What I thought was goodbye...

Hello yet again. I've been kind of on/off the forum lately and for that I apologize. Some background on me and my bike for those who don't know me.

I bought my 2007 KTM 990 Super Duke back in February of 2011. It had just over 7K miles on it and the guy sold it to me for $6600. To this day I don't know why he sold it to me so cheap. He said he had laid it down in a parking lot and just wanted to get rid of it. Still though. The bike now has almost 30K miles and almost 5 years later it's worth literally every penny I paid for it back then. Anyways. Over the years I've done quite a few mods to it. They're mostly all in my signature so I won't bore you with repeating them, there's just not a whole lot left that's stock.

During my time of owning the bike, I've run into all kinds of issues with it. Water pump failure, rectifier failure, got a decent tap by a car in a parking lot, someone tried to knife the rear seat lock which broke it, seized exhaust valve, fuel pump failure, etc. I've been good on the maintenance. I always check my chain, it never even see's an on-time oil change (always early), tyres are always replaced when it's time, it's never been to a track, etc.

Well earlier this year I was trying to troubleshoot/diagnose the seized exhaust valve I mentioned before. I didn't have the time or the means in my garage to pull the heads, so I left it with my parents who were helping me put all my stuff into storage (I was in the military at the time and prepping for deployment). While I was deployed they dropped it off with a shop in North Carolina who found and corrected the valve issue. $1K later I got the bike back. However it would be a couple months before I got it to my new life in Tennessee where I moved to after I separated from the military. I had to drive my car and wait for a moving company to move all my stuff. In the meantime the bike sat with my parents in NC. My dad started once a week to keep the oil moving and the battery charged.

They finally get a break from work to put the bike in their truck and bring it to me. At long last I have my Super Duke with me. I ride it around and notice that it's popping quite a lot under decel. Odd. Probably just needs a retune. Literally the fifth time I go to start the bike since moving it to TN (and only going a couple miles each trip), the bike would start...and then die. Slowly chug it's way down to stalling every time, running no more than a few seconds. Wtf. Just dumped $1K into this thing, rode it 5 times, and now it won't run. Frustration doesn't even describe it. So back to the shop it went, this time one local to me in TN.

At this point I was fed up with my Super Duke. How many times was it just going to sit in my garage taken apart or sit in a shop? I decided enough was enough. I started test riding other motorcycles from dealership and absolutely scouring for a suitable replacement. Now my car was brand new so I couldn't afford a super top end machine like a 1290 Super Duke, Tuono, S1000R, etc. I test rode the 690 Duke and while I liked it, I didn't really love it. Next up I scheduled a test ride with a Yamaha FZ-09 and a Triumph Street Triple R. Upon deeper research I stopped really being interested in the FZ-09. Tiny gas tank, supposedly sloppy suspension, no ABS, not in love with any of the colors, etc. So I went and threw a leg over the Triumph. Very very impressive machine and definitely the best road suspension I've ever ridden on. Sure it didn't have the hooliganism or the mid-range power of the Super Duke, but I could definitely see myself owning the Triple R. I got pre-approved, the shop who had my bike diagnosed a failed fuel pump, talked the Triumph dealer down to a very good price including trading in my Super Duke, and everything lined up to where I would pick up my repaired Super Duke on Friday and go trade it in for my new Triumph on Saturday.

However, there was a problem. As soon as I threw my leg back over my Super Duke and started it up...I fell for it hard all over again. The entire ride home had me second guessing myself. No, dump the KTM before it costs you even more money and go get a brand new shiny Triumph that's under warranty, has a gas gauge, plenty of power, ABS, etc. I got home, parked the Super Duke, walked inside...and cried my eyes out. I'm preaching to the choir here, but this really is an amazing bike. I've been through some really tough times in my life where a quick blast on the Super Duke made me feel better, if only for a little bit. And 5 years is a pretty long time. I was really torn up about the thought of not having it anymore. It really is everything I could ever want from a motorcycle. And that night I realised the only thing I hated about it was that it wasn't running. So I called the Triumph dealer the next morning, said sorry, and canceled the deal.

So now I'm back to being stuck with my 990 Super Duke. With it's scratched up fairings, FI light, crappy tune, etc. And although there may be better bikes on paper out there, there's just something magical about a Super Duke that you will never understand from just a spec sheet. And with my new found love of the bike I've already set out trying to get it back into perfect condition. I got a new tune done to it (the valves got shimmed during it's repair, and them now being looser and back in spec caused it's original custom tune to not supply enough fuel) and she laid down 112 horsepower and 70 ft-lbs of torque. I ordered brand new fairings and will need some help removing the FI light. It's caused from the secondary butterfly valves, shaft, and motor being removed. I know if I install a 1K ohm resistor in the connector it will go away. Problem is I don't know which connector it is.

Anyways, thanks for reading. Thanks for this community being so strong and supportive. And thanks to KTM for making such an amazing bike. Ride hard.

Great to see a long post about a 990.

Sounds like you have been a bit unlucky with issues but I recgnise the sentiment. I thought of changing my last 990 a while ago, rode all the top new options except the 1290 and eventually decided that none were more fun. Ended up trading for another 990 instead.

Hope yours if properly sorted now and give you a bunch more smiles over the coming years and good luck in your new civilian life

Helluva story, good read. Thanks for sharing it!

At some point we all get emotionally vested with certain objects in our lives. There's nothing rational or really explicable about it - but it's good, in that it's usually about the experience and/or history with the object, whatever it is.

wow mate that was good to read , get your self a cable and tune ecu ,you will be able to turn the 2 flys off and test things like the fuel pump and more

Spot on.

I'd be looking at the street triple to replace my SD 990 too, but....
I like my SD so much I went and bought another bike just to keep the miles down on my SD !

Yep...special bike's.....

poppin on decell = leaky exhaust...ezpz fix...or live with it.....ride on....

Nice write up and landing spot. I'm headed out this winter to find a retirement landing spot in your neighborhood. Chattanooga or it's surrounds.
Thank you, the choir loves a bit of preaching to. It makes us feel we entered the right house.

have had mine 5 years come this December -
Has all the mods done . it's had it's quirks but when it's on the money it's pure joy.
mine has 16t front 41t rear and it's torque through the twisties always makes me realise what kind of monster i'm riding.

Haven't ridden one of the new ones but by the looks of it and the stories i hear would just love it i'm sure.

Think my only lingering gripe about my 999 is while under way at a fairly decent clip the throttle position is too close to "Closed" and i often close the throttle when i'd rather roll down. Suppose i'll have to break down and get the RC8 throttle swap happening.

bought my SD for about the same price as yurn ! also only had 7 k miles on it - Not about to trade it in unless it's on the new one .

Planning on painting it like that red white blue flag theme 1290 SD so might be coming apart this winter.

anyway - glad you kept yours and it's float'n yur boat as the saying goes.

I had a 990SDR for only a few months before trading in for the 1290 SDR. My first ever ride on a 990SDR was back in 2006 so I don't really know why it took me so long to get one, so I can really get your dilema and like many others of this parish I look back on the bikes I've parted with over the years with regret.

My 990 was really smoothed out and improved with the Rottweiler airbox, remove the SAS and a dyno set up and was more lairy to ride than the 1290 with all it's power.

Sounds like you have plans for your 990 - keep us posted and you've done the right thing for sure dude.

i can sooo relate to this. love it, hate it, repeat.
this year though ive finally given up. its been at a local superbike dealer all summer mocking me buy not selling, lol!!!

Thanks guys. Glad to see people can relate. Even though the forum has been taken over by the new 1290 crowd, the 990 is still one hell of a machine. I was chatting with the KTM dealer guys here and said people had forgotten about the 990 ever since the 1290 was introduced. The 690 just wasn't enough for me. It really did feel like a lesser Super Duke in almost ever way. Still a great bike, I just felt like I would be going to a lesser Super Duke with 0 miles on it. And the 1290...personally I think it's overkill. I'm very glad KTM built it, and a lot of people who have never even heard of KTM (here in the states) finally realised who they are and how serious they are about motorcycles once the 1290 came out and was all over the media. But it's just too much bike for me. Too much power, too expensive, etc. Huge props to you if you own one though, and I can't wait until KTM returns to the middleweight naked class.

The biggest factor in not getting rid of my Super Duke was that it 100% honestly felt like saying goodbye to a close friend who had always been there for you. Now that I think about it, by far the worst times in my life happened while I owned this bike. And every single time the world just felt like it wasn't gonna turn for me anymore I'd just shake my head, throw on my helmet, and go for a blast. And every single time the Super Duke never failed to at least put half a smile on my face. The thought of not having it anymore just tore me up. Will there ever be a right time to get rid of it? I don't know. But I know right now is that that time.

I've had tons of hate for my 08 SDR as well. Lots and lots of troubles. Lots of money thrown at it, lots of time thrown at it. It's left me stranded way too many times. Everyone is always telling me to just get rid of it/not worth all the torubles and headaches. Logically that makes sense, but for some reason I still love the damn thing, and just continue to deal with all the issues!

It's currently in the garage right now waiting to have a bunch of maintenance and part replacing done to it.