Hi all,
I have just ordered a 1290 after being staggered by the power to weight figures and of course all that torque. I have been riding bikes for over 35 years (yes I'm old) on and off but couldnt pass up the chance to own the SDR.
Looks like I have missed the first shipment into Australia due in March 2014 so I have to be patient and wait for the next lot to arrive, not to long after i hope. I'm a hands on engineer and have to say that I like the way KTM does things, very impressive, and I'm old and hard to impress.
I'm also new to these forum thingies so be patient with me..........
Cheers,
Paul

ABC? really Ok you have pointed out you are old but man you need to find a decent username to enter the forum world.....I think we should find one for you how about......(waits for people to insert awesome usernames)

Welcome abc haha

From the posts that sail eastward,unto California shores. It appears Australia's Bike Choice is the new 1290. The name abc fits this proposal rather well. Unless it stands for another boy chaser or a bee, see?
Welcome and let us all know when we can have new bike envy. Anyway, Be Careful

G'day fellow Aussie!

G'day from a fellow Aussie SuperdukeR. Fingers crossed that you get your 1290 soon mate.

How good were The Ashes.... just sayin.

What Ashes..............?

Hi and welcome aboard. Where in the Snowies?

Welcome mate!

Maybe ARPA would be more appropriate? Welcome fellow senior citizen.

Thanks for the welcome guys, I am busy studying SAS removal and resistor placement at the moment - lots of good info here for a newbie - cant wait for the new 1290.......yippeee
Trying to understand tuneECU will be the next thing on my list

Thanks DmacL for the info - I think

Hi, I've owned a 2008 SD for the past three years, it got written off not so long ago after going into a tank slapper at Phillip Island race track. So I'm looking at getting a SDR which comes standard with a steering damper. The problem I'm facing is that I was happy with the "standard" suspension settings on the 2008 SD, but have heard the 2008 SDR is far more harsh and needs revalving to be similar. I've checked the manuals for the 2008 SDR and the 2011 SDR and found the 08 SDR only has two settings "race" and "sport" whilst the 11 SDR has three "comfort", "standard" and "sport". So my question is, can the 2011 SDR suspension be set to achieve a similar feel to the 2008 SD in "standard" setting.

The SDR and SD are not similar and non of the settings will make it so.
First let me tell you that tankslappers are the result of hanging on to the bars too hard. i don't mean to tell you off, just want to help.
I have an 08 and I'm deffo not an ace rider but one thing I don't do is hang on to the bars too tight. All it does then is wave a bit when going really hard over a crest or so but stops almost faster then it started if you let it.
Now to your question. The SDR has a heavier rear spring/longer shock (if I remember correctly) and a steeper fork angle hence KTM supplied a steering damper to erradicate potential issues there.
An R will always feel harder in the suspension and "lighter" in the front feel because of that despite the steering damper. I rode both and it personally I prefer the non steering damper feel on the non R version. Other people might feel different which is OK as we are different.
On track the R has other advantages like more power and easier turn in, that is if you don't turn up the steering damper all the way to max.

BTW welcome here!

Welcome in. Guy has answered your questions so I won't reiterate any of it.

If you fill in your location you'll save yourself a lot of responses when you are asking for further help or trying to sell something like the parts from the wrecked bike.