KTM Duke 690

Great Kev! Looking forward to reading your review on it.

It seems indeed that this new Duke is to the old Duke like the SMT is to the original Supermoto: more practical but just as fun.

With an Akrapovic system and a Shorai battery it should be below 155 kg fully wet. Sounds like fun to me with a 70hp single!

The Akrapovic system might give it an extra pony or two. They have a race version for this year's junior cup that pumps out 79hp! That kit (exhaust, camshaft and open air box) is available already as an accessory. It's not for road use though... and I would worry about reliability.
But check it out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOc_Lpph3f0&feature=youtu.be

The only thing, is that, as all KTMs, it has a pretty high seat at close to 82 cm. That would be a problem for my girlfriend. Fortunately, the bike is light and fairly narrow at the seat. My girlfriend had more trouble sitting on the G650GS and its 78 cm seat than on the Duke, just because of the width of the G650GS' seat.
The dealer has already told me that they could lower the bike through a custom suspension rod. I don't want to lower it too much that way in order not to compromise ground clearance, but 2 cm would be fine I think, raising the fork tubes in the triple clamp by a similar amount to keep the geometry of the bike.

I think a combination of suspension lowering, minimum preload, low seat and special boots (Daytona Ladystar) would make it manageable for her (get the seat height down by 4 cm to 77/78 cm). Right now they don't have a low seat for it though. Might have to go with a custom seat...

Anyway, it was a convoluted way of asking you if the ground clearance would be a problem if the Duke was lowered by 2 cm (suspension mounting mod).

I think I would make it a mix of these 2:

Hey Cub!

That's a 350 that KTM is working on. It will be the next mini-Duke after the 125 and the 200.
I've been clamoring for it since I have known about the 125, but it will now come a little late. By the time it comes out, my girlfriend will not be limited by her A2 licence any more. I'm curious what it will be like though.

The 690 is a better choice however for touring (my kind of touring at least: solo and all twisties with no highways unless absolutely unavoidable), especially with the same nice luggage option as the SMT. I would also use it as my commuting bike regularly I think. It would probably be as fun as the SMT but be more frugal.

Although, on that subject, it won't be nearly as good as the NC because it was not its main design goal... and it will probably egg you on to ride like a maniac, like all KTMs!

That's interesting news Sofiaspin. Where did you get your info from regarding the low seat? I can't seem to find any info about a low seat for new Duke on KTM's website or anywhere on the internet.
To be fair, I only know about the lowering kit because the KTM dealer told me about it a few weeks ago. At the time there was no low seat available. KTM need to improve the info on their website...

Thanks Sofia!

Thanks for the detailed info about the dealer but I'm in Spain. :-)

I'll check with my dealer, the one who told me about the lowering kit but that did not have any info about a low seat at the time.

That being said, KTM should have their website up-to-date with this kind of info. A lower seat availability, can be a make or break deal for somebody evaluating various models when buying a bike, especially a KTM, as they tend to be on the higher side. That info should be not only present but prominent, especially for a model that has been available for several weeks now.