2019 KTM 1290 Super Duke GT: Better Still

First ride on updated version of the KTM 1290 Super Duke GT, KTM’s most expensive model launched at Intermot 2018 as update on strong-selling three-year-old version

- Alan Cathcart

Already Europe’s largest motorcycle manufacturer, KTM still continues to ramp up its sales numbers, with the 126,808 bikes it sold in the first half of this year representing a further 15% up on 2017, itself a record year. Perhaps surprisingly, one of its palpable hits helping drive that increase has been the most expensive model in its entire range, the 1290 Super Duke GT first launched three years ago as the Austrian company’s unique take on sports touring with a difference – i.e. with an accent on the ‘sport’! Those sales say this model has completely addressed KTM president Stefan Pierer’s concerns before it appeared. “I don’t think a sport tourer in the classic way matches 100% with KTM’s brand identity,” he told me in an interview. “Our customers expect something sporty made the KTM way, not like other manufacturers do it.” Well, that certainly describes the GT, which since its 2015 launch has provided its owners with the dazzling performance and benchmark handling of the no-prisoners Super Duke R streetfighter, aka The Beast, coupled with everyday practicality and user friendly convenience. It’s a successful marriage of opposites.