Herman Sporn is the father of the KTM SUPER DUKE; an innovator, engineer and a damn fast rider. Here he talks about his work with the 2020 KTM 1290 SUPER DUKE R and THE BEAST 3.0 concept, how it compares to the first 990, how KTM has changed and how the ‘ultimate’ Naked bike can still get better…
The covers are off KTM’s heavily updated sports touring titan and we spoke with Project Leader, Tobias Eisele, to find out what’s new.
After setting the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb outright motorcycle record in 2017 with the KTM 1290 SUPER DUKE R, KTM and Chris Fillmore return on June 24 with the new KTM 790 DUKE. Their goal – the Middleweight Division win and lap record. Ahead of this mountainous challenge, Chris talked to KTM BLOG.
Gran Canaria – beginning of March. Media launch of the new KTM 790 DUKE. The journalists are totally obsessed with the latest addition to the DUKE family. Its razor-sharp handling has earned the 790 its own nickname – “The Scalpel”. The new 790 plugs the gap between the 690, the most powerful single-cylinder on the market, and the “Beast”, the KTM 1290 SUPER DUKE R with more than double the power. The complete genealogy of the 790 was on display in all its glory at a presentation at an aircraft hangar, beginning with the original DUKE, which was replaced as the KTM 640 DUKE “last edition” by the DUKE II exactly 20 years ago.
Freestyle stunt rider Rok Bagoroš began his professional career in 2011 with the KTM 125 DUKE. Since then, he’s performed around the world on every single cylinder DUKE in the range. KTM BLOG caught up with the Slovenian rider to see what he thinks to the recently updated KTM 125 DUKE, KTM 250 DUKE and KTM 390 DUKE and to ask him what he loves about the new generation and what made the previous models so good for stunting.
Product Management are a department within KTM tasked with the difficult responsibility of juggling all the subdivisions within KTM – Marketing, Sales, Production, R&D, Kiska Design, KTM PowerParts … Using their collective experience of motorcycling, engineering and customer behavior, their purpose is to make sure that new or updated KTM products are introduced to the market in a way that satisfies the core values of KTM, hit the initial concept target and excel the expectations of the end user. Managing this mammoth myriad of motorcycle must-haves for the exciting new KTM 790 DUKE was the task of Adriaan Sinke, so the KTM BLOG grabbed a chat with him.
Always wanted to see the most legendary of real road races? This is the KTM BLOG´s pocket guide to the Isle of Man.
Jumping cactus, rattle snakes, shotguns, a haunted house, camp fires, frozen clothes and all day on the trails. This is one hell of a recipe for a motorcycle launch.
It seems very simple: you twist a throttle every day and at the end of the month somebody puts money in your bank account for it. What a wonderful existence.
Eating, working, meeting, shopping, watching, admiring and even getting a haircut: it is all possible in an environment of total biker cool at The Bike Shed in London. The venue is unlike anything we’ve seen, and among the custom jobs and motorcycle regalia there is a little bit of orange …
