Upgrading to a 2024 KTM Duke 250 from 2005 Honda Unicorn: My Thoughts

After much discussions with my fiance I have gone ahead and booked the new Duke 250 in blue colour.

BHPian apramey recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello all,

After searching through different threads on this forum and couldn't find one on the new 2024 Duke 250, I decided to start a new topic.

So basically I recently finished my studies, got a job and managed to finally save up to buy a new motorcycle. Since I am coming from a 2005 Honda Unicorn(Yes, the one with spoke wheels), I understand that naturally anything that I buy today will be a big upgrade. I will still try as much as possible to keep my ride impressions as unbiased as possible.

A little bit of background:

I am commuting right now with a Honda Unicorn that has done 71k km till now. Its registration is going to expire next year, for good. Hence I have decided to buy a new motorcycle. I had taken test rides of mainly 3 motorcycles. The 2024 Duke 390 and 250 and the interceptor 650.

Around Jan 2024:

'24 Duke 390:

I took a good 20km test ride from my home to workplace. It was very good, lot of usable power, don't have to keep it always at 9000rpm. The sound was good with a throaty tone, nothing spectacular. The fit and finish and the general workmanship all around the bike was very good. The quickshifter was flawless really after comparing it to the D250's quickshifter in my mind. No false neutrals, no jerks, even after trying to make it think I'm shifting. There were 2 things I didn't like about this bike. One was the heat I had to endure with, and second one was the vibrations at lower end and lower midrange(Will come to this later again). The bump and pothole handling was really good as well.

'24 Duke 250:

This was the second bike I took a test ride of, and this was not a long one, it was around 4-5km long. The differences I could immediately notice was how calm this thing was. It has got good amount of power, good handling in bumpy and potholey(I don't know if that's a valid adjective) roads. Another big difference was how refined and smooth the ride was. There were absolutely no vibrations whatsoever between 2200 and all the way upto 8000rpm. The finishing and the workmanship was also really good as expected from KTN.

A really sad thing to see in the Duke 250 was that the quickshifter was way too sensitive and would cut throttle even if my foot lifted the toe shifter by 2mm. I hope it was just an issue with the test ride vehicle.

I had test ridden other bikes as well. The Jawa 42 bobber, roadster, both of which I didn't like because the finishing levels were not good at all and the exhausts were not the same distance from the center(you can call it OCD, I don't mind).

Fast forward 5 months:

I was still in a dilemma about what to do, and this time I had to take a decision. So I took my fiancé for the test ride with me to see how good the pillion comfort is for her.

Duke 390 - I went on a short ride, but sadly I had to listen to a lot of complaints about all the vibrations in the footpegs. I clearly understood that D390 is not for me as it needs to be kept in the 6k + rpm band for a relatively smoother ride.

Duke 250 - The second short ride was also very smooth, and those big piston forks could sink all the bumps like a champ. My pillion rider also felt the rear seat comfort to be drastically better owing to significantly less vibrations.

My fiancé had a misconception that pillion comfort will be terrible in naked streetfighters because "the pillion sits on the first floor". That got cleared out as well. She is 5'4" and she was very comfy with both the Dukes as far as seating posture is concerned.

Interceptor 650:

I was not able to get a test drive of interceptor for almost 2 months. On 4 separate visits the test drive was not available and I was told variety of reasons, starting from no fuel, bike is in service, long test drive is not allowed, and we can take for a maximum of 2km, etc.

I finally managed to get a test drive after making the showroom people understand that I'm serious about buying a bike. Here are my observations. First thing that was immediately noticeable was that the 2022 Interceptor 650 that I got for the test drive had some kind of bad head bearing issue and it was struggling to turn. Other than that my immediate observation was, the gearing was really tall, causing 1st and 2nd gear to be used mostly with half clutch. This would make the city commutes very uncomfortable. The exhaust tone was vastly superior to both the Dukes thanks to the twin cylinder engine. The problems I encountered with the Interceptor were the narrow firm seat, a lot of heat, and a very soft suspension that used to bottom out on the smallest bumps.

The general workmanship levels too on the interceptor are not good. If you try to work on them, there are bolts with sharp edges left sharp in all the places. This felt like a not so premium thing when I'm spending 4+L on a 2 wheeler mainly for city commutes. I felt the interceptor would make a really awesome urban tourer if that is what someone is going for.

After much discussions with my fiancé I have gone ahead and booked the new Duke 250 in blue colour.

I had also considered Aprilia RS457 and Ultraviolette f77 Mach 2. But sadly their dealerships are not there in my city. This meant at least a 4-5 hour (8-9h both ways) travel for sales and service which was a letdown for me.

I didn't consider the Triumph Speed 400 because although I liked the looks of the bike. I have read way too many instances of the Triumph service centers providing the absolutely mediocre and disgusting quality of service, which I just cannot tolerate. I just didn't like the looks of the RTR310 and the Hero Maverick. I liked the looks of the Honda CB300r, but the sound was a heartbreaker for me.

My line of thinking was never to get a do it all bike. I wanted a good city commuter that I can manoeuvre in all kinds of traffic and bad roads. I was not planning to go out of more than 30-40km outside the city if I am going on a weekend ride, for which I have my Virtus GT. So I didn't consider any cruisers.

I would also like to ask for help here about how to not get scammed while buying a bike. Any links for other posts on this forum or anywhere on the internet will be very appreciated. I will keep you all updated.

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