#1290SuperDukeGt

KTM isn’t officially at EICMA, but that didn’t stop the Austrian manufacturer from getting in on the fun, announcing an updated 1290 Super Duke GT for 2022.

If you’re a fan of naked bikes or sport-tourers, odds are that you’re familiar with the offerings from KTM. Both motorcycles eschew the velvet glove and deliver the iron fist of sporting performance to riders. For 2019, the 1290 Super Duke R returns essentially unchanged while the 1290 Super Duke GT gets a raft of upgrades, bringing it in line with the R. 

If you saw my text review of KTM’s new SD GT, you witnessed an old grown man gush about a new Austrian motorcycle. If I had to choose a bike to ride across this vast country to a trackday, it’d probably be this one.

It’s fair to say KTM has been on a meteoric rise since Stefan Pierer saved the company from bankruptcy in the early 1990s. Since then, the brand made its name in off-road racing, winning nearly everything under the sun, including 15 consecutive Dakar rallies, and the 2015 AMA Supercross championship with Ryan Dungey.

KTM’s calling the 1290 Super Duke GT its Adrenaline Express. Basically we’re taking MO’s 2014 Motorcycle of the Year 1290 Super Duke and turning it into a very sporty sports tourer, with a 1301cc 75-degree 173-hp V-Twin, hard bags, touring fairing and everything you need to hit the road in a fully fuelled 503-pound (228 kg) package.

KTM Italy has released information about the new Super Duke 1290 GT, a bike that will show up in its finished form next month at EICMA in Milan. According to our virtual translator, this one’s “dedicated to a sporting public that, while traveling in comfort, wants to be always ‘Ready to Race’!”

Our 2014 Motorcycle of the Year, KTM’s 1290 Super Duke R, is getting a new stablemate to join the recently added 1290 Super Adventure. The prototype in these photos is a hybrid of the other two KTM Supers, sharing the bones of its brothers like the 1301cc V-Twin engine, steel trellis frame, single-sided swingarm and Brembo M50 monoblock brakes.