Page 8 - LHR Motorcycle Magazine August 2024

2024 KTM 1390 Super Duke R Evo Review

Rennie Scaysbrook | June 15, 2024

“This is just stupid,” I say to myself in my new ease Mike Tyson used to knock out giants with.
Alpinestars helmet around the undulations of the
Portimao MotoGP circuit in Portugal. The engine performance is paired with electronics so
well mapped that the Super Duke makes you feel like
It’s stupid because no one, I don’t care who you are, a god. The back-end breaks loose, you keep your
needs this level of performance from a bike designed right hand buried, and you leave a superb tarmac
as a street bike. signature for the guy behind to witness.
It’s near impossible (not totally impossible) to highside
yourself on a Super Duke thanks to the lean angle-
sensitive traction control, which is part of the optional
Performance and Track modes in the ECU, which
take the possible modes up to five.

Track Mode gives you two additional displays on the
five-inch TFT dash, but this one focuses on lap times.
You can dial in one of nine traction control settings in
Performance and Track Mode, switch off your anti-
wheelie (that now comes in five stages from Very Low
(0.36°) to Very High (22.25°), dial in your chosen
Engine Brake Control setting, mess around with
Launch Control so you can smoke your buddies off
the traffic lights, and have the most direct throttle
connection from the ECU, one that gives you every
one of the 190 horses available.
The 2024 KTM 1390 Super Duke R Evo is not a
purebred racing machine. Underneath me are 190
Austrian horsepower and 106 lb-ft of torque from a
now 1350cc V-twin, and the turn of speed this
translates into the real world is straight laughable.
Meaner, faster, gnarlier. The 2024 KTM 1390 Super
Duke is as wild as a naked bike should probably
ever be.

I think back to the two previous Super Dukes I raced at
Pikes Peak in the mid-2010s. Despite having the
entire KTM PowerParts catalog thrown at them, the
2024 version in stock trim would eat them for lunch
right before taking a leisurely siesta.

I can’t help but think we have reached peak naked-
bike lunacy with the ’24 Super Duke. Really, how
much faster can they get? More to the point, how
much faster do they need to get?

It’s not so much that the Super Duke is faster up top,
which it is without question, it’s how fast it gets there.
The V-twin’s bore was upped 2mm to 110mm, and We love a good engine strip-down shot. Now 1350cc,
when matched to massive 60mm throttle bodies (up there’s substantially more torque coming out of those
from an already huge 56mm), the acceleration is cylinders than any other naked bike on the market.
straight mental. On the other end of the scale, Rain Mode will limit you
The Super Duke pulls so damn hard from revs way
down low and doesn’t stop until you’re nestled deep in to 130 horsepower and make the Super Duke feel
completely anemic. I try it for one lap, realize it does
the reds and coming onto the front straight via
Portimao’s glorious final corner. The Super Duke in indeed do what it’s supposed to, and head straight
back into Track Mode. I’m at Portimao, after all.
fifth gear spins a rear Pirelli slick tire with the kind of

2024 KTM 1390