Dealership experience
I bought the 1290 to replace my husqvarna 701 in October of 2021. I didn't test drive the bike I just trusted my gut feeling and went for it. My choice was based upon my needs and the information I found on the 👉KTM Belgium website.
I bought the bike at a dealership not to far from where I Iive to make things easier when the bike has to go in for maintenance or warranty repairs. That being said it is up to you to either go for price or dealer. Why do I say this? You will find if you ask for a price offer that you'll get different results. Sometimes the better price is with the dealer the furthest away.
Overall my dealership experience was great, they went over the bike together with me and they explained me as much as possible about the bike before I left the dealership floor.
Inital impressions
The first time I saw it I was really mesmerized by the looks of it, also it really looked huge to me coming from the 701 Husqy. The beautifull colors, blue combined with KTM oranje and white did the trick for me.
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| KTM 1290 Super adventure R |
When I sat on the bike for the 1st time it really felt like sitting in the bike rather then on it like the 701. The initial feel and quality of the components was very good. It also felt lower then the 701, but that's not so supprising. KTM really did a great job making the bike more accessible for shorter riders. This also has its downsides, I'll explain why later in the post.
Driving of the dealership floor homewards I immediately felt at home on the bike. It felt agile in the turns and that 7" tft display just looks awesome. At lower speeds I could feel the difference in weight compaired to my previous bike and I found the suspension settings a bit on the soft side. The bikes manages to give you lots of confidance in the first kilometers.
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| 7"TFT display |
Like with any other bike it always takes some time getting used to it, the weight is a actually a non issue, coming from the 701 it would be like compairing apples to pears. The suspension is fully adjustable so you can actually set the compression, rebound and preload to you liking.
How did I spec the bike
- Supersprox lightweight sprocket
- Akrapociv slip exhaust
- Touratech case carriers
- rally pegs
- fuel tank stickerset
- frame protection set
- display protection stickers
- heated grips
- headlight proection
- PHDS, handlebar damping system
- HD wheelset
- Techpack
Due to covid there was a delivery delay for some of the above mentioned parts, it took almost 6 months to get the HD wheelset delivered.
👉 Keep in mind that the HD wheelset requires brake disks, abs rings and bolts, You ll have to buy it seperately or bolt over all those parts from the tubeless wheelset.
What else did I add to the bike
I installed Touratech parts to protect the ABS sensor at the rear wheel, a protective cover for the rear brake reservoir, the Touratech toolbox which sits inside the case carrier rack on the left side of the bike and the side stand enlarger.
- All products kan be found here 👉Touratech Belgium
- Kriega protective fork seal covers 👉 kriega fork-seal-covers
- I bought a set of tubeless Motoz Rallz tires 👉 Motoz tires 👆but more on tires later.
- I installed the Mosko moto luggage 👉backcountry-offset-pannier-kit-v2-0
- Enduristan tail pack 👉 enduristan tail-pack
- Perun moto luggage rack 👉 2021-ktm-1290-billet-rack
Breaking-in the bike
Ktm advises to take it slow during the first 1000 kilometers and not to rev it above 6000rpm.
I took the bike to the smaller backroads to let the engine work by shifting up and down through the gears all the time. The gearbox feels buttery smooth and the bike feels really composed as well. I also did a few longer trips to get as fast as possible to the 1st and 1000km service.
👉 However I didn't make it without having a first issue...😒
KTM's have a bit of a repution in terms of relibilty whether that is right or wrong I leave in the middle for now.
Okay to be fair it wasn't a big deal. I had a small coolant leak at the water pump cover. It was just a question of tightening a hose clamp. However that clamp cannot be reached without taking off the entire fuel tank...right😝
I asked the dealership if I could do it myself, and to be honest it isn't that complicated. I replaced the clamp with another one I had lying around 💪 and all was good again.
I think it is a good idea to know how to work on you bike yourself. It can potentionally be interesting if you are away on a longer journey. Maybe even obligatory if you're on a RTW trip.
One thing I will say compared to the790 or 890 and even the Norden 901, it seems that the fuel "cells" are made from a different material. I'm not sure if it can handle the same kind of abuse like the above mentioned bikes. On the other hand it is protected by the factory crashbars but if you are a hardcore offroad rider I'd suggest you replace the factory crashbars with an aftermarket alternative. Ask me how I know. I'll eleborate further down the post.
👉 How much did the 1st service cost me?
I payed 247.57Euros
For this price, the run-in oil is replaced with Ktm recommended oil + filter. The bike is inspected and it is connected to the service computer to check for faults or issues. That's it.
In comparision, I payed around 198euro for my 701 back in 2019.
👉So I'd say it's not to expensive.
How does it drive on the tarmac
My bike was delivered with tubeless Bridgestone A41 tires. I don't really understand why because it is an adventure motorcycle after all.
That being said, if you drive mostly on the tarmac this is a very good tire. It is a very neutral feeling tire and it gives you a lot of confidence in the twisties.
The only limitation is the 21" front wheel and the small rear tire, it is only 150 in width. So you have to be careful not to lean it to far over in the turns.
However the Ktm is a very playful bike, gentle if you must , a hooligan if you want it to be and overall a very versatile motorcycle. The V-twin is an absolute masterpiece in my opinion. The chassis is very stable even at higher speeds and confidence inspiring.
The front brakes are more then adequate and let you stop in an instant. However all that stopping power transfers the weight to the front of the bike so you have to accept a bit off fork dive. Admittingly there is always a trade off with suspension tuned for on and off road use. It is in no circumstance a deal breaker for me, but if you like to ride your bike hard in the twisties you might be beter off with the S -version.
For my posture the ergonomics are very good, it is very comfortable with a lot of room to move around. The standard seat is low which makes it easy to have both feet on the ground and that's interesting for shorter riders. However if you have long legs the position might feel a bit cramped. For this reason I installed the rally seat, it is higher but it gives you even more room and that's also very convenient in the off-road, perhaps not if the surface is not level😅.
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| PHDS |
The placement of the handlebar is very good it has a very natural feeling. I installed the PHDS (progressive handlebar damping system) and that allows the bars to be moved either towards or away from you. I also believe the bars sit a bit higher than stock.
The display is very clear and easy to read and the angle can be adjusted slightly to your liking. Ktm also provide a purchasable GPS holder in plastic. If found it moved around to much while driving so I replaced it with a aluminum aftermarket one.
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| TFT and GPS layout |
The R version has a small adjustable windshield and that is good for off-road riding. On the asphalt, however, there is a lot of gusts of wind. Especially at higher speeds on the highway.
I found it even worse on the highest setting. Obviously the type of helmet is going to play an important role.
I tested with 2 helmets, an ADV and a racing helmet, and the difference was huge.
Nevertheless, there will always be some buffeting no matter what helmet you wear. The only solution for this is to replace the screen with a larger one. However, the bike offers excellent protection against the elements. I rode it in the pouring rain and my body and legs stayed relatively dry.
How does it drive on off-road
This is my dual sport bike so I also drive it on and off-road. For this reason I purchased the HD wheelset. This wheelset allows you to run tubes and more off-road focused tires. That in turn allows you to run lower tire pressures but you have to be careful with that because this is a heavy bike.
Maybe in the future I'll test dual pressure systems but they are complexes to repair at the side of the road in case of a problem with the high pressure part. I mentioned this before but you'll have to buy extra brake disks, abs rings and bolts, or bolt over all those parts from the tubeless wheelset and that can be annoying.
After the break-in period I did some greenlaning in the neighborhood to get a feel of the bike off-road. That was relatively easy and very manageable. However shortly after I went driving in an abandoned quarry and that was something else entirely. Here I really felt the weight off the bike. At one point I could not keep the bike upright anymore, I started dropping the bike more and more. Probably to much to soon. It is in those circumstances that the factory crashbars fall short of providing decent protection.
A lot of the time I used the off-road mapping, I climbed that hill using that mode and as you can see it remains very tractable. Thet hill is quite steep and extremely slippery. I managed to keep control and momentum to get up the hill without issues.
I bought Motoz RallZ tubeless tires to put on the tubeless wheelset. Motoz has the reputation to be a sturdy tire that can coope with some abuse from bigger ADV bikes and it performs well in the offroad.
Then I mounted them on the HD wheelset. For the front that works fine, for the rear however not so much.
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| KTM 1290 SAR with HD wheelset |
The 150 tubeless is too wide for the smaller HD rim, I've put it on either way but the tire didnt wear very well because of it. See, it sits to round on that rim and as a consequence the side nobs don't make contact with the ground. Only the centre section is worn as a result of this.
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| Motoz Rallz Tube type 140-80-18 |
For the comming season I bought the 140/80/18 tube type version. Hopefully it is rigid enough to cope with the weight. Same for the front I bought the tube type Motoz Rallz.
👉 What's your tire of choice for such a big bike?
Electronics and software
As mentioned earlier, I bought the bike with the optional tech pack. I'm not goign to cover all electronics just the basics and what i used the most.
👉 Now electronics can be a mouth full therfore some explanation about the abreviations:
- MTC: motorcycle traction control (lean sensitive)
- MSC: motorcycle stability control
- C-abs: cornering ABS
- TPMS: tire pressure monitoring system
- ATIR: automatic turn indicator reset
- ARA: anti relay attack
👉The tech pack consist of the following features:
- RALLY PACK: adjustable riding mode
- Quickshifter+: alllows you to do cluthless up and down shifts
- MSR: motorcycle slip regulation
- HHC: hill hold control
- Adaptive brake light: brake lights starts flashing when performing emergency stop
👉How does all that translate in driving experience?
Well the controls that allow you to go in the userinterface are very intuitive to use as is the interface itself. KTM makes use of differents colors and animations to actually show you what is happening.
Green is when everything is ok , yellow when a warning occurs and red if something needs immediate attention.
As a dual sport rider in my opinion you'll use the riding modes the most, because you'll switch between them whenever you need to.
In the beginning I used offroad ost the most, it makes the bike more managle in the off-road. The trottle response is more mellow and the power is limited to 100 horses. I found that this mode is not intrusive and it works in the background.
When I got more used to the bike I started using rally mode more often.The cool thing is that you can fine-tune the trottle response to get a less abrupt reaction when you open it up.
When you leave the slip settings in 9 then the traction controll really lets you know it's there. I found it to work at its best at around 3-4 in the offroad.
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| Rally mode slip setting 6 |
Riding rally mode offroad is a challenge, you have to be a very competent rider to master it in all situations.
The bike has as standard a led headlight, it does a great job lighting up the road when it gets dark, It even has cornering lights that really helps to make you see the side of the road. It also features daytime running lights (eyebrows).
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| KTM 1290SAR headlight |
Conclusion
My personal experience with the bike has been good so far. I only had 2 minor issues, 1 that I could fix myself , I did report it to the dealer and another for which I had to put in a warranty claim.
- The 1st one being the coolant leak.
- The second one being a KTM logo that came off on the right side panel covering the cooling tank.
I'm happy with the way it rides, there's definitely a learning curve to riding this thing off road coming off a smaller bike.
But in return, you get a bike that cruises easily and comfortably on the highway. It gets you to your destination with less fatigue compared to smaller adv bikes. It makes it possible to take your (more) equipment with you because the frame is designed to handle more weight.
It's a solid travel bike no matter the terrain. Hopefully I can enjoy the bike more this year.
In any case, I will update this page as I see fit. If anything new happens to the bike in terms of breakdowns I'll add them here.
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