I helped club member Simon83 move house yesterday (from Theale to Thatcham) and in the process I got to ride his two bikes the 8 miles or so between the two.
The new Ténéré was bloody marvellous and shrugged off the weather (snow, freezing cold) and handled all road conditions with ease, I was very impressed. The riding position is massively unfamiliar to me, the bars being above the top yoke and all that and I did get an impression of a hard saddle waiting to make high miles a drag, but that's almost de rigeur for trail bikes.
Later on I rode the KTM Duke and that is very different. The KTM feels much lighter than the Ten, and the engine feels a lot gruntier, partly though (I suspect) because there's less evidence of a balance shaft and because it's much louder. The handling in bad, slow conditions is just appalling, as if the head bearings are completely shot. I remember this from when I last rode the bike in 2003. On that occasion I upped the speed (dry roads) and it all started to make sense. However, on wet roundabouts on the A4 in winter, it can't be ridden hard enough to make it work. Consequently I'd say that it was the least confidence inspiring bike I've ridden. It's still bloody lovely though.
On balance I'd have to say that the Ten is the better bike to own, especially if you're not as lucky as Simon in being able to own two bikes. It does everything you need a bike to do and probably has about 75 per cent of the KTM's scratching ability. The KTM does very little apart from scratch, but on a nice dry day that remaining 25 per cent will blow off most other bikes on the (twisty) road.
We all worked hard yesterday, but I also got to ride two very good thumpers back to back and in the process I realised that if I was rich enough to afford either it would be a very hard choice between the two.
GC
