so yesterday i had my first seesiones on track with the 1290, was cold and very windy which did not inspire confidance

not had time to set the suspension up as it should be so it was left on "sport" front and back.

not been on track for over a year and the last time was on my rc8 lapping in the low 50`s (1min 50 to 50.5`s) my quickest yesterday was 52 dead so not bad for a naked bike, spent most of the time tussling with a cross plane R1, the sd was ok suspension wise and feedback was acceptable from the front although if really pushing i suspect a revalve would be in order, the rear seemed to handle my level of riding just fine so i do not think any need for change with that part.

cheste is a twisty technical track and this SD is slower to turn in than the 08 one that i had, although once turned in and on line it held fine, gassing it coming out of some third gear corners the rear did spin quite a lot untill the TC kicked in (sport mode tc on) which was a pleasent surprise and to be honest next time on track i would turn the TC off, coming off the left hand corner that takes you onto the back straight in third she came up very smoothly and carried good drive and went down smoothly when the wheelie thing did its job.

the brakes are impressive, no fade and the same feel from start to finish, very good.

the slipper clutch worked fine although most of the lap was done in 3rd and 4th. gear box did not let me down unlike the rc8 one did which used to find a neutral dropping through gears........

so that cross plane r1 motor went very well indeed, in the lower and mid range up to 6000rpm i was on him but after that the r1 had the adventage then we would brake and i could squeeze past on a few of the corners in be in front the last long left hander taken at around 180kmh just before the hard off camber braking on final left that taked you onto the start straight, i would leave this corner in third and going up to say 9500rpm then change and by the time i was in 5th and looking for 6th the r1 would liertally fly past!

speed before breaking for the first corner was around 245kph and on a naked you can not compete with a faired bike as areodynamics take other.

a few shakes of the bars coming out of some corners and one interesting one after the last corner which lasted through 3rd 4th and went away in 5th, gas gas gas hahahahahaa was a tad concerned it wasnt going to end..............

that damper is very mediocre, not good on a bike that costs this much.

and tead was spot on, my left boot was covered in radiator fluid and some of it had made its way to the rear hugger...........


so far my opinion on this bike having covered 1700km and now one track day, its a very good bike for the street and your usual messing around on twisty roads, for track its good depending on what your after because after all it is a naked bike and any circuit with a half decen straight the faired bikes will come by, i think with some changes it could be quite a good bike on track but you do notice it has not come from a full on sports bike such as the tuono V4.

i think the bike is overpriced or under built depending how you want to look at it, should come with a better damper, better front suspension, no pissing radiator fluid for which there is no excuse and the pegs should be able to adjust higher (maybe you can i have to llok) mine were scraping on track. i suppose it is not a full on track bike and you dont go like this on the street but KTM have marketed it as a track bike also with the amount of online videos they released!


next track day is may so mountain roads until then.

Thanks, nice report.

As you remark, pushing a dart along straight is more efficient than pushing a house brick!

Thanks for that Gringo.

Pictures or it didn't happen!

Very nice write up. Have you been able to work out where to radiator fluid is coming from?