The edgy styling a common KTM characteristic now. It has some personality. The bird look is not the best, but it has something going for it. It does look very much an evolution of KTMs usual (excellent) dirt-bike designs, pushed towards more street duty. It's nice looking for an ugly-bike genre
Even the best looking weight lifter looks kindof ugly to me.I loved riding an original Duke (640) quite a few years ago now (not bad but too softly sprung for real Super Motard duty), and the only other KTM I have ridden was a 125SX (wicked 2-stroke motocrosser). The usual feedback from KTM owners is generally positive in my experience -- and having worked at a KTM dealer (albeit some time ago when they were just gaining hold again on the off-road market and moving into that new orange colour scheme) they have always built high quality stuff, which makes for that super clean look. In other words they always look cooler in person.
Decent enough horsepower; pretty light considering it is more of a HyperMo thing than a SuperMo... i.e. another category. It just aint gonna win any power contests in the hooligan market. Ducati having more horsepower helps separate the two by price and power. A "budget buy" aint about cool anyway, it's about reality, but if you can get cool for less cash then it's all good. I think the KTM is costly enough, the Ducati is pushing the envelope for cost, but they also have a stronger brand image among the masses.
Anyway, I gave the SM-T a Cool vote because it is interesting to see manufacturers working on creating new genre's of production bikes.
10-20 years ago all you had for production bikes in Canada was 90% a) Cruiser or b) Sportbike c) Dual-sport d) Trail-bike e) Motocrosser, and maybe 5% Standards at best... now the variations of standards, cruiser, dirt and adventure touring things are really strong. And the quality of dual-sports (for off-road, and for backroad adventure-touring) and the many Motards is great. It also reminds me how cool the Yamaha V-Max was 25 years ago, as well as riding KX500/CR500 ice racers, and other fun stuff that other people just didnt care about. The funny thing is my buddies and I loved the Motards starting when we first saw the ABC Superbikes series. It is amazing how long it has taken them to become acceptable/fashionable among the masses and then to breed these newer production designs.
