I came from a SUper Tenere to the 1190, I bought the S10 at a time where I wanted to buy a bigger house and could not be sure I would have the funds to replace it for a long time, I had a GS at the time and it had a lot of small (but expensive if not under warranty) niggles by the time it was 3.5 years old and had 18k on the clock.
4 years and @22,000 trouble free miles later with the S10 I saw a deal on a new KTM 1190 with £3k off, I had the funds and knew with the discount I could keep it 2 years and not lose too much if I flogged it the day the warranty expired.
The 1190 is now 2.5 years old with 16,000 miles and been almost flawless except once throwing an EDS error, bought a 1 year old 1090 last year and took this from 3k to 9k over the summer, it too was good except for throwing a "General Failure" code which persisted for half a day and then never came back.
Just bought a discounted 1290S on the same basis as I bought the 1190, for the same reason, I can get 2 seasons use out of it and not lose too much if I sell it on before the warranty expires.
As far as I am concerned they can stick the TFT Screen, Keyless ignition and Semi Active Suspension somewhere dark and smelly, it does little to add to the riding experience and is just an expensive failure waiting to happen, the screens and ignitions are already causing problems on brand new bikes, AFAIK the semi active suspension is not problematic (yet) but when it does fuck up you will need a new shock and control unit and it will cost about £2k to fix - contrast to a quality shock (Ohlins, Wilburs, Nitron) which can be serviced for under £100.
I am not sure if people generally want all this crap, or are having it forced on them as the tech arms race between BMW, KTM and Ducati rages, not sure we wanted the speed race that raged for 30 years either, I had a GPZ900R, ZZR1100 and ZZR1400 - none were bought for the top speed, upgrades were based on better handling and wanting a newer machine. Lower weight, better suspension and more torque was valued over top speed - but I helped the sales charts that probably convinced them everyone wanted a faster bike.
I would prefer a simpler 1290S version I would have confidence to keep for 5+ years and 50,000 miles, rather than something that will be a liability at 2-3 years old, a basic S and high tech SE Models would work for me, those wanting all the crap can have it, those who don't save a few quid and a load of aggro.
The S10 is a nice bike, I loved mine and have a lot of fond memories, but it is a bit bland and lacks excitement, take a lot of the unnecessary tech of the 1290 and it would very likely be close to the Yamaha for reliability, I could let it off not quite matching the longevity of the Yamaha engine seeing as it has 50% more power and is 1000% more fun!
Good luck with the S10
My fall back position is the same - if I get fed up of having to buy a new bike every 2 years, or start finishing my journeys on a breakdown truck I can always sell the KTM and easily buy another S10 with the proceeds.
