all these different modes in it you can go in there and change into the pro mode where it becomes a completely manual bike um you can I think there’s three modes you can have his preset modes it’s you you need multiple days to figure out this thing I had two sessions on it today so you know I I got to admit I didn’t figure it out in the time that I had it cuz I just was doing it is a bit of a ride more than a Electronics deep dive which is what this thing needs you got to go through the modes and you’ve got to figure out what the what it is that you like because you know you’re spending a big amount of money on this and it’s you know that’s what you that’s what you want you want to make the bike yours and ktm’s given you and WP I should say have given you the the means to do so I think with this thing too it’s much more of a street bike the 39 is much more of a street bike than a track bike it’s cool you know turning up and smoking a bunch of sport bikes on a on a big Naked Bike it all nothing nothing beats that it’s a that’s a good good feeling but it is much more abled at the street and the other times that I wasn’t riding the 1390 I was on this thing now this is the new 990 Juke and this is 12,500 compared to the 1390 this thing is a pussycat uh when I rode the bike in Spain I did a lot of road miles on it and it’s quite a uh you know it’s a very very capable road bike it’s probably more fun than the big bike to be honest the big bike’s a bit of a boxing ring match whereas this thing you know this is sparring this thing that’s a heavy out right there the 990 motor has quite a docile power delivery got five modes uh rain track uh Street rain rain track rain rain sport track Street performance five ride modes once we kind of jacked it up into the high ones in the performance realm and the track modes you know you get all the you get all the horsepower for all that stuff but it still doesn’t change the fact that it does take a bit of time to get going it’s good in one way and that it’s very approachable and very easy to ride but it does feel like it’s kind of being held back a lot I think part a lot of it’s got to do with this a big old thing here and you know the emissions and noise laws and all the stuff that holds bikes back these days I think once you get in there and you start cracking in into the electronics and start to figure out what this thing can actually do it’s going to be a hell of a good race bike for especially for Andy deino is probably watching this is going to be riding one in super holigans this year in in motto America it’s going to be a great bike for that now with the 990 you don’t have to worry about different suspension or electronic suspension I should say like you do with the 1390 as a base setting it’s very soft and that’s what you’d expect you know it’s got to have a a huge broad range of riders that need to be able to hop on this and feel comfortable but yeah you can you can change it as you like and and you know stiffen it up or soften it out as much as you like braking wise it’s not it doesn’t have that really lovely feel at the master cylinder that I would have hoped it’s not terrible but it doesn’t have that real de initial kind of pull of the lever that I that I quite like but look it’s a good base setup that’s what it is it’s a base setup you know once you want to get in there if you actually want to go out and ride these things and get them into racing and that kind of stuff and go around tracks it’s going to be good on the road uh sorry on the track I am not the only one who did this too so in the comments take it easy on me there was about six guys and we were all talking about it afterwards and we’re all grinding our toes on it it doesn’t matter what we were doing I was like putting my wedging my boot in there on my tippy toes like trying to get the right angle or I didn’t ground it out and I was still touching it down by the end of the day so you have to hang right off before you would ground out the those pegs but you know if you’re going to turn this thing into a bit of a track weapon or a super Hooligan’s bike something like that you’re going to end up going back and going higher as well it’ll get rid of your ground clearance problems uh hopefully for good Electronics wise you know you got all the usual stuff you’ve got your up and down paddle shift here for your traction control wheeler control various ride modes all that kind of stuff so yes also you got cruise control as well don’t forget so if you’re doing this thing as a bit of a mile muncher which it is very comfortable for that too it’s a really com B when we rode it in Al Maria we did a lot of miles on that thing and a lot of time in the saddle and it’s been really good I’m not sure of the exact uh coating on the seat here but it’s quite nice it’s not very slippery as well in Leathers it sort of holds you in place quite well which is good overall it’s a lovely base product would be good to see an 8 a 990 Juke R come out and see what that’s going to have but uh overall like it was a great day it was that thing the 1390 yeah you’re getting into the ring with Mike with Iron Mike with this thing like it’s you got to be ready for it because things happen real damn quick on one of these bikes this is a pussycat in comparison that anyone can ride I think that’s going to be a great street bike this is going to be the bike that if you want to get in and really change it up and make it make it your own anyone can hop on that thing and have a really good time but anyway I hope you guys uh enjoyed the review check out the full written reviews soon in cycle news and yeah we’ll see you guys again soon cheers see you [Music]