KTM 950 Supermoto (2008) - Review - Test By, Trevor Hedge Page 1 / Page 2 / Page 3 / Page 4

To the Batcycle! By, Trevor Hedge One of the highlights for any kid viewing the original Batman series was the great vehicles Adam West (Batman) and Burt Ward (Robin) had at their disposal. The Batmobile, Batboat, Batcopter and Batcycle were all interesting creations. While that original Batmobile will always remain a very cool car the original 1959 Harley and 1966 Yamaha Catalina sourced Batcycles are certainly a long way from cool in this day and age. Why are we talking about Batman on a motorcycle site you ask? And fair question! It was spending some quality time with KTM’s 950 Supermoto that brought the subject to hand. Its svelte black lines and large orange lettered KTM signage on its flanks had me thinking this would make one hell of a cool 21st century Batcycle! Replace the KTM lettering with the famous Batman symbol and I could imagine our beloved caped crusader riding this hooligan machine on one wheel chasing down the Joker, Penguin and Riddler to deliver some trademark ‘Biff’, ‘Pow’ and ‘Thwacks’ as captioned in the original series. While riding the KTM 950 SM I never once pretended I was in Batman themed leathers while hunting the bad guys. Honest! Anyway, to the Batcycle! I hadn’t expected too much from KTM’s big Supermoto machine. The Austrian company’s first large capacity road going motorcycles had woeful tank ranges. And those tiny tank ranges actually came as quite a relief as they gave you a chance to rest your buttocks between stints! So with the Supermoto hinting at being a slimmed down even more aggressive variant, I had reserved myself to the fact that I was in for lots of service station visits and bruised buttocks during my time with the SM. Instead the SM proved the most comfortable and frugal KTM machine I have ever ridden! I once had the fuel light on an early KTM Superduke glowing a warning in 85km, and after covering a similar route at a similar pace on the 950 Supermoto I had used less than half a tank! And after a simple run across the dams from Serpentine through to Mundaring on the original 950 Adventure I had taken to standing on the pegs such was the punishment its hard seat delivered to my butt. On the 950 Supermoto I covered 650km in a day and was none the worse for wear! So while I expected the Supermoto to be even less practical than its forebears, it actually proved to be by far the most practical, comfortable and downright enjoyable roadbike KTM has yet produced! Don’t worry, there is still a fairly wild side there for the asking but as far as day to day manners go the 950 SM is a ripper of a bike. Maybe the Austrians are actually getting the hang of this roadbike making lark. Continued on Page Two...

KTM 950 Supermoto (2008) - Review - Test
By, Trevor Hedge
Page 1 / Page 2 / Page 3 / Page 4