It's been a long wait for me (since October '14), finally the 2015 shipment has filtered across to the east coast of Australia!

My baby was delivered this afternoon with;
KTM accessories;
- heated grips
- tank bag
- panniers

Plus my own accessories;
- Austin Racing GP3 V3 carbon ceramic de-cat exhaust
- evotech tail tidy

I have two ride trips planned in the coming weeks.
1) Two day ride, home (Melbourne VIC) to Mt Kosciuszko, NSW and back - approx. 1100kms (this will be the run in period complete, my 1st service is already scheduled post this trip)
2) Five day ride around Tasmania, heading across on 'the spirit' early March - approx. 2100kms

I had not ridden a SDR until this afternoon, it's been a tough few months of anticipation leading up to today! Very happy to take delivery and go for a ride this evening, certainly a proud new KTM parent!

I'm happy to share some photos and feedback after the upcoming rides.

Nice! And, nice photos! You are going to have fun!

Man that thing is te sex

Very cool. I'm looking to get the side bags for my 1290... Is a passenger still able to ride with these bags attached?

This is great looking and handling bike. AR exhaust looks badass Enjoy.

roket: yes I rode 100kms last night with my wife riding pillion, I was curious if she would fit with the panniers too but, the legs bend around the front of the bags perfectly.

I don't love the look of the pannier & tank bags enough yet to say I'll keep them on 100% of the time, after these couple of long rides I plan to remove the pannier mounts and put the rear sub-frame trim covers on- the trim covers have to be removed to make way for the quick-disconnect pannier mounts. The pannier bags come off in seconds after unlocking them with a little KTM key and that exposes the rear sub-frame which actually looks pretty cool, but to have the rear trim covers on you have to take off the two mounts, two screws each side.

Congratulations on a awesome bike.

THink thats the first one I have seen here with panniers, not bad.
Mate the Tassie trip sounds awesome, those east coast roads can be mossy at times but will be a great ride.
Enjoy

Congratulations! That setup looks mighty sweet. Enjoy the ride.

Ok I will point to the elephant in the room , has it got a wobbly rear wheel?

Congratulations,
Panniers look great, how exciting to do the trip over to Tassie, great roads over there.
I have had my 2014 1290 for three weeks, have made a few short trips around the suburbs, but nothing exciting
We went out for a decent ride today , rode up Mt Donna buang, bikes everywhere , anyway had a few chances for the Duke to stretch its legs, what a amazing bike, handles as if on rails.

I too am a first time KTM owner and are so far very impressed with it,.

Can I ask where you bought your bike from, I got mine from all starmotorcycles in Ferntree gully, amazing people to deal with, also I am considering the same pipe as yours, from what I understand you can't run the DB killer in the carbon pipe, is this your understanding?,

Sorry for all of the questions,

Enjoy your Duke!!!

Cheers guys for the nice comments. There is no wobbles in the rear wheel yet and I hope it doesn't develop!

I haven't been in to All Star yet. I got mine from Moto Star KTM in Carrum Downs.

The GP3 exhaust system I have is intended to be used with or without DB Killer, it's just the short 110mm GP2R carbon can which can't be used with DB Killer but that is a whole different animal, offensively loud, track use only. I must say this GP3 is offensive enough when driving through a civilian street or past some shops with pedestrians, even driving past a golf course I've had people stop to look from the green at what's coming up the road. It is a beautiful deep note that barks and spits venom when you crack the throttle. I put the DB Killer back in too, not a lot of difference.

Thanks for the reply, I just love the Duke from when I first saw one at a track day at Phillip Island,
It was amazing, it had all of the options plus had the high mount Austin Racing pipe fitted, I knew then and there I was going to trade my S1000RR for the KTM, it's just a great all round bike, take it to the track, or into the hills
It's so versitile .
I believe Moto Star KTM is the sister shop to All Star where I bought mine from, they are a amazing dealership to deal with, absolutely fantastic service.

All star have just received thier 2015 Dukes, plus the have thier own Demo which they are adding all the options and bling to, including pipe ( Acropovic) , they have also ordered a selection of Austin pipes so hopefully I will pick up one then and have it fitted, I am just tied between the GP3 or the high mount pipe


Happy travels on your Duke, I still haven't seen another 1290 on the road yet, I believe I read somewhere ( maybe on this forum), that only 250 SD 1290's in oz, obviously more now as the shipment has arrived, but probably still very limited numbers I would think.

If you are heading down to the island for World Supers, I will keep an eye out for you

Cheers

Comrade Barp: Yes nice bike. I'd be interested to hear how you get on with the panniers as I think you might be the first member with them. The questions are of course, whether they wobble or induce wobble at higher cruising speeds and whether they let the dryness out? My understanding is that they have a waterproof liner bag but those are a bit of a pain.

Well done - enjoy the ride.

Barp mate,
nice set up!
I would recommend you do following:
- check rear brake reservoir cap is screwed down tight
- check your rear shock cylinder isn't rubbing on the actual spring
- add some pads/foam on the internal part of the rear tail light body to prevent the mount screws from breaking
- throw away the airbox and get a Rottweiler air filter
- get rear wheel checked just before the warranty expires
But mainly I would recommend you ride it daily

Excellent, thanks for the advice! The tail light is soft-mounted using rubber on both sides and screws go through the rubber rather than being rigid mounted, KTM must have implemented a change.

You've all got me concerned about this 'rear wheel' thing, I'll keep checking that it's tight.

For those folks and comrades interested in seeing how it looks with the panniers detached, here it is. You will immediately see there is two visible quick-disconnect mounting lugs on each side plus another is on the inside of the pillion foot peg so, the panniers are well secured and don't move. I've been up to 150kms/h on private property and they didn't interfere (it might be different once they're full of gear).