In-coming : Which Bike? (KTM Duke 690 R)

I have had the opportunities to own and play with some great bikes thus far- with different brand names across different engine specifications (single, parallel twin, V-twin, and inline-four), but I realised that there was a brand that I had often overlooked although it kept coming back to my mind again and again from time to time.

Perhaps I should just scratch this itch once and for all, and see if this bike would be a keeper or flipper. I tend to be a flipper with my bikes thus far; as I hardly have any time to ride with my busy work schedule here and abroad requiring constant travels, so I like to get a bike stock, work my magic on the mods to see if I could improve the fella, and then flip it off to a deserving owner when the project is done.

Amongst some of the bikes that have passed through, or were still in, my stable included the following :

True, one tends to suffer from price depreciation during the flipping of the bike; but I derived satisfaction from the riding, modding and fine-tuning, and I get to experience different varieties of bikes, so to me, it was still a worthwhile experience.

Well, at least, I get to keep to that as long as my better half still buys my explanation.

I am now thinking of adding either one of these bikes to my stable as per the following :

The basic all-rounder : KTM Duke 690 ABS @ RM46,500

The improved all-rounder : KTM Duke 690R ABS @ RM52,500

Being single-cyclinder bikes, I know that both Duke 690 (R-guise or otherwise) would be fun and preppy during town commutes (town commute for the weekend takeaways being a duty served faithfully by my maxi-scooter), but suffer from top-end and vibrations during constant long-distance rides.

And knowing my style, I normally like to ride from Mont Kiara to KLIA at nights when I have the time after the brood goes to sleep, to both think and relax my mind. The KTM may not be the best of choice for such rides, so I may just have to find new roads to use the KTM's services, if I should decide to go down this route.

I've never had a KTM before, but I've always been interested in its aggressive design and splashes of orange colour all over. So the next question is... should I pull the trigger; and if in the affirmative, which version?