It’s not every day that you find an immaculate KTM 1090 lurking around – and when we saw this one at Bikeshop Rivonia, complete with every imaginable extra we thought we should get better acquainted.
Sure , all the KTM news at the moment is around the fresh new 390’s that have just landed in SA and yes, we got to ride them at last, but not in time for this deadline. But – don’t forget that there are many pre-loved orange machines all over SA and this KTM 1090-S is a great example…
By Glenn Foley
We were first introduced to the 125HP KTM 1090-S at a launch in The Cape in 2017. On that weekend, the KTM group also introduced us to the significantly more powerful 1290.
Day 1 was spent chasing the bends in and around Paarl on the smaller bike – and back then, while the 1290 stole the show, this lot at least, figured that they preferred the 1090 to the bigger 148HP 1190 (Introduced in 2013) and the even bigger 160HP KTM 1290 ADV.
Why? You might ask.
Easy.
The bigger bikes are often over-the-top in terms of out-and out performance and, particularly on the winding roads boasted by The Cape. This one filled the gap neatly as a less manic option and was a good step up in terms of power from the previous, somewhat limited 1050.
KTM produced an S model with mag wheels and the R which boasted the all important for South Africans 21” front.
Sadly, for us anyway, KTM opted to produce the bike for a mere two years before introducing the KTM790 in 2018.
Are You Keeping up?
This one is the “S” which means that it has the smaller mag wheels. If you, however, are looking to do some adventuring, don’t be put off by this, she’s still great in the dirt.
The 1090 is lighter and more agile than the 1190 and is, essentially the old 1050 with an additional 30bhp that boosts output to 130bhp with a modest increase in torque up to 80.4ft-lb.
The new bike arrived with a change of graphic, a new adjustable screen (this bike has a larger, after market unit) and a few other tweaks here and there. What didn’t change is the 1050cc capacity of the bike.
The reference to 1090 was a name change rather than bigger bored cylinders.
You’re hard pushed to spot the differences between the older 1050 and the 1090. Climb aboard and it’s all pretty much the same with the old style split dash configuration up front.
The riding stance is sensible and upright and we like the fact that normal sized riders can easily get feet onto the floor. The 1090 comes with ABS and Traction Control which are always handy, you get Rain, Street and Sport riding modes as standard with at the time, an optional Off-road map. You also get practical stuff like USB chargers and a little cubby built into the dash
We spent most of this ride in sports mode. Riding the bike is where the upgraded horsepower starts to make sense over the somewhat restricted 1050. Low down grunt always makes you smile and she tears up to speeds in excess of the national speed limit in that typical, rowdy KTM fashion. She’ll hold the line all the way to The Cape if you like – with jail time only a few extra degrees of the throttle away. We imagine that that’s what the previous owner did judging by the extra luggage, tall screen and spots. In fact, we’d be surprised if this specific bike has ever even ventured onto dirt before.
Don’t be put off by mag wheels when it comes to the dirt. In all the years that we’ve been doing this, we’ve actually never managed to break one. This bike is fitted with the Dunlop Missions, so we know she can do the job.
While this bike is for sale complete with panniers and a top box, we removed the panniers for two reasons. Riding on the busy Gauteng freeway is a pain and riding dirt with them is also not so lekker. We left the top box on and headed out.
The beauty of this bike is that you can creep along if you like, but when you open her up, she’ll run like the wind. The WP suspension on his bike is a tad on the firm side, so for more gravel stuff, we’d probably spend a bit of time on setup. We did however hit some rutted two spoor with lots of little jutting rocky pieces. If you are going to do more tech trails, look at the 21” spoked model, but we’ll tell you for free that the mag wheel version will happily eat up the miles on our gravel network.
This is a bike for all seasons. Take off all the luggage and ride her to work and back. Pop the luggage on with your nearest and dearest ot back and take the weekend to carve the roads around Sabie. On your way home, take the gravel roads less travelled. It’s a lot less of a handful than the bigger 1190’s and 1290’s but still makes more than enough power for the average Joe.
At R139990, this is a lot of bike for your money, especially when you consider all of the extras that the previous owner has fitted.
It’s sporty, nimble fun to ride and seriously comfortable for the long roads.
It’s at Bikeshop Rivonia along with a MASSIVE selection of other pre-loved motorcycles.
