Since 1977 BRABUS have been synonymous with blinging cars up, to make them look and feel really trick. They’ve gone from strength to strength over the years, they’ve even started making boats. And the time’s finally come for them to move into the motorcycle market. Sort of, anyway. Because KTM are releasing a new bike, the BRABUS 1300 R, which is being marketed as a BRABUS, but is actually just a KTM.
Stupid Duke
Not that that’s a bad thing, mind. If you use the KTM 1290 Super Duke R as a starting point for any new bike, you’re not going to go far wrong. In fact you’d have to try really hard to fuck it up. In the press release about the new BRABUS 1300 R there was no mention of the Super Duke R, but the email did come from KTM. So I assumed this new BRABUS was at least based on a Super Duke. A quick look at the pictures confirmed this – the engine, frame and suspension (well suspension off the Evo version, anyway) all looked identical to that of the Super Duke. Probably because it is.
Being a ‘tuning’ company, rather than a manufacturer, I think we can let BRABUS off with that. Although they don’t appear to have done any tuning to the actual engine, which still makes 180bhp and 140Nm of torque, the same as the latest Super Duke. Don’t get me wrong, that’s plenty of power, but it’s obviously not a tuned engine.
So what have they done then? Well, quite simply, they’ve done what they tend to do to all their Mercs and Maybachs. They’ve bolted a load of bling to a Super Duke in a sort of Pimp My Ride style. I’m talking about carbon fibre body panels, BRABUS wheels, BRABUS exhaust, BRABUS airducts, a fancy heated seat, loads of CNC machined bits like triple clamps, footpegs, levers and stuff like that. There’s nothing especially performance enhancing, but it’s all very pretty, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Sovereign
It’s not about performance, though. According to the presser, “The BRABUS 1300 R is about so much more than just an extraordinary riding experience. It also makes an unapologetic statement about luxury, exclusivity, and sovereignty.” Now, I get the bit about luxury and exclusivity, but how it’s supposed to make a statement about sovereignty, I have absolutely no idea.
Fagan reckons it’s all very ‘Ducati’, and I’d be inclined to agree. But Ducati are doing alright these days, so I suppose if you can’t beat them, join them.
As yet, neither BRABUS nor KTM have published a price, which I think means it’ll be pretty steep. If you have to ask, and all that. Scrap that, news just in; as I’m writing this, we’ve just had confirmation of the price. As I expected, it’s not cheap. £34,549. Roughly double the price of a 1290 Super Duke.
Oh there’ll only be 154 of them, too; that’s 77 Magma Red bikes and 77 Signature Black ones. 77 because that’s when BRABUS was formed (as in 1977).
This is the first ever motorcycle BRABUS have ‘made’ so owning one will be like owning a piece of history, although don’t expect anyone to write a book about you. If you want to make an unapologetic statement about luxury, exclusivity, sovereignty, and how much money you’ve got, you can pre-order yours on February 14th at 2pm on the KTM website, HERE.
