The Super Duke Goes Super Crazy!

To round off the year, KTM has updated its flagship bike, the 1290 Super Duke R, for 2021. The Super Duke kickstarted the hyper naked segment of bikes and currently rivals the Ducati Streetfighter V4 and the Aprilia Tuono V4.

For 2021, KTM has left the 1290 Super Duke R almost unchanged. So all you get is an updated throttle grip, which now rotates 65 degrees (seven degrees less than before) and refreshed blue and white colourways. KTM claims the former would help riders have better throttle control at high lean angles.  

This aside, the highlight for this year is the addition of a new top-of-the-line variant of the Super Duke, called the 1290 Super Duke R Evo. With the Evo badge, the bike gains the second-gen WP semi-active suspension at both ends. The system offers three semi-active damping modes (Comfort, Street and Sport), though one can also manually adjust the rear spring preload through the TFT instrument cluster. 

In addition, the bikemaker offers an optional Suspension Pro package, which adds six more suspension modes -- Track, Advanced, and Auto, for semi-active damping followed by Auto-Standard, Auto-Low, and Auto-High for automatic preload adjustment. The latter automatically adjusts the preload in accordance with the rider’s weight.

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As for the engine and features, everything has been carried forward from before. The 1290 Super Duke R is still powered by a 1301cc, V-twin engine pumping out 180PS and 140Nm. And to help you manage all this power, the bike comes laden with riding modes, cornering ABS, wheelie control, traction control, and even cruise control. 

KTM hasn’t announced the prices of either of these models yet. But that’s not something we should worry about, as KTM has never really shown interest in bringing its bigger bikes to the Indian market.