I got lucky today. Scuderia West in San Francisco got their first 950 SM in last week. They plan to make it a demo bike, but they need to get 500 miles on the bike and do the first service before they put it into duty. Because I have been a customer of theirs for a while now and know them quite well, they have been kind enough to let me help them break in some of their demo bikes. Today, my assignment was to put around 200 miles on their new KTM 950 SM bike and let them know what I thought.

Tough job...but...well...you know the rest.

I got a bit of a preview of the bike yesterday when the owner of the shop, Don Lemelin, a couple of his buddies, and Popey and I went out for a ride. Don was on the 950 SM and was kind enough to pass it around amongst us, so we each got a small dose. But today was my chance to take it out on my own for as long as I wanted and really see what it was like on lots of different kinds of roads and while riding at a number of different paces.

These are my impressions of this amazing bike.

Appearance

First off, the looks. I must admit that from the pictures I had seen of the bike I had decided that I was interested in it despite its looks, not because of them. I thought the bike was a little chunky or stubby looking. Kind of like a blunt instrument or something. I have to say that it looked better to me in the flesh than it did in the pics.

One of the first things I did on my ride today was to climb up Mt. Tamalpais, one of the more spectacular spots in the Bay Area. I took some pics of the bike up there that I hope do it justice. Here are a few.

While I was up there, a group of professional TV commercial types were shooting an advertisment for the Ford Mustang GT. Since I had to wait for them to get down the road before I was allowed to proceed, I snapped a few pics of them in action that I figured you might get a kick out of.

While I was waiting for them to finish their pass, I got a chance to get friendly with the CHP officer who was handling traffic control. Got what I expect might be the first of many similar photos of the KTM 950 SM and the Law. Just remember, you saw it here first.

Sound

Excellent. Even with the stock cans on, the bike has a great plummy V-Twin sound. In the past, I have typically put aftermarket cans on my bikes to increase the sound and perhaps get a bit more performance out of the engine. In this case, I actually decided that I liked the sound of the stock cans and I would be happy keeping them on the bike indefinitely. The pipes are fairly quiet, but don't sound strangled. I had no sound fatigue after four hours of riding. As you may know, this bike doesn't have a tachometer, so shifting is mostly by feel and sound. This is the first bike that I found that I actually preferred to ride on without wearing earplugs. I found the sound pleasant, and it helped to be able to use the sound of the engine to decide when to shift in addition to the other sensory inputs.

I previously owned a KTM 950 Adventure and have to admit that that bike sounded excellent with the Akrapovic cans on it. And one of the riders in the group ride yesterday had a 950 Adventure with Leo Vince cans on it that sounded fantastic. So aftermarket cans would probably be excellent on this bike too.

Comfort/ergonomics

The seating position is classic supermoto. Upright. Very comfy. Good leg room (and I am 6' 1 1/2" tall with long legs.) Nice wide handlebars give outstanding leverage for control of the bike on the twisties.

There is no windscreen on this bike (in true supermoto fashion) so I wasn't expecting much in the way of protection, and I wasn't disappointed. The wind blast isn't really an issue below around 60-70 mph (unless you are riding into a headwind), but one of the features of this bike is that it has lots of power, and the bike accelerates like there is no tomorrow. So it isn't at all uncommon to find yourself in the 60+ mph range without even thinking about it, particularly in sweeping turns and on the open road. In these conditions, the wind blast is quite noticeable and because of the completely upright seating position, the chest acts as a large sail, forcing you to either assume the "racing" position on the bike or to hang on for dear life to the handlebars. As you might imagine, this can become fatiguing after a while. A small wind deflector on the front might make a big difference

The seat is one of the weak spots of the bike for me, but for the opposite reason than you might expect: I think that it is a bit too soft. I guess that KTM was listening to all the complaints about the seat on the 950 Adventure being like a plank of wood and decided to "fix" the problem by using softer foam on this bike. Unfortunately, soft foam doesn't provide a lot of support when a heavy object is pressing on it in a relatively small area for a relatively long period of time. I found my rear end starting to sink into the foam after an hour or so and was wishing for a bit more support. My rear started to get a bit uncomfortable after a couple of hours in the saddle and by the end of the day (after around five hours of riding), I was looking forward to getting off the bike. Nothing that couldn't be fixed. Everyone's rear end is different. No seat works for everyone. No big deal.

The only other niggle I had about the comfort of the bike was the vibration. The vibes are not terrible, but are definitely noticeable, particularly in the mid and higher RPM range. Vibrations can be felt in the footpegs, handgrips and even in the seat. For the typical sport ride, this is a a non-issue. But the vibes do tend to make the bike a bit more tiring over the long haul, and might make it less desirable for long rides and/or touring.

Handling/Suspension

The handling of the bike is unique, at least in my experience. The bike posesses an astounding agility and yet it retains an incredible amount of stability in turns (if ridden properly.) But it isn't quite as simple as that.

The geometry of the bike is pure supermoto. This bike wants to turn. Quickly. With minimal effort. You can literally steer it with your hips and knees in the right conditions. It responds instantaneously and with minimal resistance. It is like a surgical instrument. On a twisty road with quick transitions coming one right after the other, there is NO BIKE OUT THERE that can equal this bike. It is almost magical. Line changes can be made in mid turn with absolute precision.

As you might imagine, this precision and responsiveness comes at a price. The rider must be on their game at all times. A rider must be smooth and inputs must be precise or else the bike can feel "twitchy" even though it is actually a very stable platform considering the responsiveness that it offers. Ham fisted riders need not apply. Even skilled riders will notice that they cannot get sloppy, even when tired, or the bike can become somwhate annoying. I will say it again...this is not a relaxed ride. In this regard, it is something of the opposite of the GS.

Despite this characteristic, the bike feels very planted in turns and there is no fore-aft wallowing or unusual suspension behavior. Ridden well, the bike is completely predictable and feels very confidence inspiring.

The suspension has a fair bit of travel and is able to absorb reasonably large bumps, but it is also sprung quite stiffly in order to minimize dive on braking, which it does very well. This stiffer ride means that the bike doesn't absorb big bumps quite as nicely as some other softer sprung bikes (like the 950 Adventure or the GS.) It still works very well on the beat up old back roads, and the suspension is a very good compromise of control and comfort. Better than the Tuono, which is essentially a racing bike with wide/tall handlebars.

The bike also seems to be at its best on certain kinds of roads and a bit less optimal on others. As you might imagine, it lives for twisty roads. The absolute perfect road for this bike has endless moderately tight turns and elevation changes. For those in the Bay Area or famililar with its roads, I am thinking about Highway 1 north of Mill Valley, the Marshall-Petaluma Rd., Stage Rd. Mines Rd., La Honda Rd., Pescadero Rd. and the likes. The bike is also as good as any other on super tight roads (such as Fairfax-Bolinas, Alpine, etc.) but these roads are so tight and slow that it is hard to get a good rhythym flowing on any bike. The bike loses some of its edge to others when things get more open...Chileno Valley, Spring Hill Rd., etc. Its agility is no longer relevant, and the higher speed stability of other bikes gives them some advantage. Out on the freeway, the bike is tolerable, but not really pleasant. Its light weight, lack of protection, and geometry all work to make high speed highway riding somehthing to be tolerated rather than enjoyed.

I found the bike to be excellent in around town urban riding. Its small size, agility and quickness were very nice. The main downside to commuting on this bike is the lack of storage. KTM has a tankbag that would partially solve this problem. No place for a helmet, though.

Engine/Performance

Spectacular. I love this engine. Good solid V-Twin low end torque andlots of acceleration, virtually on demand. The engine will get this bike moving at high speed semi-instantaneously. The flat power curve allows getting on the power early and hard and makes riding it a complete hoot. Even though I am wheelie challenged, we rode with a wheelie expert yesterday, and he seemed to think that this bike was easy to wheelie using nothing but torque in the first three gears, and he gave us all a nice demonstration of this during our ride (he does the same thing on his 950 Adventure!). I got around 28 mpg with a mix of agressive and mellow riding and the fuel light came on at around 100 miles. Total range might be somewhere around 130 miles if you wanted to risk walking.

Transmission

More or less flawless. Smooth shifts. Good clutch action with the right amount of stiffness in the lever. As I mention in a later post in this thread, the gearing was perhaps a tiny bit taller than it needed to be which resulted in the bike straddling first and second gears in some of the slower, ultra-twisty stuff. Might make sense to drop a tooth on the front or go up a couple on the rear to shift things around a bit. The bike isn't particularly well suited to high speed droning on the freeway anyway, so there is lots of top end speed that could be sacrificed if needed to get the best gearing for your particular twisty roads. And a slightly lower gear would make it easier to wheelie (although those who are already wheelie proficient would probably feel that the bike is super wheelie friendly as it comes from the factory.)

Brakes

At first I thought that the front brakes were, if anything, too powerful. This is the first bike that I have had to think about the possibility of doing a stoppie on by accident and I originally thought that this was a "defect" of the bike. But after riding the bike all day today, I learned how to use the brakes better and found myself loving the control that they provide. Come into a turn fast, apply both the front and rear brakes. Get the bike close to the desired approach speed, let up on the fronts but keep a tiny bit of rear to fine tune the speed and keep the chassis settled. After a while it is like a simple dance, and you feel in complete control. I love the brakes on this bike.

Overall Impression

In the hands of a skilled rider, the master of the twisty road. Nothing else even comes close. If the GSXR truly "owns the racetrack" then the KTM 950 "owns the twisty road." No bike, of any kind, can outdo it in its element. And the harder it is pushed, the more its exceptional qualities shine.

But it isn't a bike for everyone. It requires deft inputs and may seem unforgiving if not handled well. It doesn't have all day comfort. It isn't particularly good to take out for a mellow cruise. It isn't particularly fun on the freeway.

I suspect that this bike is going to sell like hotcakes and that KTM won't be able to keep up with demand. With bikes like this appearing with astonishing freuqency these days, it seems clear to me that we truly are living in the "golden age of motorcycling."

Please remember that all of this is just one semi-decrepit old man's opinions. YMMV.

Thanks for tuning in. Ride safely.

KTMtwins.com would like to thank our friend and customer Kirk Moon for taking time out from his busy day to flog one of the only 950 Supermotos in the Country. Thanks Kirk!