What an excellent idea!! Make a renowned Super Moto into a machine that can do some miles in comfort pour la derriere, protect you from the elements and allow you to carry more than a puncture repair kit and a Mars bar!!! In essence this is what the KTM 990 SMT is, it has all the nice bits of the 990 SM, but by adding the T for Tourer it gives you a nice comfy seat, a screen that works, less suspension travel than the SM model for better handling, and still maintains all those lovely SM niceties which add up to endless fun.

Well, does it really? Yes and no. The good things are a comfy seat and a screen that works, a lovely engine with loads of low down grunt, arguably the smoothest gearbox I have ever experienced, but it still has a small (19 litre) fuel tank.

This is the 3rd KTM (990 Super Duke and RC8 being the other two) of the larger size I have now tried and yet I still come away feeling a bit disappointed; and do you know why? Well, it's quite simple rally, they aren't good enough …. yet. For me KTM need to produce a good inline 4 or V4 that is a match for Japanese machines.

Anyway, let me describe my experience. I only had the bike for an hour, which usually I would say is not long enough to test it properly but we had in mind a short run to encompass a good range of mainly unclassified, bumpy bendy little backroad horrors, ideal in our opinion to sample the stated objectives of Motos, to leave sportsbikes for dead in the real world of pot-holes, unsighted bends, farmyard deposits, etc. So I led for the first part to get used to the bike and not get drawn into anything I wasn't ready for.

Whilst leading it seemed OK, but I did note early on that this is not a quick steering bike by any means and there was the odd over-wide corner exit.

For the second half I was the follower and this is where things started to go a bit pear-shaped. First I had to up the pace and suddenly the bike was struggling. Being a moto you have the luxury of wide bars, and boy do you need them - the steering is so slow that when ridden hard it really gives your biceps a work out, I kid you not. The Brembo brakes are excellent they truly are, but when applied hard going into a tight bend chasing a swiftly ridden 3 year old Fireblade it feels like the back end wants to come round on you. So, you are fighting your way into the bend and also trying to control the back and not let it come round and all whilst trying to keep your mate in sight. Maybe this back end coming round action is supposed to be part of the Super Moto experience, but believe me, it's not nice with a bike weighing over 200 kgs and does tend to push the bike wide on corners as opposed to reducing the turn and gassing it out of the bend whilst your sportsbike-mounted mate disappears behind you, which is supposed to be the Supermoto backroad experience!

I persevered until we basically ran out of time heading west and decided we needed to head east, so when in a 30 mph limit I flagged down the hare and we stopped for a debate. On the return leg I led again and upped the pace more than the ride out, but there was a problem: I felt all the time that if I was caught out mid bend by anything unexpected, I did not have the confidence in the bike that it could handle the situation adequately. And I don't like that, natch.

By the end of the run I did have a bit of a sweat on, and my arms were aching more than you would expect from a 20 mile ride in a short space of time on backroads.

The suspension needs a lot of fettling to try to get the bike to handle anywhere close to where it should be. And you can not get over the front of the bike as the saddle is too wide where it joins the tank which doesn't held with cornering/steering - the bike always seems to push your upper body weight back, so you can't get that front end into bends properly.

The bike's concept is good and fair play to KTM for a having a go, it's a brave move and I'm sure they will sell plenty even for £9.5K and in a recession. But for anyone looking for the Future Of Motorcycling this KTM isn't it. And if you are looking for the Super Moto Experience, buy a super moto not the SMT, unless all your mates do, or you will be left behind.