[ebonho]

Originally Posted by Dhruv Shetty

I don't have the guts and heart to grind of the Swingarm for an adjustable suspension

Cheera,
Dhruv Shetty.

I don't have the heart or the guts.

My current shocker is fine. 9 was too hard and bouncy and nervy. Back on 8.

If anything, I will shift to the NS red and gold shocker if need be. Later.

Cheers, Doc

[100Kmphormore]

Hi, I purchased a preworshipped 2nd gen 2017 Duke 390 recently and loving it. The only fly in the ointment is its pathetic headlight performance at speeds above 60 kmph and on very dark roads, doesnt have a proper spread too. All show and no go. Is there any mod for the headlights of the bike to make it more brighter? It is decent for slow city rides (that too goes out the window when blinded by oncoming high beams), but not highway rides. Any solutions apart from aux lights? I dont like the way they change the look of the bike, hence would like suggestions.

[VijayAnand1]

Originally Posted by 100Kmphormore

Hi, I purchased a preworshipped 2nd gen 2017 Duke 390 recently and loving it. The only fly in the ointment is its pathetic headlight performance at speeds above 60 kmph and on very dark roads, doesnt have a proper spread too. All show and no go. Is there any mod for the headlights of the bike to make it more brighter? It is decent for slow city rides (that too goes out the window when blinded by oncoming high beams), but not highway rides. Any solutions apart from aux lights? I dont like the way they change the look of the bike, hence would like suggestions.

The LED fetish has caught up and we've sadly been forced to live with. LEDs, especially OEM ones for the most part, gets inundated when street lights overwhelm and completely is completely blind when oncoming halogens are fully lit on highs. In both cases OEM LEDs are nothing but useless. They seem brighter on full moon day, but fade exactly when they're supposed to lit it when we want it. As you've put it, all show and no go!

Well, there's no mod that can be done to "upgrade" your stock headlight. The best and the easiest is to buy a pair of Maddog/Aftermarket AUX which has better focus and intense lumens. This coupled with stock definitely makes a difference. Though LEDs have a great reason, halogens simply have that warm and pleasantness that today's LEDs can hold a candle to, personally.

Good luck.

Cheers!
VJ

[100Kmphormore]

Originally Posted by VijayAnand1

Well, there's no mod that can be done to "upgrade" your stock headlight. The best and the easiest is to buy a pair of Maddog/Aftermarket AUX which has better focus and intense lumens. This coupled with stock definitely makes a difference. Though LEDs have a great reason, halogens simply have that warm and pleasantness that today's LEDs can hold a candle to, personally.

Completely agree. Apart from the laser lights of BMW, other stock LED headlamps aren't even in competition. I had a Philips RacingVision 70% LED bulb on my Himalayan and it was a little better than the stock candle light, the Scout X I installed for highway runs was still insufficient for 120 kmph expressway speeds, and this pocket rocket can keep 130 kmph easily even with a well built pillion. I have only seen Gold Runway/Baja lights do a great job of auxiliary lighting.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by 100Kmphormore

I had a Philips RacingVision 70% LED bulb on my Himalayan and it was a little better than the stock candle light, the Scout X I installed for highway runs was still insufficient for 120 kmph expressway speeds, and this pocket rocket can keep 130 kmph easily even with a well built pillion. I have only seen Gold Runway/Baja lights do a great job of auxiliary lighting.

Congratulations on your new 390! My ancient Gen 1 390 is shod with a normal bulb, but that too is pretty inadequate. I plan to upgrade it (finally) to a better halogen, courtesy my friendly Santa









This would be a stepping stone to the Mad Dogs. But I hope the light improvement is significant.

On the Scout X I have some questions:

1) How old are you and do you ride with specs (just to compare eyesight perspective)

2) You say the Scout X are inadequate for 120 on the expressway. Which means little oncoming light drowning yours. What about highways with beams of oncoming traffic?

What is the Scout X top safe speed for both scenarios?

What about twisties in the ghats/mountains? What speeds are you comfortable in that terrain with the Scout X?

3) And this is a sort of superfluous generic question, leading on from 1) ... why 120 speeds at night on our roads bro?

I would love to hear feedback on the Scout X because the next higher grade of lights (Alpha?) are twice the price.

Cheers, Doc

[100Kmphormore]

Originally Posted by ebonho

Congratulations on your new 390! My ancient Gen 1 390 is shod with a normal bulb, but that too is pretty inadequate. I plan to upgrade it (finally) to a better halogen, courtesy my friendly Santa

On the Scout X I have some questions:

1) How old are you and do you ride with specs (just to compare eyesight perspective)

2) You say the Scout X are inadequate for 120 on the expressway. Which means little oncoming light drowning yours. What about highways with beams of oncoming traffic?

What is the Scout X top safe speed for both scenarios?

What about twisties in the ghats/mountains? What speeds are you comfortable in that terrain with the Scout X?

3) And this is a sort of superfluous generic question, leading on from 1) ... why 120 speeds at night on our roads bro?

I would love to hear feedback on the Scout X because the next higher grade of lights (Alpha?) are twice the price.

Cheers, Doc

Thank you Doc!

1. I am 27 and yes, condemned to a life with spectacles. Double refraction through a helmet visor and my thick specs lens is another enemy due to oncoming high beams inspite of keeping both clean. I am a severe myopic, please take that into consideration while reading my observations. The pillion I mentioned is my 60 year old father who has the eyesight of an eagle and does not wear spectacles even for reading and he calls them stadium lights..

2. Around 60 kmph max in ghats and 90 kmph on good highways. Of course that is only if you can. I mention this because I did keep at those speeds during the Valparai ghat climb, and the gundlupete Malavalli state highways, safely.

3. Good question! I always ride to ride another day. The 120 kmph I mentioned was on highways like the Bengaluru Chennai highway where keeping those speeds is not uncommon and you desire upto 200-250 m of lighting, the Alphas are worth the premium. I recollect shyamg28 mentioning the same on his VStrom and he upgraded to a Motorfans, if I’m not wrong.

[VijayAnand1]

Originally Posted by ebonho

Congratulations on your new 390! My ancient Gen 1 390 is shod with a normal bulb, but that too is pretty inadequate. I plan to upgrade it (finally) to a better halogen, courtesy my friendly Santa

Cheers, Doc

You wouldn't have a significant improvement over your stock Halogen (Duke 390) switching to Osram NightBreaker or Philips ExtremeVision. Have used both and since then have reverted to stock halogen for the most part. Why? It all starts with the color temperature. The Osrams and ExtremeVision partly makes the light intensity whiter which gives you the visual perception that you've got more intensity, but still they fade just like a low-lit LED where it matters.

After experimenting a fortune on these ExtremeVision and NBs H4s, incidentally sometimes they even fuse out earlier than stock ones. I would opine of the fact that spending 2k for a Halogen that's only 5% better than stock is a no-brainer. Stack that money, get a proper output AUX LED and it 100% makes a difference coupled with your stock halogen.

Get the NightEye LED and get it fixed on your Duke 390 - H4. Coupled with a pair of good quality AUX lights would mean the trio would have the same color pattern and would light the road ahead brilliantly. Don't waste your money on expensive halogens, I did that mistake. Once bitten, twice shy.

Cheers!
VJ

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by VijayAnand1

Get the NightEye LED and get it fixed on your Duke 390 - H4. Coupled with a pair of good quality AUX lights would mean the trio would have the same color pattern and would light the road ahead brilliantly. Don't waste your money on expensive halogens, I did that mistake. Once bitten, twice shy.

Cheers!
VJ

Thanks Vijay. According to our buddy Suhas these are 3900K. So the same yellow spectrum we are used to as our halogens. No?

The NightEye LED is proper white, as per a Himalayan video I just saw on YouTube. I really do not like white light. It simply gets eaten up in rain, mist, fog and oncoming headlight beams.

https://youtu.be/5-nDtm-Epwk?si=wyYgTh7Wi0aeTe27

I'm assuming the NightEye LED has a H4 base and replaces rhe stock halogen HL bulb in our 390s right?

Yes, aux lights (Mad Dog Scout X) are also on rhe cards. But i always maje one change at a time so as to see its pros and cons without any confounding overlap.

Which aux lights do you suggest/have used, and what is the safe top speed at night with them in dark twisties and dark open highway (gq/expressway type one way, and narrower state two ways both)?

Thanks for your real world inputs buddy.

Cheers, Doc

[b16h22]

Originally Posted by VijayAnand1

After experimenting a fortune on these ExtremeVision and NBs H4s, incidentally sometimes they even fuse out earlier than stock ones. I would opine of the fact that spending 2k for a Halogen that's only 5% better than stock is a no-brainer. Stack that money, get a proper output AUX LED and it 100% makes a difference coupled with your stock halogen.

I can confirm this. The extreme visions used to dim out faster than the stock bulb. They were mildly better than the stock Halogen which itself was made by Osram iirc.

[Vignesh_N/A]

On the topic of Scout X

I wear spectacles and I have a 2017 Duke 390

I have used the Scout X for 13000 Kms. I usually do Chennai-Bengaluru once in a month mostly at night. Did it improve my visibility? 100% yes.

We can safely maintain speeds upto 100 Kmph with Scout X. Beyond that, we will get the chance to spot the obstacles a tad earlier but we wont have time to react.

Even on ghat sections, the visibility is much improved but we need to be cautious of the oncoming traffic since it will blind them badly. I cannot comment on the speeds because all the ghats I have done (coorg, Agumbe - Bhatkal-Jog-Honnavar, Valparai-chalakudy-Vagamon) I could manage only upto 50 to 60 Kmph, I doubt if I will be able to do higher speeds during daytime either.

[SunnyBoi]

I saw this photo on the Aprilia RS457 thread and I have a feeling it just might work on the First Gen Duke 390s. Exciting times ahead.

[Vignesh_N/A]

Originally Posted by SunnyBoi

I saw this photo on the Aprilia RS457 thread and I have a feeling it just might work on the First Gen Duke 390s. Exciting times ahead.

Attachment 2560096

Are you thinking of swapping semi floating rotors to your Duke?

[VijayAnand1]

Originally Posted by SunnyBoi

I saw this photo on the Aprilia RS457 thread and I have a feeling it just might work on the First Gen Duke 390s. Exciting times ahead.

Originally Posted by Vignesh_N/A

Are you thinking of swapping semi floating rotors to your Duke?

The 1st and 2nd gens have their caliper and the rotor on the left side. Though they share similar 6 hole lug, if the PCD matches, then we perhaps can have this semi-floating rotor setup which is a direct swap considering Aprilia's is a 320 mm. The caveat though is the alloy design for both first gen and second gen Duke's rotor mounts are different after the switch to 320 mm, though both have the same spoke design and count. Should be an interesting mod for a brain-food.

Secondly, notice the L valve stem, that's one thing I might ponder about in the future, seems completely functional and looks neatly done.

Cheers!
VJ

[Vignesh_N/A]

Originally Posted by VijayAnand1

The 1st and 2nd gens have their caliper and the rotor on the left side. Though they share similar 6 hole lug, if the PCD matches, then we perhaps can have this semi-floating rotor setup which is a direct swap considering Aprilia's is a 320 mm. The caveat though is the alloy design for both first gen and second gen Duke's rotor mounts are different after the switch to 320 mm, though both have the same spoke design and count. Should be an interesting mod for a brain-food.

Secondly, notice the L valve stem, that's one thing I might ponder about in the future, seems completely functional and looks neatly done.

Cheers!
VJ

My guess is aprilla uses a different pcd

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by b16h22

I can confirm this. The extreme visions used to dim out faster than the stock bulb. They were mildly better than the stock Halogen which itself was made by Osram iirc.

So I tried out both the bulbs. The stock KTM H4 halogen (Osram) and the imported German Osram Night Breaker Laser H4 halogen.

Back to back. After going for a short ride on the Night Breaker. Returned, swapped the bulbs and took Low and High beam photos with both.

Shared those with my riding buddies on WhatsApp and asked them to pick which if the two Low beams they liked, and which of the two High beams they liked. Without telling them which was which.

Will do the same here. Please tell me which Low beam and which high beam is better for you as a rider.

Low Beams -





High Beams -





My brown gate and compound wall is around 35 odd meters away, and the green compound wall of the bungalow across the road is around 55 odd meters away, for scale.

Cheers, Doc