BIKETEST:KTM 990 SMT: Sharp angles make it look like a prop from 'The Fly', but this ride is built for a good time, writes GEOFF HILL
ONCE UPON a time, a supermoto and a sports tourer met and got on like a house on fire – except without the smoke damage and the contested insurance claim, obviously.
Before long they had fallen in love, got married and were inseparable, although not quite as inseparable as they were going to be, for on a tour of the 20th Century Fox Studios during their honeymoon to Los Angeles, they accidentally got locked in the transformation chamber from The Fly.
What a surprised caretaker saw when he unlocked the door the next morning was half supermoto, half tourer.
And that, readers, is how the KTM SMT was born.
Well, maybe not, but it’s the most rational explanation I can think of for a bike that shouldn’t work, but does.
Put it like this: this is a machine that is more fun than a night in a Japanese love hotel with a contortionist from Kyoto.
Not that I would know, but I often wonder what became of Yuko, bless her.
“You know,” said Sam at the KTM dealers, installing his thumbs firmly in one of his collection of 14 fine waistcoats, “we were trying to think the other day what bikes say about their owners, and we came to the conclusion that Triumph owners are slightly fastidious and pernickety English gentlemen, and KTM owners are a bit of rough you go out to get pissed with on a Saturday night.”
He was right, as he was when he said the SMT is so light and the steering rake is so steep that it’ll turn on a thruppenny bit.
Now, that may mean Sam’s a lot older than he looks, but he was spot on. This bike loves corners, and even on the straight bits youll be having just as good a time as you would on a superbike, without having to break the sound barrier every time you go out.
Not that it’s a slouch: that hefty 999cc V-twin, allied to the bike’s dry weight of 191kg, hurls you down the road at an entirely acceptable rate of knots right up to the red line at 10,000rpm.
At which I had an, er, interesting moment when the rev limiter cut in just as I was passing a lorry with a stream of traffic coming the other way.
Still, my own fault; I lived to tell the tale and I won’t be doing that again.
Like all KTMs, it’s bright and brash and angular, and you’ll either love the machine’s looks or want to throw up into your helmet.
Like all KTMs, too, the engine hates being at anything below 3,000rpm, although at least they’ve ironed out the fuel mapping to the extent that trawling through town no longer resembles the progress of a wallaby with hiccups.
The gear lever is also so dinky that my foot missed it completely a few times, and taller riders will find the equally dinky screen leaves them windblown.
It’s also curious, given the bike’s alleged alter ego as a tourer, that the standard panniers are only just big enough to carry a change of clothing and a ham sandwich. But stick on a top box and a tank bag, and unlike Ewan and Charley, who took 60 T-shirts with them on Long Way Down, you’ll have space to take you through Europe and beyond.
And what’s even better is that when you unpack every night and fling all your kit in the hotel room, the bike will look so inviting – even after a long day on the road – that you’ll just have to fling your leg over and go for one last blast before that holy trinity of post-motorcycling joy: a hot shower, a cold beer and a warm meal.
Factfile KTM 990 SMT
Engine: 999cc liquid-cooled four-stroke 75-degree V-twin with Keihin fuel injection; 115bhp/85kW @ 9,000rpm; 21lbft/95Nm torque @ 7,000rpm
Gears and drive: six-speed, chain final drive
Front suspension: WP-USD Ø 48 mm
Rear suspension: WP-monoshock
Front brakes:two Brembo four-piston fixed caliper with 305mm disc
Rear brakes: Brembo two-piston floating caliper with 240mm disc
Fuel capacity: 19 litres
Dry weight: 191kg
There is no KMT dealer in the Republic. UK price £9,595. Test bike supplied by Philip McCallen, tel: 028-926 22886, philipmccallen.com