Total Motorcycle Community Forums

No thanks! Fail!!!!

See ya next Friday!

QuietMonkey wrote:Definitely funkier than the Vstrom, but again the crowd who like real adventure touring, are a fairly practical group by necessity, (and cool for them doesnt matter) which is maybe why the early Beemers were so 'purposefully' styled (that's ad-speak for ugly).

THANK you. At least someone around here realizes it's not always about looks, it's also about function.

QuietMonkey wrote:The Vstrom and others like the Ulysees didnt even have anything other than street-only tires available when they were first intorduced (much like the Yamaha TDM850 -- they were just oddly designed sport-tourers, which makes you think, why not buy a VFR instead).

You missed the biggest difference betweena sport-tourer and an adventure-tourer: suspension. V-strom will take bumps, irregularities, etc, when cornering without upsetting its line. Never ridden a VFR, but doubt it can make that claim.

sunshine229 wrote:I voted cool.

I'm not a big KTM fan but this bike is pretty nice looking.

I'm so disappointed in you right now.

As a Superduke owner I do like the quirky KTM styling, although these bikes are more about function than looks. As a VFR owner I have been considering this as a bike to replace both the Duke and the Viffer but then I would only have one bike and where is the fun in that?

So I did vote awesome, but I would seriously consider paying the extra for the Multi if it came down to it. The reports on the Multi paint it to be nothing less than spectacular, and Ducati has finally figured out that to sell a sport-touring bike you cannot set the valve adjustment intervals at 8,000km. (now 25K). The SMT service is every 15K which is ok, but not great.

As for the SMT being a Multistrada copy as someone stated above - it was released first....

High_Side wrote: As a Superduke owner I do like the quirky KTM styling, although these bikes are more about function than looks.....

One bike I would love to own one day is the original Duke. Talk about unique looking, it looked like a cartoon character with buck tooth. It even had the wrong displacement listed on the bike.

OK I voted cool. This is one ugly bike and something I would never buy. But it is a Katooom! afterall, so it deserves at least a cool rating.

Kinda wacky, kinda practical, simpler and less pretentious than a Multi, and it's a KTM. Cool vote for me.

Having the pannier mounts on the mufflers (well, the heat shields) seems a bit dodgy though.

I want to vote cool, but every time I scroll up I see those pictures of it again and just can't get past the design.

And yes, Mr. Stark, I agree that it's not always about the looks, but if it's gonna be on the Cool Wall then the whole bike has to be cool, not just the function. I think I would be much more attracted to this bike if I did more off-road or adventure riding but since I don't, a lot of it's potential is wasted on me. Unfortunate, really, that the bike has to suffer due to my limited preferences, but "Cool" is a subjective term, and I just don't think this subject's plastics are very cool. Gonna have to vote Uncool.

There are two types of ugliness when it come to bikes however...
A bike can be ugly but still look cool, ala the BMW RGS series or it can just be mfugly period like the Diavel.

Even KTM has two types of ugly. The Super Duke is ugly but it still looks cool. The Adventure is just plain ugly. The Supermoto probably falls between those two categories.

Bikes like the BMW GS and the Super Duke actually exploits its own ugliness to its benefit. Both of those bikes actually look super cool because of its quirky looks.

jaskc78 wrote:And yes, Mr. Stark, I agree that it's not always about the looks, but if it's gonna be on the Cool Wall then the whole bike has to be cool, not just the function.

Lookit....... first of all, I own a V-strom AND I ride it in public. It's all about the function, dood, and nuttin' else!!

When the V-strom came out, it was lauded (rightly so) as a go-anywhere, do-anything bike. Now KTM has made a tourable go-anywhere, do-anything bike that's 50 lbs lighter, and has 10 HP more than the V-strom. On top of this it has superb brakes, factory conformal luggage, and an all-day riding position. This is the bike the Buell Ulysses should have been. Awesome.