What bike next?

[uksoldierboy]

Hi all,

Some may remember i had a S1000RR, well I've recently sold it and the time has come to find it's replacement.

I've narrowed down my search to:

2017 R1
2017 1290 Super Duke R

Two very different bikes, I've had use of a 675 Street triple lately and found myself enjoying my first go on a naked bike far more than i thought, so much so that i decided to broaden my options to include Super Naked.

I've just this morning been to a KTM Dealer to look at the bike, spec'd up Power-parts which included:
Race Package
Track Pack
Performance Pack
MSR Pack

Got a really good price too, the SDR looks incredible in the flesh especially in black.

just the R1 to take a look at now, always wanted one of the new models, I've a few friends that own one and a R1M, i absolutely love them, the noise, styling ticks all the boxes for what i want from a Superbike.

But i'm torn as to which way to head, i do a lot of fast road riding in the summer, Trackdays and know the R1 is wasted really on the road, much in the same way the RR was, but i still loved using it and of course on track is was brilliant.
But with the Super Duke my thinking is i'd get more enjoyment perhaps out of it, both on road and track, i don't know, i'm really struggling with what to do, i need to speak to a few Yam dealers tomorrow and get a price first (Doesn't seem to be may dealers at all with R1s in stock?)

Anyone made a similar change? just looking for some user experience and opinions.

Cheers

 

[Snaggle]

MT10 ? All the bits you love about the R1 and similar riding position to the sdr ?

 

[The_Abyss]

I've no experience of the R1 aside from many revisions ago. I have ridden a KTM recently (update in the Chatroom thread) and I was very disappointed. It was the 1290 Adventure S, but the engine and gearbox were either flawed or unrefined. I'd choose neither for road riding.

If you enjoyed and appreciated the Street Triple, perhaps yo've already found best fits what you want? Ignore getting sucked into the horsepower / features race that all the manufacturers want you to sign up to.

 

[TallPaul_S]

I've only ridden an R1M for a short test ride, but I'd go 1290 over it - here's my thoughts on the R1M:

Test rode an R1M at the Yamaha tour today

Just a 40 minute group ride so not really any chance to give it a proper spanking, but overall impressions are (and this probably applies to most of the current 200bhp superbikes): I'd be happy to own one, but I wouldn't.

First things, it's a ball roaster. Just sitting on the bike waiting to pull away the heat coming through the seat was insane! At the end of the ride I was almost burning myself on the frame through my kevlar jeans. I was even getting hot feet through the pegs which transmitting heat through the soles of my boots!

The brakes are a little 'woolly' as others have described them, plenty powerful but lacking a bit of feel. The brakes on my Tuono are better (brembo 4 pad non-monobloc calipers).
The riding position for me at 6ft 3 was pretty comfy, after a few hours it would start hurting but it was OK.

Now, the performance... 1st and 2nd gear are all you need for normal riding unless you're sitting on the motorway. It goes ok, I suppose... 1st gear around 6k rpm, when the rev counter starts going green to indicate you're now in the correct rev range, hahaha and shift up into 2nd through the quickshifter and it's off like a rocket. Too fast for the road really, bang up through a couple of gears and you're doing illegal speeds with ease.

Handling - didn't feel anywhere near as flickable as I thought it would, my Tuono is miles better in that respect. Doesn't like slow speed corners.

So, I'd be happy to own one as it was easy to ride, fairly comfy (apart from the heat), not particularly scary (although I never got more than about half to 2/3rds throttle) and didn't bite me in the arse. But, it's too fast for the roads, the handling needs you to be going at speed to get the most out of it and the gearing/power means it's bye bye licence time if you even think about getting into the fun revs above 3rd gear....

Now the fact that on our Alps trip (3000 odd miles) there was a 1290 superduke which didn't overheat, wasn't hard to ride, was comfortable, got very good mpg, and went like stink says something. It did eat it's rear tyre though!!!

 

[jigger]

I tested a 1290 duke when they first hit. Hell of a bike but the fueling didn't seem right on it. I'd imagine that's been fixed now.

Honda have a new naked bike on the way for 2018.

 

[mattup]

The new Fireblade SP?