My KTM 1290 Superduke Test Ride

It never happened.
Omky756 and I received an e-mail from the local KTM dealer on September 12. Shortly thereafter, we RSVP'd and asked to ride the new Superduke during the first, 10:00 AM slot. We received a confirming call this past week from the dealer. We were told 10:00 slot was full, but we could ride at 11:30. Both Omky and I had stuff planned for the afternoon, and 11:30 was cutting it close, but doable. So, we booked 11:30. I was pretty excited to try the TV4 back to back with the 1290 SDR. I thought I could do a decent right up of the strengths and weaknesses of each. But, . . ..

Today, we showed up promptly at 10:30 AM and went to the registration table to check in. There was no obvious check in desk at the local dealer's tent, so we went to the KTM corporate tent. There I met one of the most arrogant jackasses of my entire life - Mr Randy Mullinix, Area Sales Manager, Southwest region. We told Mr. Mullinix that we were signed up for the 11:30 time slot. He responded, our list or their list (indicating the local dealer's tent)? I said their list. He says, they shouldn't have done that. We tried using their list, but some people didn't show up, so we scrapped it and there is no list except our list. The first time slot available for the 1290 is 12:30 P.M.

Mind you, this was 10:30 and the demo rides started at 10:00. So, this brain trust took a shit on all his potential customer's schedules because he wasn't smart enough to fill empty spots with newcomers and leave the rest of the list in tact. No apologies. No nothing. He just tried to blame his own incompetence on the dealer - without whom we'd have never heard of the event. Because, to my knowledge, KTM made no effort to promote it.

That's it. I will never buy another KTM. Good job Randy. Way to promote that KTM good will. Shows us dumb asses what type of customer service we can expect when we shell out $20K for your product. But, unfortunately, I already knew that, having previously drunk the Koolaide.

I'm throwing my hat in as moderator. I will no longer do anything to promote this company in any way. Anyone who wants to take my spot, weekends, should contact me or one of the other mods for more info.

Have a good sleep on it. I can speak from experience I wish I slept on some decisions I was so sure about at the time.

Sucks you feel the way you do.

I would have called him a stupid cunt and been done with it.

It is very sad that it is now illegal to punch people in the face, stupid randy deserves a good back to earth slapping!
If I was you I'll vent my anger by emailing stefan, his email can be googled.

KTM PR is working very good in the US ...

another dummy,sorry pacifier comes out of a pram some people really get upset by one idiot but then blame the whole company for one guys failings , bizzarre

i had the same experience at ducati
a couple of years back
dont let one azzhole turn you off
if you want to fly to new jersey you
can test ride my bike

Hey Crotch,

I emailed my preference as well. Got a voice mail saying to call this guy to confirm bike choice and time slot. I could not get a hold of him so thought my chance was lost. Was heading to Malibu anyway so popped over there at about 9:30 and managed to get signed up with the corporate guys, didn't even try the local TO guys as they weren't very organized at that moment. The KTM rep I was talking to was the truck driver/organizer. Very nice guy, apparently good friends with Mike Brown (Brownie), drives the rig for all of the Supercross events here in the US. We had a nice chat about SX and he signed me up for the SD @ 10:00 on the spot.

The guy your talking about showed up just as I was completing the process and started barking out orders and imposing his authority on the situation. I thought...good thing I'm all signed up and don't have to deal with this guy.

You didn't miss much, the ride was short and pretty tame. No switching bike out of Street mode (although I did), you know me...gotta have the whole enchilada.

Cheers

As much as I love these bikes, I've tried to avoid Ktm customer service. Heard pretty bad stuff.
Had 3 bolts missing on the 1290' and still no word...

I bought mine without test riding it. I still haven't turned back. They may suck with Customer Care, but Christ they make amazing machines..

kTM if you can hear this, isn't it high time you started listening to your customers and you fans... The comment made by Ewan McGregor in 'the long way across" about them probably not making it - put a bad taste in my mouth too...

Back from a ride this morning ... Read this, and think "... could KTM really have gone from bad to worse?".

Apparently possible. A shame - given that SoCal is the largest market in the US for KTM's products, both street and dirt. Seems like they aren't even trying. Another echo of the arrogance exhibited by their regional sales guy.

Friday, I was offered the use of a 1290 for the afternoon at the track. Even though the trackday org is sponsored by KTM, ironically none of the org's on-site intro school instructors wanted to use it that day (they prefer the RC8Rs) ... I declined. Free gas, tyres - and it was the faster black version. Been there, done it - probably not gonna do it again. Dragging hard parts on a wallowing suspension - pass. Who knows, maybe in a couple of years, KTM will get the bike sorted. I doubt it however, and with little-to-no actual corporate customer support (reflective my own experiences), I probably won't care.

Still having fun on the 990 nearly every day (those when there's nothing to maintain/fix), and still like it's appearance (admittedly more than I like the 1290's lower, stretched look).

Sorry to learn you and Omky had such a shitty experience. Nothing worse than a vendor simply wasting your time.

Is this classed as a flounce ?

The handling of the immobilizer failure on my 990 SMR was a disaster. Never could tell if it was the dealer or KTM or both. I bought my 1290 from another dealer though!

Sounds like KTM needs to ditch the rep for sure. I mean they want to sell bikes right? And keep customers happy so they buy more bikes? The proper response would have been for the rep to apologize for the ride list confusion and make sure and get you on a bike somehow for the time you signed up for!

Despite the idiot rep, I would not abandon KTM. At the moment I have a 2014 500 EXC and the 1290. Both awesome machines. The 500 is a durably built, great handling, monster dirt bike that also happens to be street legal. Love that bike. Knock on wood.....the 1290 has had no issues and the dealer has so far been OK.

I completely agree that KTM has to get it's act together if they want to grow their market share in the USA. The road bike market is more competitive than the dirt bike market so just having great bikes is not enough.

In real life there is always some knob who pisses others right up to the limit in couple of seconds. Personally I can't understand such a behavior, but I believe that for individuals like mentioned guy, acting described above is just 'normal' and you can't expect anything better from him.
Seeing threads like this I'm even more happy with my local dealer