WORDS: ROOTSY IMAGES: MARCO CAMPELLI, SEABASS ROMERO
Back in 2013, I remember exactly where I was when I phoned BJ up to see how phenomenal the new KTM 1290 Super Duke R was at the launch. Standing on a platform on Luton’s train station, I was holding the phone away from my ear so as to protect it from the bombardment of shouted superlatives conjoined with swear words that would soo to emitted by my phone’s speaker about the Beast. None was forthcoming.
“It’s good,” BJ said in an uncharacteristic quiet voice that screamed non-commitment “but it’s not the Beast we were promised.” Expecting to be maimed every time he touched the throttle, the image dreamed up by KTM’s marketers of this slick-shod, open-piped, rabid weapon just didn’t resonate on the road now that the Beast ha been given a more sensible name, castratin electronics, a set of lights and a reg plate.