I've only been riding for two years and my rides so far (in order) have been a , a and a , so I've very recently experienced 4,3 and 1 cylinders, awesome power, awesome manoeuvrability and awesome all-roundedness. The SD feels better than each of those specialists in each of their fields with the caveat that luggage is not an option and pillions (haven't tried that yet) look like they risk burns or at least getting very warm...

Last weekend I rode 650 miles from Coventry, up through the middle of the peak-district, the middle of the Yorkshire Dales (where these were found - filmed by my helmet-camera-wearing colleague on his CBF1000 (he fell in love with mine and bought his own - then I part-exchanged mine :hmh: )).

As a result of that journey, I found that riding with someone who rides at a constant speed everywhere is bad. The SD is easier to ride when changing speed, accelerating out of one corner and decelerating into the next. After a few hours of following him doing 27mph in country lanes, my wrists were getting overworked from trying to keep from kangerooing. I tried higher gears and that was a solution, but the best option was to leave him some space and do my speed-changing in that space.

We tried filming me by having me ride in front without much success: I'd wait for him, go round a bend, and by the time he'd arrived I'd be a speck in the distance waiting for him again. I should add that his CBF was with panniers and top-box fully laden for the holiday - he had to carry my stuff too!

I'm filming my with my little camera and finding it interesting how my riding style is developing:

My commute includes a long straightish country lane.

On the Rocket, overtaking was a little like the old computer-games. The twisty thing on the handle-bars was more like a hyper-space button that jettisons fuel. I'd pull out for the overtake, aim, twist, black out, and appear somewhere near where I'd aimed. For a while it was fun, but on long journeys I'd end up with a pumped neck and fore-arms (I simply couldn't stop myself playing with the twisty thing). Ultimately bits kept dropping off it, it started to corrode, I crashed it (at 5mph courtesy of a pot-hole under a puddle on a 90 degree traffic light bend) and the dealer didn't know how to fix it. They swapped it for two Hondas that they said wouldn't fall apart. The Rocket is fine for filtering if you're forceful (very low centre of gravity), but the view is low and the handle-bars 39" wide. It didn't make a sound that attracted attention until you got up in the rev-range, so folk generally didn't know I was coming when filtering. The brakes are fantastic: the back brake will stop the bike in the blink of an eye and consequently breaks away for a lot of riders with experience of other 'normal' bikes (hence my decision to have it as a first bike instead).

On the FMX I didn't have any power at 50 miles per hour, so overtaking a bunch of cars on it needed a good 3 second wind-up period. If the car behind the slow front car decided to overtake without looking for me, the light FMX would swerve or slow down fast and easily, whatever the weather. Filtering was easy and the noise (like a boat) made car drivers and pedestrians aware that I was coming.

Overtaking on the CBF1000 was a whole different story. It has had its Fireblade nature removed by Honda removing a few surplus engine components and adding a very heavy frame. However, if you are persistent with the throttle, the Fireblade nature starts to show itself: the thing roars into life and pulls you faster and faster in a very addictive running flow of acceleration. Unfortunately, if the the car behind the slow front car decided to overtake without looking for me, despite having 6-pot linked brakes with ABS, I generally shat myself. I even pulled over and asked my colleagues to check my rear tyre wasn't flat on one ride where we were filtering through 5 miles of stationary traffic on a Roman road (A5) involving wet white lines. Perhaps my CBF wasn't set up properly, but stopping suddenly, wasn't fun.
I like stopping suddenly. At 228kg dry it was just too heavy.

So now comes the Superduke. Nearly...
I test rode the KTM 690 Supermoto to compare it with the FMX. It had far better power distribution: not a learner/girly bike like the FMX.
I test rode the KTM 950 Supermoto to compare it with the CBF (yes, really). It was too similar to be worth money. Similar riding position, less touring options, I didn't like the lack of instrumentation or having a choke. I loved the giggling burble exhaust noise when decelerating! It had the lightness I was looking for and is obviously fun, but the CBF has lots of features that the SM didn't make up for.
Then I test rode the Superduke.... and hated it! The riding position felt like the weight was too much on my wrists, but I'd been finding the FMX too upright... so I decided that I might get used to that. The exhaust sounded really loud and rude after the quiet CBF. I didn't like that either, but after the stonking reviews in the magazines, I figured that wasn't reason enough to ditch the bike, and I'd tried pretty much every other bike looking for my dream compromise of lightness, power, reliability and comfort. I did, however, adore the low centre of gravity giving the ability to wiggle along by steering with my arse, slaloming between man-hole covers for fun. That was what led me to keep investigating the SD.
I wrote to all the KTM and Honda forums with threads like this one. The SD-R was clearly the best option financially with so many extras for £500 more, but in the end I figured that part of the fun of the FMX was that I didn't respect it, and so I thrashed it and probably rode more safely on it because I was more relaxed. The SD-R also has black swing-arm and forks which I'm sure I'd be paranoid about. I went for the standard SD and decided to try not to respect it too much.

Now on my commute, I safely and calmly overtake absolutely everything with no fear, no worries about unexpected overtakes from car drivers, easy filtering (they certainly hear me coming now) and I finally feel some attachment to my bike. I've got used to the noise - it is, as everyone told me, a good noise, I'm growing to love it. Even the Rocket didn't make me want to clean it, to customise it, but this bike does. Its so simple compared to the CBF and Rocket, but without awkward crevices like the FMX air-fins, so caring for it feels easy. KTM putting accessories connectors in the loom is wonderful! On the Hondas I had to sneak into the loom to get power which shouldn't be necessary!
I'm getting horribly strong desires to ceramic-plate the exhaust headers black satin, to buy carbon wheels... to tour (and I started riding because of a phobia of travel, so that's just not me)!

I've got my first service tomorrow (shame I've done 1200 miles, but they couldn't fit me in sooner). Perhaps that's an indication of how good I think this bike is.