Rennie Scaysbrook | March 20, 2024
This year marks 30 years of the KTM Duke range and those of you who love the 890 Duke and 890 Duke R might want to look away now.
Photography by Sebas Romero
That’s because the snappy, vibrant, bratty little 890 we fell in love with on the very first ride three years ago is now all grown up and knocking on the door of the Super Duke in terms of shred-your-license performance.
The 2024 990 Duke is nearly a top-to-bottom rework. KTM claims 96 percent of the bike is entirely new, so if you were expecting/hoping for a revised 890, just with a bigger engine, you might be disappointed.
2024 KTM 990 Duke Review | Engine
In creating the 990 Duke, the KTM engineers took the 890 engine and used—big breath—basically none of it. From the bottom up, you’ve got a new crank, conrods, pistons, more aggressive cams with higher lift and longer duration, a wider radiator, a revised underseat airbox, and a new exhaust, and the capacity hike from 889cc to 947cc comes via a 1.8mm bigger bore to 92.5mm and a 1.6mm longer stroke, now at 70.4mm.
Despite the 58cc capacity increase, KTM is only claiming a two-horsepower difference for the 990 over the 890 at 123 hp at 9500 rpm, but the talking point is more how the motor makes its midrange torque.
Peak torque is only a claimed 3 lb-ft more at 76 lb-ft at 6750 rpm, but the 990 (947cc) motor feels smoother and more robust in its torque application between 3000-7000 rpm, right where you’ll spend a large portion of your time while riding on the street. You can click it a gear higher than you’d expect for many situations and just leave it there, surfing up and down the rev range and being downright lazy if you want.
But that’s only part of its character. It’s still a KTM Duke, and in that style, it’ll absolutely rip out of tight hairpin corners and up mountain passes with almost the same gusto as the new 1390 if you hammer the ride-by-wire throttle with any kind of malice.
The 900 is a belter of a motor and can pull the around-town cruisey trick just as easily as it can power wheelie in second and third gear up your favorite canyon pass. It’s so flexible you start to wonder why you need a 1390 for anything other than bragging rights.
In standard form, you don’t get a quickshifter for the six-speed gearbox, which is rather annoying given the $12,500 sticker price, but you get three riding modes: Sport, Street and Rain. Pay a little extra, and, like the test bike we had in Southern Spain, you can have the optional Track and Performance modes that allow you to adjust the levels of traction control, wheelie control and launch control.
Sport, Street and Rain have preset levels for each of those aforementioned features, although peak power remains the same across each mode, all changed in the five-inch TFT dash.
As you scroll up through the modes, the throttle response gets ever sharper, to the point where you only want Track mode for the track (sounds obvious, I know). The majority of my time was spent in Sport mode while on the road, but Street has a creamy smooth initial throttle opening, and I’d be quite happy if that were all I had at my disposal if my 990 was strictly a street and not a track bike. But then I’d want to be able to take the wheelie control off, and I can only do that if I’m in track mode. Hey, it’s a KTM Duke, after all.
2024 KTM 990 Duke Review | Chassis
Although the motor has very little in common with its predecessor, the chassis and how it behaves are by far the most significant changes compared to the 890.
One of the 890’s loveable traits was that it wasn’t overly stiff, so it could soak up most road imperfections without too much fuss. The tradeoff, however, is that it starts to get a little too flexy when taken to the track and used in real anger.
For the 990, KTM has given the chassis a makeover, claiming the new tubular steel frame is 15 percent stiffer than the 890. Helping achieve this number is a frame that runs outside the swingarm pivot, compared to inside on the 890. KTM claims eight percent more lateral stiffness and five percent more torsional stiffness for the new frame, while the closed-lattice swingarm actually has less rigidity (to the tune of 35 percent and 3.3 pounds lighter) than on the 890 to offset this rather drastic increase in frame stiffness and allow greater feel of the tires on the road. There’s also a new cast alloy subframe to house the larger airbox.
Front to back, the 990 is shorter and racier than the 890—the rake has decreased from 24.3 degrees to 24.2 degrees, and the wheelbase has dropped 0.2 inches to 58.11 inches. Where it’s not smaller than the 890 is between the rider’s legs: The tank and the shrouds surrounding it make for a wider riding stance, splaying the rider’s knees out more and making it easier to grab and latch onto under braking.
Load the front Bridgestone S22 up on the street (the latest S23 rubber was released after the development for the 990 Duke was finished) and charge into the corner, and the 990 will sit there and laugh at you. You need to get this thing to a track to get anywhere near the outer reaches of its performance.
The 990 comes with heavily revised suspension via the 43mm WP Apex fork and shock. Both are fully adjustable (save for preload on the fork), but they only have five possible settings each for compression and rebound damping adjustment, so you’ll feel significant differences between each setting without needing to dial in 10-plus turns of rebound or compression.
In standard settings, the ride is a little soft for my 200-pound frame, so two turns of preload on the back and one click of compression on the fork was the order of the day to help the 990 hold itself up a little under my vastly expanding weight.
The ride can be a bit stiff even in its softest setting because this is a very focused motorcycle. The 990 Duke is still a real streetfighter at heart. Yes, it’ll cruise along at sedate speeds happily enough, but it’s more at home going for a good, hard scratch-up on your favorite mountain road for the sheer fun of it all. That’s why the chassis has this extra stiffness built into it—it’s all about carrying more speed into, through, and out of the corner while keeping the chassis composed and reducing that mid-corner flex.
About the only carryover from the 890 is the J.Juan four-piston brake calipers that work just fine. It’s a decent quality master cylinder on the 890, although I’d hope that when/if a 990 R becomes available, it’ll be graced with at least Brembo Stylema calipers and a corresponding master cylinder for extra braking prowess. The front brake-disc carriers are 2.2 pounds lighter than on the 890, contributing to less unsprung mass and helping the 990 achieve that lightning-quick agility in corners. Cornering ABS ensures you’ll have to mess up very hard before things get out of hand.
Our ride in the Spanish hillside lasted about three hours, and the 990 proved comfortable. The seat unit didn’t get overly hard (it’s also been angled up two degrees), and there’s ample leg room, but it’s unlikely you’ll end up doing touring miles on a 990. The rearset peg position is unadjustable but the handlebar can be moved to one of four positions, so there is a decent level of customization there.
2024 KTM 990 Duke Review | Everything else
Looks-wise, the 990 really has grown up. It utilizes the same stacked LED headlight as the 1390 and is easily the most polarizing aspect of the bike’s look. It’s a case of “hell yes!” or “hell no!” after staring at it; I reckon I’m on the former’s side. It looks like something out of The Terminator and makes the diamond-shaped headlight of the 890 look nearly juvenile by comparison.
KTM was at pains during the launch to emphasize the whole growing up thing for the 990, and it’s hard to argue with them. The playfulness and bratty nature the 890 had that was so loveable has been replaced by a bike that is very much a mini Super Duke, thanks primarily to the physical size and stiffness of the chassis.
The 890 was lithe and light, but the 990 feels more substantial in almost every aspect. But simple things like reducing the amount you need to alter the suspension to get meaningful change, the extra midrange performance, and the revised seating position all add up to a thoroughly excellent machine—whether you like the headlight or not.
The 990 has some pretty stiff competition in Yamaha’s revamped MT-09 (due for U.S. release later this year), the Triumph Street Triple 765 R and RS, and the Ducati Monster, but it’s more than up to the task as the only parallel-twin bike in the class.
Time will tell if we are to get a 990 Duke R, but given KTM’s penchant for the absurd, I wouldn’t be surprised to see one in the near future. But for now, I can say with a hand on my heart that the 990 Duke is badass.CN
VIDEO | 2024 KTM Duke 990 First Ride
Hang on! What about the 1390?
Ah, yes, the all-important 1390 Super Duke R. What of this magnificent beast? Well, at the launch held at the Almeria circuit in southern Spain, I got four paltry laps on it before the Spanish weather threw a foul ball and dumped rain on the circuit, ensuring all meaningful testing for the revamped, renewed SD was completely useless.
Not only that, but the bike I was on wasn’t even the bike we are getting in America (we get the one with electronic suspension; mine was just the one with conventionally adjustable suspension).
So, I will reserve my judgment on the 1390 Super Duke until we can do a complete and thorough test back here in America.
From my brief four laps, during which I was trying to learn the track, I can tell you just how much more top-end the 1390 has over the outgoing 1290. Whereas the old 1290 would taper off quickly when the revs got into the last quarter of the range, the 1390 pulls like a freight train. The crazy thing is that the Super Duke didn’t need more power, but that’s what you’ve got now.
Stay tuned for a proper review when we get the bikes in the next month or so. At least KTM insisted that instead of proper in-depth testing in the rain, we just go and do burnouts instead. Thanks, KTM. That was jolly nice of you.
2024 KTM 990 Duke Specifications
MSRP: |
$12,500 |
Engine: |
2-cylinder, 4-stroke |
Displacement: |
947cc |
Valvetrain: |
8-valve |
Bore x stroke: |
70.4 x 92.5mm |
Cooing system: |
Liquid |
Fuel injection: |
Electronic fuel injection system |
Exhaust: |
2-1 |
Transmission: |
6-speed |
Clutch: |
Wet, multi-plate, slip and assist |
Electronics: |
Riding Modes, ABS, Traction Control |
Chassis: |
Tubular steel |
Front suspension: |
43 WP Apex inverted forks, adjustable compression and rebound damping |
Rear suspension: |
WP Apex monoshock, adjustable preload and rebound |
Front brake: |
Single 300mm disc, Brembo 4-piston radial monobloc calipers |
Rear brake: |
Single 240mm disc, Brembo single-piston caliper |
Front tire: |
120/70ZR17 in. |
Rear tire: |
180/55ZR17 in. |
Wheelbase: |
58.1 in. |
Seat height: |
32.5 in. |
Fuel capacity: |
3.9 gal. |
Weight (curb, claimed): |
394 lbs. |