I've got our forks up north being built-up for the track. KFG Racing's Barry Wressel is making a cartridge kit specifically for the 1290, right now. I will be the first to run it, at round 1 this year. He makes cartridge kits for other bikes, our fastest guys use them. In fact our number one plate holder uses his cartridge kit. I expect he will be selling them. Thought I'd plant the seed. He texted me yesterday, something to the effect of "Man those things had no compression, stock!" Sounds like they'll be very different..




Does anyone have a line on a real bellypan? We can't race without one. I found a great looking one on facebook "KTM 1290 modifications". I reached out but get no response.

That's exactly Barry's intent - to make a 1290 cartridge kit for the Superduke masses. Fully adjustable everything is the goal. That'd be cool shit.

Sheet aluminium spoils umbrella girl shots I hate it!

Good news on the suspension! It seems WP is getting worse and worse so definitively a market for it.
Did your man had a look at the rear shock yet? It seems it's not much better.

On the belly pan I don't think there is one. I haven't see or heard of one unless home made. Tead didn't run one in the German series.

^^The hard life of a racer.

I never asked him about the shock. We ran a Penske on the RC8R a couple of years ago, before switching to the WP Race shock that came on the RC8R Track. I hope to use that on the 1290. Penske shocks are made to be fit-able to different machines. Same shock, different clevis, at least that's my understanding.

Go to facebook (which I hate). Once you free yourself from the breaking news on who made brownies last, do a search for "KTM 1290 Modifications" That bellypan looks RIGHT

Modified RC8/RC8R or Replicast 990 race belly pan?

Who is this person? This is a NICE bellypan

Looks like this could be it. https://www.facebook.com/Ktm1290superduke

Scroll down.

That's exactly it. I messaged him/her/it yesterday morning to that very facebook account. Nothing back...

I hate & suck at Facebook. Thanks that makes sense then. Holy shit now I have to ask someone to be my friend. Oh for the love of a bellypan..

I had my forks and shock revalved and resprung with racetech parts. Very happy with the result. Night and day difference!

Barry at KFG is almost done designing/building the 1290 fork kit. I texted him this morning and he sent these:



The guys at Calmoto are trying to get us some of the parts in the KTM catalog, but much of it only exists in images yet. There's a cool front number plate and mount. That's not available yet. I think we'll take the nose off our salvaged 990, that'll be fun. Also the bellypan, or what's left of it. That leaves side number plates. KTM's seat cowl is not available yet, maybe we'll put numbers on the vinyl seat? Their dongle to eliminate TC was not available. I have heard the stock traction control system may slow things down a bit too much for the track. I hope I don't forget to turn it off.. I don't have time to make a bracket system to mount an Ohlins damper under the steering head so we ordered the WP. I hope it works as well as their top notch suspension stuff does. That'll be hell if not, Buttonwillow has some crazy bumpy high speed sections. Still nothing back from the facebook bellypan-making genius. Maybe he's the Howard Hues type. Went with Akropovich exhaust. Also the KTM race seat, I don't like the stock one for hanging off. That brings us to bars - I used to use Hypermotard bars on our 990. No idea what works with this bike but I feel confident that the stock bars are high and angled wrong for such angles. 990 used to break my wrists until I got better suited bars. I may experiment with the Bazzaz complete system, which does fueling, traction control and electronic shifter. I sent them an email not begging for help, we'll see how they respond. I've never used traction control but I've raced against it plenty. Maybe the difference is mid-corner to early corner exit. I would love the chance to not have to guess that. Last item off the top of my head is the rear shock. I will try fitting our WP race off the SDR 990. That's a strong shock. I measured it eyelet to eyelet, it's very close to the new Superduke's shock length. @15" No idea yet whether or not the fittings will need machining. I"ll find that out next week, days before round 1. YIKES

I bought the bike Tuesday. Immediately tore it apart. So rude. Its been a few days now working on it, I like it so far. They put a lot more into this one than the last. You can feel it as you work on it. I remember the old battery being down below, and all the work it took to get it up under the seat. Cool it comes that way now. I bought the Akro exhaust for it, I like that a lot too. I had Patrick from Bazzaz on the phone about getting their traction control system on this bike by this weekend. Our first race is two days from now. Bazzaz couldn't build a kit in time, lots of parts are stuck at the docks with the strikes going on. So we will have to run mapless first weekend. Barry didn't finish his kit in time for round 1 either. He re-valved the stock internals to get us through for now. I stole the bellypan I made for the 990 SDR, I'll be fitting it on tomorrow. Should be ok. The guys at the shop got the Facebook phantom to respond, it seems he may make more belly pans in time. I'll let you guys know if that happens. Otherwise I'm breaking out the clay.. I'm going to try the ProTaper bars in the Carmichael bend tomorrow. Like to get the grips lower, and angled back a touch. Not sure Carmichael is the answer though. I put KTM's rearmost on, they seem well thought out. Its funny to see the airbox on the 1290, its a lot like what we did with the 990. Still a tiny airbag though, I'd like to get it bigger/more air. We tried ordering the bodywork KTM has in the catalog, only the seat was available to actually order. Shit, I really like the look of their nose. I hope they bring it in soon. From what I can tell the clutch is the same as the RC8R. If that is true I'll get a slipper clutch from Yoyodyne. I used the Yoyodyne on the RC8R - it works well, lasts long, and clutch packs are cheap - from a Gixer 1000 I think. The Bazzaz unit sounds excellent. Does traction control, mapping, shifter all in one kit. Then you can buy an option so it self-maps. Also there's a light option you can buy so you can see when the traction control kicks in, to help you adjust it. That could be huge, although I have never used traction control so I don't know. I didn't have time to get a master cylinder or brake lines. Crap. I did get good pads though. It'll be hell out there I think this weekend, but I am looking forward to it like I haven't ever before.

I've always loved the Superduke. Definite favorite. I am glad to be back.

GoGo

I don't know the Bazzaz system well at all yet. Will know more after it shows up next week. I believe yes, it maps the cylinders separately. You can use the additional AFM feature to get a good read on the front cylinder, then use it on the rear. From there you can develop a perfect map. Patrick said the Akro pipe is amazingly equal in pressure and length. Said it's almost unnecessary to map the cylinders differently, like it used to be on 749 and 999s. But that's Akro, I don't know about others.

I learned tonight that you have to take the silencer off in order to do a tyre change. I can bet your ass I'll have a work around for that by next round. That is far too inconvenient swapping two and three tyres in a day.

I didn't get everything done in time. I will miss Saturday practice. Still fitting the 990 bellypan and waiting for Sprocket Specialists to get 520 rears to us. As of Thursday they are tooled up to make 520 rears to order.

Yes we flashed the Akro map in there this evening. Started up quick and strong. Pipe is surprisingly quiet. I guess I got used to the sound of the packing blown-out of the RC8R muffler. That thing was angry sounding. I will likely cut the muffler below the swingarm pivot in half, re-assemble it, then run a motoGP style pipe upwards from there behind the right footpeg. Got to be a better way than taking the pipe off to change rubber.