2024 KTM 1390 Superduke R EVO | First Ride

Guys, in front of me I have the beast, KTM's 2024 1390 Super Duke R. This is the Evo model. I am Chase on Two Wheels. I'm here at Mattin Motorsports in Roswell, Georgia and today we are taking this thing on a first ride. This thing is brand new and I can't wait to take it out on a road course and find out who this thing is for and at the very end of the video we will find out if it's a purchase or a pass. Oh god, I'm worried about this one. Let's get it started. Did you guys know there's a discount code and link in the description for Cardo's for Bluetooth because they're amazing? Just so you know. All right guys, that's what it looks like, that's what it sounds like. Now, before we get started, this video is not sponsored, but it is supported by our website wbrgarage.com where we just buy motorcycles, we make content on them, and then we give them away. If you guys want to win either our 450SS or our 300SS that we're currently giving away, we'll have a top link in the description down below. You can either get a membership or you can get merchandise. Anything you do, the website automatically calculates it. So, if you guys are already a member, we really, really appreciate it and you guys allow us to do these awesome content that we make for you guys. So, without further ado, let's jump on this thing and see how it goes. Also, you guys know I have to have a quad lock on here, but it is literally a travesty on this bike. We just had to do the clamp. It's the best we can do. It is what it is. I'll be honest with you guys, this bike is a lot and I'm a little nervous about it, but there's nothing to do but get on it and ride the dang thing. Lock button will turn it on. 30 years of the Duke, that's crazy. All right, let's get it cranked up. All right guys, before we get started, we got to talk about a few things. One, when I just cranked it up, you saw that blue bar. This bike is still in its break-in period. As you can see, it has 26 miles on the odometer. KTM will not let it go past 5,500 RPMs. We're going to do the best we can in this video, but just know performance is capped out. That is a note. Also, it sounds like this. Not bad. All right, I'm 5'10". I got a 32 inch inseam. As you guys can see, I've got bent legs, but I will say this feels like a taller bike and I can only just hit the ground on my feet. Keep that in mind. A little bit wider of a seat there. If you're a really short rider, you will have a bit of an issue. Now, rider modes. If we hit the okay button, then we go over to motorcycle, we have a lot of them. Rain, street, sport, track, and performance. I'm only going to stick in rain, then I'll go to street and I'll go to sport, but that's all we're going to touch on today. And guys, this is a first ride. As you can see, this thing has so many different modes that you can swap into. It would take me an entire, a literal entire video to get through the whole thing. So we're not going to worry about that. I am going to put it in rain mode though. And with that, my friends, we'll hit the back button and we'll get this thing going. We got 60 miles to eat. That should be plenty. Let's get her going. Why is my ABS? Just double checking. All right, cool. We're all good. Let's ride it, boys. Oh, all right, guys. Kind of looks like ---- today, but hopefully we have a good day. Also guys, check this out. We're trying this new thing where I have lost total faith in the YouTube bell notification for allowing you guys to know that we're putting videos out. So I have a new email newsletter that I'm going to take it upon myself to email you guys when we put new content out. If you guys want to join it, links in the description down below. It won't wheelie in rain mode. Oh yeah. But if you guys want to know about the updates for the videos that we put out, join our newsletter. We'll let you guys know. We have no faith. Hashtag no faith in YouTube crew. All right, guys. 2024 Super Duke 1390 Super Duke Evo R or whatever combination of those terms we're supposed to use. This bike is a beast and I'm a little stressed about it. You guys know the bigger the bike is, the more anxiety I have doing these first drives because I want to do the best video I can for you guys. But when they got this much power, it's a little worrisome. Can it balance? Yes, it can. Am I going to get killed? No. Another red light? Look, I know the bike is orange, but that doesn't mean I need to get a red light every time. There's a cop, so maybe I do. All right, guys. It is a first drive. Let's a little thin, but I got no problem with the seat. It does feel a little firmer. So that kind of puts me in like a sporty mentality or most of the time it does. My legs are tucked up a decent amount. My legs kind of fall into this little spot on the tank, which I can hold really well, but it's a little slick right here. I would want to get some grips on the side. As far as my upper body, my upper body is leaned forward a little bit. My arms are pretty down for a naked bike. Typically, my arms would be up a little higher on a naked bike, but this overall body position seems to be skewed to be slightly sportier, which for a 1390, something that is this sport oriented, I do appreciate that a lot. And something else I appreciate a lot is the fact that rain mode somehow is a beast master and controls this thing, which I appreciate and I also am over. So we're going to the street mode. And guys, you probably saw all the menu changes earlier. I mean, anti wheelie, you can change the engine braking. You can literally change everything. All the rider modes are going to be changing all of the aspects of the motorcycle. Just keep that in mind. Very responsive screen. We're getting to this red line as well. My God. All right. We're coasting, fam. We're coasting, checking out the balance. It's absolutely fantastic. Literally just one finger on this thing. What did he say? As a slight note, guys, I am feeling a lot of heat coming out of the lower part of the engine, like almost underneath the motorcycle. It's a very odd place to feel heat on. It's almost like hitting my ankles. Very strange place. It's a good bit of heat, though. I can feel it like very apparently. I'll talk about the engine and some performance numbers on this thing. So we've got the LC8 V-Twin in this thing. It is putting out 100 and 190 horsepower and I believe 107 foot pounds of torque. Those numbers are nuts. You know what's even more nuts? This bike is the slowest, you heard me correctly, slowest of its competitors, its competitors being the BMW S1000R and Ducati's Streetfighter V4S, which are both putting out horsepower and torque numbers that are considerably higher than this thing. I, when I was doing my research, I did think it was hilarious that the Super Duke is in the slow, it's like the slowest of its class. How hilarious is that? Because this bike comes with a pedigree of motorcycles that are actively trying to kill the riders that are on top of them. And I think that's hilarious facts. But those facts aside, let's talk about the city performance on this thing. This is honestly one of those spots that I was a little worried about the Super Duke because you're talking about a 1390 twin. This has got a lot of torquey power. And one of the things that made me worry was like, dude, that's going to be hard to control. It does come in with a weight of 461 pounds, I believe. So it's not light, but it's not overly heavy either. Not for the amount of power you're getting. So all of that combined, it just got me wondering, like, is this going to be able to be ridden around the city? Like, not quickly. Some motorcycles, especially performance oriented bikes, they feel best when you're really pushing it hard, but you can't do that in a city setting. So I was actually worried that it wasn't going to perform well here. But I tell you, you put it in like road mode, like we are now, and it's very tame. It's very okay. You can give it a lot of throttle, but it does give you a few moments where the RPMs are like coming up into their range, where you can be like, oh, I'm making a big mistake. And you can like dial them down. Now I will say, if you're riding this bike in some of the higher performance settings, you will not have that. But it's cool that you're able to ride in a city setting on the street mode, which we are currently on. Another thing that I massively appreciate on this bike, especially for this type of riding, is the adjustable and electronically adjustable suspension. So that suspension is active. It is doing its thing. And this suspension has done a fantastic job. You guys see, we go from perfectly made roads that are brand new to shitty broken up roads that have potholes everywhere. This suspension has done a phenomenal job of keeping the bike relatively comfortable to ride. And then we'll get to see how the suspension does once it gets on the highway and we do our big turn. I'm really interested to see how it feels there. I do have a big turn coming up here. Do you guys mind if I put it in sport mode? I don't mind. You guys don't mind, right? I don't mind. Okay, cool. Thank you. I appreciate that. I will say, if you find yourself in city settings a lot, the clutch feel is very heavy, meaning it's going to take a lot of energy to pull it in. Just keep that in mind. If you're stuck, if you're doing a situation where you're stuck in traffic a lot, that is not going to be fun. I'm going to have to cut through some traffic here to make this turn. This is about to get interesting. That power delivery is fun. There is nowhere you cannot go with a Super Duke with that kind of power. Very grunty power. We'll talk more about it later. I don't want to talk all about it now. All right, let's land her over and see how she feels. This bike is so strange. To you guys, you might be listening to this and being like, bro, it does not sound like you're going that fast, but you're just accelerating so hard. That's so interesting. I'm not revving the bike out or anything. I just twist the throttle a little bit and zoom, I'm gone. It's so weird because typically you have the audible note of like, oh snap, giving it some power, and then you're picking up speed. Those are synced up in your brain. You don't get that in this bike. Oh, this car is going up. The bus is on the launch. Here's the thing I'm noticing, guys. In these rider modes where you've got a lot of intervention, the way KTM handles their rider aids is very obtrusive. It cuts the party. It walks in, throws the lights on, and tells everybody to leave, which I am not a fan of, especially when you have this kind of power. I don't want those rider aids to be so obtrusive. I'd rather them be a little like, hey man, you guys need to chill out. Daddy, chill. You know what I mean? That's the kind of rider aids I want. I want them to notice I'm doing dumb stuff and then slowly tell me not to. I don't need the strict parent coming in and cutting my power in the middle of a wheelie and then just power gets cut. But part of that could be the break-in. As I told you guys, we are still in massive break-in period. The bike just might not be happy with me at all, which I don't blame it. I would not be happy with me at all if I woke up and then was expected to do dumb ---- on my motorcycle. The power is delivered in such an odd way, guys. I don't know how to explain it. But what I do want to do while I have a second, I'm going to put it, you know what? I lied to you guys. I'm putting this thing in performance mode. I'm going to give us the best chance for a 40 to 80 pull. Oh my God, bless me. All righty, guys. I'm sneezing, but it's going to be okay. We got to see how fast a 2024 KTM Super Duke 1390 Evo R will go from 40 miles an hour to 80 miles an hour. Thanks to our buddies over at Law Tigers. They are the motorcycle lawyer that brings you guys this. So this is going to be interesting because the bike is in a break-in, so it's not going to be the best that it could be. All right. I'm going to let these cards get a little ahead and hopefully we can knock this one out. I'm sorry, Super Duke, you're not going to be as good as you could be. On your mark, get set, go. Front wheels up and not anymore. Jesus Christ. That was with the bike in a break-in period. What could this thing do? It's in a break-in period. And the second I gave the throttle, I don't know if you guys could tell, but we were just going up. My God, what was that time? All right, guys, we are on the highway with the Super Duke, the 1390. So as far as do we need to talk about power? I don't think so, right? That's a pointless conversation. We've got ample power. I will say at 80 miles an hour, we're pretty low in the RPMs and I'm getting a decent amount of shake in my hands and my feet. I wonder what happens if I go to fifth. Actually, the shaking is minimized going into fifth. What about fourth? We're getting a little high. Yeah, fifth's the right one. Going 80, that's the right spot. Now, as far as maneuverability, we still have absolutely ample amounts of it. And let's see, we have cruise control and set the cruise control. Ah, there we go. Cruise control is set, doing a phenomenal job. We plus it down here to go faster. We minus it on the back to go slower. Can we disengage by going forward? Yes, we can. Nice job, KTM. You have somehow created what could be a phenomenal touring bike in a Super Duke Evo. I love that. So guys, as far as the wind goes, there's nothing in front of me to block any of this wind, but I'm leaning forward a little bit, which kind of lets me lean into it. I could deal with this for quite a while if I needed to, but I would recommend getting a touring windscreen if you're wanting to do a little bit of touring on this. As far as the wind right now, I'd say you're probably good for about an hour to an hour and a half before it's going to start really fatiguing you. Overall though, suspension is just plush right now. Very comfortable. I imagine the electronic suspension is going to make the suspension a lot softer for the highway to be more comfortable. My legs are feeling in a good spot. I really do feel like if I had a touring windscreen, I could tour on this thing, which is pretty impressive. All right, guys, I'm going to finish up the highway and we're going to jump to a little montage of this bike. Thanks to our buddies over at Cardo. If you guys need a Bluetooth communicator or a music listening device for your helmet, Cardo's absolutely the best one. I got a discount code for you guys in the description down below. Go check that out. Help support them, and that supports us. Let's finish the highway up. And just like that, the highway was over, but Chase doesn't want to be behind all these cars. We'll slot in right here. KTM have found themselves another motorcycle that wants you to ride it hard. And if you don't, it doesn't feel as good, but the harder you ride it, the better it feels. That's what she said. Now the seat is nice. I am understanding how the combination of this seat being a little firm allows me to like get over on the bike. And the seat is really grippy, guys. I leaned off the seat and that thing was holding on to me like Velcro. That was phenomenal, actually. So guys, after that highway, I got a... Jesus Christ. All right, we're getting over here, dude. So guys, let's talk about that engine now that we've done some city and done some highway. The engine is very interesting, and it has this variable valve timing, which apparently above 6,000 RPMs gives you like an extra boost of power. Now, I haven't been able to really test that because of the break-in period, so it is what it is. But from the stuff I've done research on, it seems fantastic. So I've only really played with half the engine thus far, and the amount of engine that I have to play with is a fun toy. That was a false neutral from fourth to fifth. Interesting. The engine so far has been really fun. It's very torquey, but this engine is interesting. It does not make you feel like you're going fast, but you look at your RPMs, and you look how much faster you're going than everybody else, and you're realizing how fast you're going. It's a very strange feeling. I'm having a hard time really explaining it, but it's strange. And an engine like that is deceptive because it's going to get you going really quick, and you're going to be like, what? I'm getting a ticket for going how fast? And you'll be surprised. Anyway, let's move on to the suspension. We have the electronic adjustable suspension here. It's been doing a fantastic job. The bike really settled in in that turn back there, and on the highway, it was feeling soft as hell, which is very good. That makes the bike comfortable. I think somebody that's going to be riding this bike on the road is where you're really going to benefit from having the adjustable suspension. Because like on a track, you just get the bike figured out suspension-wise, and you just go, and you're good. Nothing's going to change. There's no real variables. But here on the road, you're going to be going through different conditions left and right, which is where the electronic suspension is really going to help. So I do appreciate that. Now, the engine braking has been really strong, and I haven't had much need for the brakes. But when I have laid on the brakes, they are brimbos, and they bite hard and fast. So very performance-oriented brakes. I got nobody behind me, so they have that very strong up-front bite. This bike will come to a stop just as fast as it will get going forward. So be careful is what I'll say to you guys. All right, so guys, let's talk about the controls up here. We do have quite a lot of stuff going on, but I do feel like KTM did an absolutely phenomenal job laying everything out, even though it does look a little convoluted. So over here is going to be how you control your screen, the TFT we have here in the middle, which I think is fantastic. I love the D-pad with the center button. I think it's one of the most efficient ways to navigate such a complex screen. You guys can see if I hit this button, we get all sorts of menu stuff. The buttons feel good. When I press them, I get a good feel. I press back on them. When we have everything laid out really well, I actually really like the plus and minus for the cruise control down here. I think that is a phenomenal place for those buttons. It looks like we're stopping here. More construction on the first ride, wouldn't you know it? While we're here, I'm just going to breeze through the menu. You can literally change everything. Give you guys a close-up view of the screen here. Look at all of the freaking stuff you can change on this motorcycle. My god, I don't even know what to do with everything. Also, yes, that is demo mode, which means some of this stuff will go away. Thank you, KTM. So that's your screen. That's how everything's laid out. Odometer, trip, battery. We have all of our rider information here, which I think is absolutely fantastic. Overall, I think the screen layout is really nice, and the quality is fantastic, and the responsiveness is no joke. I do think some of the animations take a little while, so watch when I hit the button. You know, the stuff goes away. I don't know if I need the animation, or maybe I just need a half of that time animation. I just, you know, if I'm changing rider modes, especially if I'm going, I want to get to that stuff quickly. All right, we've made it through the treacherous part. Now we can continue our first ride as scheduled. So yeah, guys, screen looks fantastic. It's very responsive. The menu is deep, but it's very user-friendly, so even if you don't know how, getting through that menu is not going to be a problem. So there's that. Now, moving on to the right side, we have these two C1 and C2 buttons. From what I understand, those are customizable buttons, so you can customize them to be certain things in the menu. So that's really neat. We got hazards. We got this weirdly shaped crank screen or a crank button, and then we have the on and off button, which is that lock button. It's kind of weird. You can just hit that, and the bike will turn off, because it does have a keyless ignition. So there's that. Levers. Let's talk about levers real quick. They are adjustable. You do have a really heavy throttle, which kind of makes sense with the engine and the bike. I kind of expect it to be heavy. It is. That's fantastic. And then the brake lever feels really good. I mean, you would expect nothing less than that from a Brembo, so we love seeing that. Everything on this bike feels very performance-oriented. The levers, the screen. The screen changes if you're putting it into a different mode. Everything feels very intentional, and I appreciate that for a motorcycle that I believe MSRP is for $21,000. So it's definitely not cheap. It's not the most... I don't think it's the most expensive in its class, so it's up there, though. You know what I mean? You're not going to be paying under $20,000 for this thing. But overall, everything feels like I think it should. I love the cockpit view. I don't love some of the lighting and stuff like that, but as far as all this angled design, I'm really here for it. And speaking of the looks of this thing, guys, we're going to pull off up here, and I'm going to do a little walk around. I know y'all been watching the camera car footage, but I like doing a walk around, especially on bikes that I think look really cool like the Super Duke. And we'll check this thing out. All of that camera car footage, by the way, is thanks to our sponsors that you see on the First Ride Show. If it wasn't for those guys, we wouldn't be able to afford all that camera car stuff, guys, so massively appreciate them. Anytime y'all can support those sponsors, we really appreciate it. Man, there's so much nastiness in the wind and in the air today, guys. My god, allergies are absolutely on fire, my friends. And let's get it in neutral just so it's there. All right, guys, 2024 KTM 1390 Super Duke Evo R. This is the new model. It's got the headlight. I know a lot of you guys, some of you are going to be like, man, that front headlight's ugly. I love the way this bike looks. This is probably one of my favorite looking motorcycles on the market right now. I am absolutely in love with how the exhausts come down. And I've seen images of one of these with an Acro exhaust, and it's all like titanium and bluing. Bro, get the hell out of here with the looks. You can see our dual brimbos up front. We have single-sided swingarm here in the rear. And look at the tail. They've actually integrated the brakes and the turn signal into just these two lights, so there's no tail light. I think that's interesting and looks really cool. You guys let me know what you guys think in the comments down below. I think KTM is killing it. I'm not a huge fan of the red to go with the orange. I think it would look better black, but what am I, what do I know? I'm no designer. Overall guys, I love the look. Y'all let me know in the comments down below, is this something that you guys are like totally here for or what? It was kind of hard for you guys to be able to see, but here's the adjustability on the letters. So you guys got all the adjustability you need. We love that. And I think the mirrors, they actually do a great job and they look low-key. So I'm kind of here for it. And guys, before my airways close up anymore with all this fun, I'm going to grab my phone off the quad lock. I'm going to record some stuff for our peeps over on TikTok and Instagram. If you guys aren't following us over there, you definitely should be. We're at C2WPIX on Instagram and we're at Chase on Two Wheels on TikTok. I'm going to film some stuff for them. I'll be right back. Alrighty, my friends, that is it for the vertical stuff. Now, before we finish this video, we got to figure out the steering stem lock. We got to figure out if it's a purchase or a pass and then who this is the bike for. And there's no time to do it other than now. Oh, that's lock. Oh, ----. Oh, goodness. Sorry, SuperDuke, you're in the bottom 30 percentile on that one, bud. All right, guys, purchase or pass and who's it for? That quick shifter is so nice. It's so smooth, but it gives you a little bit of feedback. Very much like the quick shifter. I'm very here for that. Even at going at slow speeds. Sorry, car, I'm going. Oh, my God. All right. Well, who's the bike for? I think what just happened should answer everybody's question. This bike is for a skilled rider. I'm going to say three to four years of a lot of experience on bikes that have progressively gotten bigger and bigger. I realize the rain mode does a phenomenal job with pairing the power down and making it way more rideable. But I still think that you need to have a few years experience before you take a bike like this on, because even in the lower modes, you can still get a handful of that throttle. And also, this bike is not cheap, guys. It's coming in at, I believe, twenty one thousand dollars. We'll have the price on the screen for this model if I'm off. But it's a lot of money and you get a lot of motorcycle for it. The ideal rider that I'm looking at this thing for is somewhere similar to me. Like you want a comfortable motorcycle that you can ride for a long time and not feel fatigued. Right. This body position, everything feels fantastic. But you also are on the sportier side and you really want to push the motorcycle, whether that be going to the mountains or maybe doing track days with your bike. And you only want to have one motorcycle. That's definitely the person this bike is for. Now, if you're asking me as if it's a purchase or a pass, personally, I love the power delivery on this bike. I love the screen. I love how it gives you all your information. I love the torquey, fun, rip your face off power. And I love that it has the rider modes to chill out if you need to. I think the EVO model is 100 percent a purchase. If you are a street rider, I think you need to go with the EVO model because the electronic suspension is going to make your riding experience customized to what you're doing. And I think that would make for an overall better ride. Like imagine you ride this thing to the mountains where you want softer suspension to be comfortable. You have cruise control. You get to the mountains, you put it in a different mode. The suspension can stiffen up automatically and then you can start carving through mountain roads with totally different settings that you would have had for the comfort settings on the highway. I absolutely love that. And I think it's awesome. You do have to want the look. The look is very polarizing. Some of you guys are going to absolutely hate it. Some of you guys are going to be like me and absolutely love this thing. I don't know, man. I'm just really here for the real angley lines. And because of all of that, I'm going purchase all day, every day for the EVO model. And that's without me even really getting to test out the undemoed model where it's like all the power is opened up. This thing's phenomenal so far, so it's going to get nothing but better as it breaks in. This thing is awesome. If I had the money, I would have this thing at my house right now. Especially after the recent videos, man. I feel like my ideal garage right now might be a 1390 Super Duke EVO R and a Tenere 700, which is interesting because they're both like polar opposite sides of the spectrum. The T7's got relatively no aids. This one's got everything, but they both are used for such different styles of riding. I think that combo would be absolutely sick. Anyways, guys, before I get out of here, big shout out to Mountain Motorsports in Roswell, Georgia. I'm going to have a bike provided by a link in the description down below. That's where we picked up this motorcycle. That's where I'm headed back to now. If you're looking for a motorcycle in the North Georgia area, these guys carry tons of models and they can definitely hook you guys up. If you want to check them out, like I said, link's in the description down below. Anyways, guys, if you made it to this point, you're in the outro crew. When you put a comment down below, because then they're going to comment, make sure to like the video and let me know if motorcycles like this, like, I don't know what category we call these, Hypersport Plus, are these just too much and we don't need this kind of stuff? Or is it exactly what we need? Let me know in the comments down below, guys. I'll chase on to it. You guys go out there and ride safe. I really appreciate you guys making it to the end of the video. It really helps these videos get out to more people. And all we want is for more riders to know what bike they should be getting next. So help another rider out by liking the video, sharing out to somebody, share this video out to some psychopath that needs a Super Duke in their life. All right, guys, y'all ride safe out there. I'll see you on the next one later. What's going on, sir? Chase? Yeah. Yeah. Camera cars right there, my man. Appreciate it, man. You're in the middle of one now. You may be. You have to see if my editor puts you in there. I got you, homie.