First ride: 2007 KTM 950 Super Enduro

Click to read: KTM 950 Super Enduro owners reviews, KTM 950 Super Enduro specs and to see the KTM 950 Super Enduro image gallery.

It's like this. You're on a 950cc V-twin. You're in third gear, you're powering out of a turn, and you've got the rear spinning. It's about two feet out of line. And it's staying out there, because you've planned this and you can do it. You are, my friend, rear wheel steering. And this really is you, not Valentino Rossi or Troy Bayliss, nor even Leon Haslam. No, it's you as it is me, average man.

The difference is you're on the gravel, not the Tarmac. But, even so, check you out: dude, that's a 950cc V-twin that you're riding all crossed up.

A KTM 950 Super Enduro to be precise. What the Super Enduro is, is easier to see than to describe. It's part super-sized enduro racer, part downsized super-trailie. The engine is that of the 950 Adventure, the carburetted predecessor of the 990 Adventure. And the chassis is also similar, but not identical, to the Adventure. You can count on a more relaxed steering head angle, significantly narrower rims and pukka suspension. It's obviously stripped for action too. But rest assured, with a monster 920mm seat height - even six-footers are going struggle - and an all-up weight barely shy of a fuelled-up litre sports bike's 200 kilos, this is still a f*ck-off big mutha. A friggin' leviathan.

Of course, its all very well building mad-as super enduro tools, but unless they offer something close to some utility, some usability for us paying punters, then they're likely to quickly become white elephants. So to see if the Super Enduro can offer anything to the British biker we took one, strapped a weekend bag on the back and headed off to deepest Wales for the Cambrian Rally (see our Quick guide, below).

I'll admit it took a whole 40-mile lap of the off-road course to get in tune with the bike, its size and
performance. But for the second lap we got into the groove. With knowledge of what was coming up
corners could be attacked, not negotiated, and clearly the Super Enduro responded well to a firm hand.

What comes with time in the saddle is an appreciation of the limitations as to what you can do off-road with the Super Enduro, although if you see the promotional videos of enduro-god Giovanni Sala bouncing one across the roof of Africa you may think otherwise (as clearly does Gio). But the truth is for mortal man with a normal appreciation of self-preservation then there's a limit. One limitation is the ability to get the front light for obstacles.

This is fine at slow speed, but getting the front light at 40mph when facing a sudden rock or wash-out isn't so easy. And in case you need to know, the penalties can be either a puncture (maybe with a dinged rim as well) or potentially an endo. Another limitation is wet grass and mud. On town and country tyres (worn ones at that) the Super Enduro was as useful as a GSX-R1000 - on this going it's a spoon-off waiting to happen. Finally there's the real world limitation of just how fast you should go off-road. World championship motocross tracks are carefully designed to limit top speeds to about 50mph at most.