The all-new 990 Duke from KTM presents a tricky dilemma in more ways than one, which I'll go into right after I just come out and state that the 990 Duke is bloody brilliant in every single way. If there is any part of you that doesn't like riding bikes because they're fun, then you should move on to the next feature in this mag - because having fun and being naughty is what the 990 Duke is all about. In fact, if there is a new bike in 2024 on the planet which is more exciting to ride and as competent as the 990 Duke, I have yet to ride it... apart from the 1390 Super Duke, which leads me neatly to my first dilemma.
A total of 96% of the parts on the 990 Duke are new and don't share part numbers with any other model in the range; the remaining 4% shares its parts with the 1390 Super Duke. The only carry-over part from the discontinued 890 Duke or remaining Chinese-built 790 Duke are the brake calipers. For all intents and purposes, the 990 Duke is a brand-new bike from the ground up. It has been conceived, designed, and built to be much closer dynamically to the 1390 Super Duke than what we have come to know the Duke for a quirky halfway house between a motard and naked bike that punches above its weight and performs better than the sum of its parts. KTM has deliberately created the 990 Duke to be a mini Super Duke, which is ironic given that the 990 Duke makes more power and more torque from its 947cc parallel twin engine than the original 990 Super Duke had from its 999cc V-twin engine.
By making the 990 Duke more of an outright naked bike with a really high spec, where there was crystal-clear differentiation in terms of image, dynamics and spec between a modern Super Duke and a Duke, there is less so now. Thanks to the 990 being so damn good, you would be forgiven for questioning if you even need a 1390 in your life, especially if you're not planning on going on track, and this seems very counterintuitive to me.
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