Team-BHP - The KTM Duke 390 Ownership Experience Thread

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Originally Posted by mobike008 (Post 3555417)

LOL Doc. Do I sound like a Harley rider now? I never mentioned the chrome shine anywhere in my post:D

I just knew I was missing something ..... :uncontrol

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Jokes aside, Duke 390 is a capable bike but, in my personal opinion without any offense to any duke owners but, it looks more at home with a teenager with its gaudy color palette & design style and for some that itself is a turn-on OR off:)

Maybe then its somewhat of a coincidence that most riders, regardless of their real age, actually become teenagers when riding the Dukes. Tried and tested.

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I chose a Bonnie not because it can BEAT any other bike but, for several important parameters that are far superior than the Duke

I have never ridden the Bonnie so cannot comment. But am pretty sure that there would be some pretty important parameters where the Duke would trump the Bonnie.

And not just on price. But as a bike, one on one.

Looks like I have started a Bonnie versus KTM debate. Not the intention to do so consciously, though as ebonho pointed out, my excitement may have been the culprit (Hence subconscious? and then I owe an apology). Let me summarise whatever I put above and some other points too:

The Duke is more than capable of keeping up with mid-range bikes, if it is not a race to the top speed, but more a question of negotiating the turns. I would not put this down to being ahead of a Mercedes in traffic (as was joked in a post), but simply the flickability of the bike, versus the heavier mass of a bigger bike.
A friend riding the Bonnie was not able to outrun me in the given situation, and Mobike008 knows this guy to be fast and someone who takes out the last bit of juice from his bike. This gentleman now wants to own a 690.
Were we riding fast? Well half the group was riding fast and we had to wait for 15 odd minutes for the slow ones to catch up. Amongst those riding fast was a Triple that overtook me and the Bonnie while we were just taking it easy after a fast run. We managed to overtake him.
I know that many were riding as fast as they could. On previous occasions I have been left behind, by some of the same riders, as they raced and competed, and I rode alone for upto 3 hours, just to catch up, on my Bullet (which was doing triple digits anyway).
The major point in all the above being that we were leaning our bikes all the way to take in the turns rather than gunning the throttle, all out. This gives the Duke an advantage, that it does not have in a straight run.

Some other points also mentioned in my previous post:

The Duke does not sound nice and is far from smooth
Fit, finish, chrome and status are not it's strengths, i.e. it is the underdog in every sense
A premium bike owner cannot identify himself with the Duke (a derivation of the above point)
A Duke rider able to keep up in one of the many possible scenarios, with bigger bikes is what I was gloating about. And I did clear the fact that I got creamed in another scenario.
Bigger bikes are likely to be more stable at higher speeds and in a straight run, the brakes could be more effective.
I accept that a rider makes a difference to the outcome.

I have seen school races where kids from a not so well endowed background or school, are pitched in the finals/semi finals against a well bred group of kids who are wearing nice looking clothes and brands and talking stuff that sounds very cool. But then the barefooted athlete gives them a good competition in the actual race. Enough competition, for them to respect the not so well resourced competitor. And I felt like that kid :).

My post was aimed at a lot of potential bikers with budgets that do not permit the fancy and luxury of having everything. Why is it cool when a big bike owner talks of speed and not so cool when some one else does the same? Because when you are on a budget, you cannot have everything and you prioritise, hence your ability to contribute to a discussion will be limited.
So I cannot praise the the fit and finish, etc. but I had the chance to be an underdog and still feel satisfied with the outcome.

For the rest: All the criticism above is actually very fair and not slanted like my rant.

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Originally Posted by Insearch (Post 3555483)

My post was aimed at a lot of potential bikers with budgets that do not permit the fancy and luxury of having everything. Why is it cool when a big bike owner talks of speed and not so cool when some one else does the same? Because when you are on a budget, you cannot have everything and you prioritise, hence your ability to contribute to a discussion will be limited. So I cannot praise the the fit and finish, etc. but I had the chance to be an underdog and still feel satisfied with the outcome.

There is nothing to be apologetic about.

If beating bigger, faster, way more expensive bikes with a smaller, slower, much cheaper bike, and feeling chuffed about it, is childish, juvenile, then I have been a child and/or juvenile adolescent for a large part of my riding life.

May not always have anything to do with how deep your pockets are. Black or white.

Its also a value for money proposition. And choice.

Either way, all the world loves an underdog. The trick is to be careful of and have one eye on those smaller than you and who are also gunning for you. :D

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Originally Posted by Insearch (Post 3555483)

The Duke is more than capable of keeping up with mid-range bikes, if it is not a race to the top speed, but more a question of negotiating the turns. I would not put this down to being ahead of a Mercedes in traffic (as was joked in a post), but simply the flickability of the bike, versus the heavier mass of a bigger bike.

My post was aimed at a lot of potential bikers with budgets that do not permit the fancy and luxury of having everything. Why is it cool when a big bike owner talks of speed and not so cool when some one else does the same? Because when you are on a budget, you cannot have everything and you prioritise, hence your ability to contribute to a discussion will be limited.
So I cannot praise the the fit and finish, etc. but I had the chance to be an underdog and still feel satisfied with the outcome.

For the rest: All the criticism above is actually very fair and not slanted like my rant.

You were not talking about speed, you were talking about how a 2 Lac bike can stay ahead of 15L bikes. Thats putting down those owners.
The duke has no advantage over the Striple (I have not ridden Bonnie so I have never commented on it, even in my previous post) except for price. If you push your bike over the edge and drop it, it will not make a huge dent in your pocket. Now imagine riding 9L machine with spares that cost a bomb. Will push your bike to the same limit on a PUBLIC road?

Kudos to you for beating the bigger bikes but your post came off all wrong.

ebonho, are you seriously suggesting it takes significant skill with a Striple to a beat a Duke 390 in a straight line?

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Originally Posted by man_of_steel (Post 3555482)

Can very well relate as I am also from that part of the country! :D But My assumption: The factory outlets, although they might do some tricks here and there in the quantity of petrol, will not have to balls to mix kerosine in the petrol. Or am I completely wrong??

Yeah. I think the best option is factory outlets.

Any ways, my bike has a unique stalling problem. It stalls after coldstarting. It can happen anywhere, anytime, untill atleast 4 bars gets displayed in the engine temperature guage. After that, it never stalls, even after repeated riding on clutch.

Earlier VW2010 mentioned problems can happen with fuel pump, battery connector etc ( which i definitely will check during the first service). But this may not be the reason.

I think it is because of low octane rating of the fuel, which will lead to poor combustion in a high compression ratio engine. This will obviously will happen when temperature is down.

One of my friend's suggested the use of irridium spark plug. According to him, it will produce a stronger spark. Any body have any other suggestions, that might aid better combustion during cold start??

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Originally Posted by Insearch (Post 3555117)

Triumph of the underdog:

Last Saturday, I rode out with approximately 15+ bikers to Medak, from Hyderabad. The bikes were mostly Triumphs with an odd Ninja 650. So we had Daytonas, Bonnies and Street Triples. I was the lone Duker. At the start, at least a couple of riders looked at me wondering if they should speak their mind or keep to themselves, their opinion loaded questions :)

We took a scenic route through a forest (Narsapur) and open fields. This was a very good hunting ground for the Duke as it had many turns and some of them were quite sharp. Here is a report on the proceedings:

I started off gingerly, right at the back of the group, wondering how fast they would go and how much the Duke would keep up. As the riders gained momentum, leaving the city behind, I found that it was impossible for the Duke to stay .....

irritating presence in the rear view or right ahead. Especially with it's unflattering engine sound. Though I do feel that at high speeds the mass of the bigger bikes would give them a more planted feel, in straight line and hence braking would be a bit more confident (we are talking of max speeds on the bikes, here).

So a 2 lakh bike riding in front of some 15 lakh beauties. Do I have a reason to complain...?

Well, first off, Triumph of the Underdog, isn't it real funny, such timed themes do pop up from time to time.

I wonder if you've come across this term "It's much fun riding a smaller bike harder than a bigger bike slower" and I can't think any other than the Duke 390. [unless of course you don't leave a parts trail all along the way]

I would love to see the expression of a souperbiker when he's constantly buggered from time to time to see a Duker all crouched in, in his RVM . I mean, dayum that should be priceless. :D

Cheers!
VJ

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Originally Posted by ebonho (Post 3555511)

The trick is to be careful of and have one eye on those smaller than you and who are also gunning for you. :D

Omg!!!!!!! This is surreal

Today, whilst riding to work, I was constantly being hounded by a pulser fellow, in flip flops n shorts no less. He kept dancing around me revving his bike every now n then. I got irritated n gunned it when I saw an opening, leaving him behind. I slowed down though when I saw some traffic building up ahead. He comes right up against me, pulls down his loosely fitted helmet from the chin n says, dude - u won't be able to catch me. And off he went on his shabby, blue, crappy looking, without even a headlight pulsar; weaving in n out of traffic without slowing down for a sec

Do I think he's a madman n will soon be scraped off the road? Maybe

Is he a skilled rider though? - Definitely yes!!!

If u r reading this pulsar guy - ride fast n hard buddy. But don't take so many chances on the streets. I had my heart in my mouth when u overtook that bus from the left with barely an inch to spare. The odds catch up to us all

But I thought riding with fellow bikers was about having fun, not about proving that we are wiser(because we saved a lot by getting Duke) than them by constantly overtaking them and feeding our ego(no offence guys). Me and my friends have completely different set of rides, when we ride together we make sure we ride at the speed at which the slowest bike feels comfortable.

No one cares a bit about my ride, but when I ride my friend's Yamaha R15 I see so many guys trying to race me, they keep revving the nuts of their commuter in signals and don't let me ride peacefully, only option I have is to let them win their ego battle.

Well I am not comparing the 390 riders to the commuters I meet, riders here seem to be extremely matured and know their bike very well, but the point is that we shouldn't try to prove anything on a group ride.

Yes Giri, I agree with you completely. That is exactly my idea of a group ride. But group dynamics is a complex business.
I rode to Ladakh with a friend and one rule that we never broke is that we will not let each other out of line of sight. Add to this that my friend was a much better rider than me and he would mostly ride behind me. Once in a while when I would ask him to lead, and ride free, he would show me what the Thunderbird is capable of.

My rides with the Wanderers group in Hyderabad are a lovely experience of cruising in a disciplined single line on the highway and pure camaraderie when needed. On the other hand if one chooses to ride with a competitive set of riders, there is enough fun at hand, as long as one's bike is up for the game. (So nothing wrong in sharing the elation when it comes from an unexpected outcome.)
And then there are groups of riders who prefer only siblings from the same brand, etc.

So group riding rules are different in different groups and groups vary all the time. Either one adjusts or exits. I chose to adjust.

And I do not believe in street racing. It is too embarassing to be challenged on the street. I would usually hide behind a bus or an auto, while the racer decides to move on.

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Originally Posted by giri1.8 (Post 3555879)

but when I ride my friend's Yamaha R15 I see so many guys trying to race me, they keep revving the nuts of their commuter in signals and don't let me ride peacefully, only option I have is to let them win their ego battle.

I can totally understand this comment. I too like driving or riding at a pace (not like in a race mode) and situation what you described happens to me almost on a daily basis when Iam driving my Cruze to work

Since I like to keep a fast pace, other people think I like to race and behave stupidly and try to egg me on which majority of times I ignore and a few times I show them behaving immaturedly will only hurt their egos

Sorry for the offtopic:)