The Sharp End

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO DOUBT THAT the 1290 Super Adventure S is an adventure bike, right? The proof is in the name, for one thing, and in its many adventure-class features, from the basics — slim fairing, adjustable screen, big fuel-tank, and long-travel suspension — to details including hand-guards, luggage rack, and centre-stand.

Except that with this latest member of KTM’s long-legged family, being confined to that traditional category does not make sense at all. I have just stepped off the orange bike after a morning of throttle abuse on the roads of the English Midlands. My adrenaline levels are high, my driving licence is twitching, the tyres’ edges are hot. My first impression is that this thrillingly rapid and improbably sweet-handling 1290 is undoubtedly Super but only nominally an Adventure. In character it is not so much a typical dual-purpose bike as a crazy cross between sports-tourer and sit-up-and-beg V-twin superbike.

To a degree, that has always been true of the Super Adventure. I can still vividly remember getting off the original 1290 at its launch on Gran Canaria in 2015, turning to look back at it, and thinking that the big, bulbous white V-twin that had just demolished the Spanish island’s back-roads with astounding pace and efficiency was quite