KTM640 Super Motard
Do you need a dirt bike and a road bike, but you want the road bike to be more like the dirt bike. You might like to make your second bike a super motard. Bazz from Dirt Bike Trader tests the theory on KTM's 640SM. (Pics by Damien Shenhurst)Two big aluminium mufflers poke out the back, and from these jugs comes a healthy rumble that never degenerates into anything obscene. Pity, really. I'd like to hear a heathen scream coming from this thing.
THE FEEL
This is a big bike. It's tall and it's imposing, but it's still 14kg lighter than a Honda CBR600RR, and has twice the ground clearance.
Riding a dirt bike kitted out as a road bike is an interesting experience. You sit high and upright, but with this thing the lean angle and ground clearance enable you to crank it more than the average dirt rider would be game to on a pure road bike. The KTM has 275mm fork travel, 260mm shock travel and 280mm of ground clearance. Maybe all the cranking heat is what you get when ground clearance exceeds suspension travel. Beats me, but it sure feels good.
THE ENGINE
I'll be truthful: this is not a fast bike. The 625cc engine is tractable and has a midrange like a Haulpak, but it doesn't produce the sort of top-end speed that will scare you. There's no real hit anywhere, as you'd expect from a big bore single, but that's the problem: on a bike like this you want hit.
Removing the muffler bungs might help. So might a lighter flywheel, so the thing will rev instead of chug. Despite the high-flow head, this engine is a fairly unrefined bit of gear by today's standards. It also vibrates like an angle-grinder.
THE HANDLING
The KTM feels like a big dirt bike, because it is, but it has terrific stability at speed, as if the wheels are stuck in a groove full of slowly hardening cement. To me, the shock feels okay but the front-end twitches when you hit something hard like one of the road authority's concrete canyons. Other than that, the bike sits square in the lane and changes direction very easily.
In my experience this is a much easier bike to ride fast than an orthodox road bike because it turns without much physical effort or 'body steering'. Good riders say they can dive up the inside of a sports bike on a super motard. I can't do it, let's get that straight, but I can see what they mean.
The front brake is not your average single-cylinder, or even two-cylinder caliper, but a four-pot Brembo around a 320mm rotor and it'sconfidence inspiring. A little pressure goes a long way with this setup and the stoppers seem to be a very good match for the bike's power and mass.
Throttle management is everything on a bike, and on a 150kg monster like this it's even more important. You'll get the best from the 640SM if you plan your cornering line in advance and make sure you're in the correct gear for the speed you want to do. Get it right and the KTM will hold its line like a school bus.
THE HORN FACTOR
This bike is not comfortable enough to cruise on. It's a one-hour wonder. A café racer on stilts. You'll have a ball on it - for about an hour - if you concentrate on being as smooth as you can; getting the line right, the revs right, the speed right, and come out the other end smiling like you've just invented something new.
PLEASE EXPLAIN
Looks good. Corners great. Oozes cred. But there's a problem, and by now you know what it is. Two things spoil this bike: the vibration and the date-pounding seat. Vibration is the KTM's least attractive feature, and worst in the cruising sweetspot between 110 and 130km/h.
The seat might be okay for Chad Reed but on this bike it's a brick. If you spend more than two hours in the saddle you'll have Flat Arse Syndrome.
They can fix the seat but not the vibration. Pity.
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