Ktm 1290 Super Adventure S

KTM showed up in 2015 with a wrecking ball: 160 horsepower in an adventure bike felt borderline irresponsible, but the semi-active WP suspension and MSC cornering ABS actually made it liveable rather than lethal. On the highway it devours miles with a mechanical ferocity that nothing from BMW or Ducati could match at the time, and the torque delivery from that 1301cc LC8 is so wide and brutal that you rarely need to downshift. The seat comfort past three hours is genuinely poor — that narrow perch punishes your tailbone on long days — and the fueling at low throttle openings in town is noticeably abrupt, a recurring KTM V-twin trait that no map update fully fixed in this generation. It's also a tall, heavy machine that makes its 228 kilograms felt the moment you're rolling it backwards on a camber, but once moving, the weight dissolves and you're left with something that simply has no ceiling.

I put 18,000 km on a 2019 model across the Alps, Morocco, and some genuinely ugly Welsh B-roads, and the 1290 SA S never once felt like it was tolerating me — it felt like it was daring me. That 1301cc V-twin doesn't so much accelerate as rearrange your organs, and the semi-active WP suspension swallows bad tarmac in a way that still surprises me. The TFT screen is readable in daylight, the cornering ABS and traction control actually inspire confidence rather than just cutting in like a nervous parent, and the riding modes — Street, Sport, Off-Road, Rain — are genuinely distinct rather than marketing wallpaper. But let's be honest: it drinks fuel like a thirsty landlord, the 30-litre tank sounds generous until you're doing 200 km/h on an Autobahn and watching the range drop in real time, and the seat is comfortable for exactly 90 minutes before reminding you it exists.

Six months and 14,000 km later, the Gen 3 Super Adventure S still catches me off guard — the 1301cc V-twin hauls with a violence that feels almost antisocial for a 228 kg tourer, and the semi-active WP suspension genuinely transforms between modes rather than just shuffling numbers on a screen. On the motorway it's effortless, almost deceptively calm, then you hit a switchback mountain pass and realize this thing wants to be ridden hard more than it wants to be comfortable. The TFT and lean-sensitive controls are genuinely useful, not marketing theater — cornering ABS and traction control have saved my skin twice on wet Alpine roads. The honest weaknesses: fuel range is embarrassing for the tank size, the quickshifter clunks under hard acceleration, and if you're under 5'10" the 870mm seat height will have you tiptoeing at every gas stop.