Jakes1
Pack Dog
I had the pleasure of riding the KTM 1190R over the weekend. I know this kind of write up has been done many times, but maybe there's something in mine that will help someone make the decision to buy one.
Riding position and look of bike:
First let me say, this bike is smaller than it looks in pictures, and if the look don't appeal to you immediately, spend a weekend with it and see if you feel the same thereafter. It does not look as "aggressive" as the 990R, but man, this is a wolf in sheeps clothes.
Throwing your leg over the first time you immediately realise that you're sitting more "in" the bike as suppose to "on top" of the bike like the 990R. It's more comfortable and it feels strange having all the settings like ride modes at the tip of your finger tips. You might think - shit - will I ever be able to work with this technology. Well, the answer is a big YES. As soon as I took off - riding tar road - I started playing with the settings to get a better feel for the bike. It didn't take long to realise that everything on the bike was well designed and thought of and I found myself playing with the settings on the fly without compromising safety. It becomes very user friendly very quickly. The standard 1190R screen works very well, but, being 6ft tall I think the standard adventure screen will work better. Also I added raisers which is a must for a rider 1.8m and up. I love how smooth the engine is but quickly realised that one has to keep an eye on the speedo - sometimes I thought I was doing 140 but reality was 180. Brakes - must be the best in the business.
In my opinion a BIG improvement from the 990 on tar, so before we go onto off road riding, let me just summarise so far:
Positives on tar - Smooth, quick, more fuel efficient, riding position good, brakes very good, display good, - all in all a great bike that's fantastic on tar.
Off Road:
I tried to ride it on different levels or grades of gravel roads, but unfortunately did not use it on heavy technical stuff. I rode it on high speed good gravel roads to semi good gravel roads ( jeep track - med to high speed ). Hitting the first section at 100km/h I realised that the suspension could be too "soft" for my style of riding, but to be honest it could also be my 105kg ass. In my opinion - if you could never bottom out on a normal 990 adventure, you should not have a problem with this bike. I rode the bike in two ride modes over the weekend, Sport and Off road, with variants within each mode ie; traction control on and off, abs on in front but off on back. Let me start with the sport mode. In this mode the bike has all it's power available and in my opinion switching the traction control off is just stupid. Too much power creates uncontrollable slides in corners but abs on in front and off on back works well. When you switch the traction control on it becomes something else. I found that you could still slide it in the corners BUT to do this you need to get the revs up and hold on tight - it's f......n quick. Once it starts the slide you can keep opening up and it amazed me at how controllable the bike is. When going into the corner too slow however - I find it grips and slides, grips and slides all the time - you need high revs and balls to get the full potential in this mode. In Off road mode the bike has less power , but trust me, still more than enough. I first rode it with traction control off. Like this you can ride it exactly like a 990 - control the slides, get spin on back wheel when you want to, it's really that simple. In the end my favourite mode on the gravel was off road with traction control ON and abs on in front but off on the back wheel. Bike is much more controllable and once you start the slide in a corner you can keep going as long as you want. On my 990R I often get a "out of control" feel during a high speed slide but I never got this on this bike. The technology amazed me. I just want to mention my only negative point of this bike.
Keeping in mind that I weigh 105kg, the suspension did not work for me. I think if you weigh less than 85kg, it should be ok. I set it up to the 'sport' setting in the manual under suspension settings and while riding even turned up the preload, but I still bottomed out 3 - 4 times on the front and twice ( once that I thought I just broke my teeth ) on the back. I would recommend spending the 5K at someone like Martin Paetzold to sort it out ( I think that's the estimated price ), but as I said earlier, if you never bottom out on a 990 adventure you should be ok on this. The 990R suspension in my opinion is the best out there and it was so nice to be able to ride the 990r and the 1190r alongside each other the whole weekend. Swapping bikes between myself and a buddy, that by the way, rides very well, we could immediately feel the advantage of the 990R's suspension, more so for me than him seeing that he weighs in at 75kg's. For him the back suspension was good but he could feel that the front was inferior to the 990r front suspension.
Overall we went into this weekend with not too much expectations and came out amazed with this machine. I must be honest in saying that for me it's a better OVERALL bike than the 990 and with the exception of the suspension everything works very well especially the brakes. This bike is definitely quicker seeing that it can out break anything on gravel and out accelerate anything between corners. Let me not take away anything from the 990R either - still the better bike off road for me but as I said, overall ( tar, commute, gravel ) the 1190R is better.
I hope someone looking to buy one can take something out of the above and use it. One old saying came into my mind over the weekend - DON"T KNOCK IT TILL YOU"VE TRIED IT. Before I forget - handle bar warmers is not a bad extra.
Cheers to KTM for building a great bike.
Riding position and look of bike:
First let me say, this bike is smaller than it looks in pictures, and if the look don't appeal to you immediately, spend a weekend with it and see if you feel the same thereafter. It does not look as "aggressive" as the 990R, but man, this is a wolf in sheeps clothes.
Throwing your leg over the first time you immediately realise that you're sitting more "in" the bike as suppose to "on top" of the bike like the 990R. It's more comfortable and it feels strange having all the settings like ride modes at the tip of your finger tips. You might think - shit - will I ever be able to work with this technology. Well, the answer is a big YES. As soon as I took off - riding tar road - I started playing with the settings to get a better feel for the bike. It didn't take long to realise that everything on the bike was well designed and thought of and I found myself playing with the settings on the fly without compromising safety. It becomes very user friendly very quickly. The standard 1190R screen works very well, but, being 6ft tall I think the standard adventure screen will work better. Also I added raisers which is a must for a rider 1.8m and up. I love how smooth the engine is but quickly realised that one has to keep an eye on the speedo - sometimes I thought I was doing 140 but reality was 180. Brakes - must be the best in the business.
In my opinion a BIG improvement from the 990 on tar, so before we go onto off road riding, let me just summarise so far:
Positives on tar - Smooth, quick, more fuel efficient, riding position good, brakes very good, display good, - all in all a great bike that's fantastic on tar.
Off Road:
I tried to ride it on different levels or grades of gravel roads, but unfortunately did not use it on heavy technical stuff. I rode it on high speed good gravel roads to semi good gravel roads ( jeep track - med to high speed ). Hitting the first section at 100km/h I realised that the suspension could be too "soft" for my style of riding, but to be honest it could also be my 105kg ass. In my opinion - if you could never bottom out on a normal 990 adventure, you should not have a problem with this bike. I rode the bike in two ride modes over the weekend, Sport and Off road, with variants within each mode ie; traction control on and off, abs on in front but off on back. Let me start with the sport mode. In this mode the bike has all it's power available and in my opinion switching the traction control off is just stupid. Too much power creates uncontrollable slides in corners but abs on in front and off on back works well. When you switch the traction control on it becomes something else. I found that you could still slide it in the corners BUT to do this you need to get the revs up and hold on tight - it's f......n quick. Once it starts the slide you can keep opening up and it amazed me at how controllable the bike is. When going into the corner too slow however - I find it grips and slides, grips and slides all the time - you need high revs and balls to get the full potential in this mode. In Off road mode the bike has less power , but trust me, still more than enough. I first rode it with traction control off. Like this you can ride it exactly like a 990 - control the slides, get spin on back wheel when you want to, it's really that simple. In the end my favourite mode on the gravel was off road with traction control ON and abs on in front but off on the back wheel. Bike is much more controllable and once you start the slide in a corner you can keep going as long as you want. On my 990R I often get a "out of control" feel during a high speed slide but I never got this on this bike. The technology amazed me. I just want to mention my only negative point of this bike.
Keeping in mind that I weigh 105kg, the suspension did not work for me. I think if you weigh less than 85kg, it should be ok. I set it up to the 'sport' setting in the manual under suspension settings and while riding even turned up the preload, but I still bottomed out 3 - 4 times on the front and twice ( once that I thought I just broke my teeth ) on the back. I would recommend spending the 5K at someone like Martin Paetzold to sort it out ( I think that's the estimated price ), but as I said earlier, if you never bottom out on a 990 adventure you should be ok on this. The 990R suspension in my opinion is the best out there and it was so nice to be able to ride the 990r and the 1190r alongside each other the whole weekend. Swapping bikes between myself and a buddy, that by the way, rides very well, we could immediately feel the advantage of the 990R's suspension, more so for me than him seeing that he weighs in at 75kg's. For him the back suspension was good but he could feel that the front was inferior to the 990r front suspension.
Overall we went into this weekend with not too much expectations and came out amazed with this machine. I must be honest in saying that for me it's a better OVERALL bike than the 990 and with the exception of the suspension everything works very well especially the brakes. This bike is definitely quicker seeing that it can out break anything on gravel and out accelerate anything between corners. Let me not take away anything from the 990R either - still the better bike off road for me but as I said, overall ( tar, commute, gravel ) the 1190R is better.
I hope someone looking to buy one can take something out of the above and use it. One old saying came into my mind over the weekend - DON"T KNOCK IT TILL YOU"VE TRIED IT. Before I forget - handle bar warmers is not a bad extra.
Cheers to KTM for building a great bike.
