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200 km with the 2023 Duke 390: How it stacks up against it's rivals

27th December 2023, 10:38 by Ananth Iyer

All I can say after this very engaging ride is, I don't feel like I am missing out on anything the blokes riding their S1000RR or R1s have minus the extra wind noise, cost, service and parts times.

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On my quest on finding the best A2 bike for me, I did a 200km ride on some proper B-roads on the latest duke and my first KTM ride ever. Honestly, I want a RC390 more than a duke, but I cannot seem to get a long test ride for a current gen RC390 but hey, the duke has adjustable suspension now and so lets see if it is any more compelling than other alternatives. My observations in no particular order, starting with suspension.

I love that KTM has made rear preload adjustment super easy with the offset monoshock. It is a massive hassle to remove body panels to access the shock in certain bikes like the Apache RTR200 and this is a much welcome step. It also makes it easier to clean the gunk after a rainy ride.

I wish the shock also had a marker saying which way it is to make preload stiffer and softer (RTR200 has it on the forks). The owners manual does not mention it either. I had a look at R3 owners manual and saw that shorter teeth = softer, longer teeth = harder and used the same convention. The owners manual mentions the springs are set for a rider weighing 75kg-85kg. Being 60kg 'wet', i.e. with all my gear and water bottles, I needed something softer then. The manual has a 'recommended rider sag' of 51mm and a recommended setting of 3, I decided to try out 2 and voila, I could notice the bike squatted quite a bit more than my rock hard hunter (the recommended preload is 1 for riders upto 90kg).

The owners manual says there are 5 clicks on the forks for compression, rebound and 5 for rebound for the shock but I could hear only 4 clicks on all three adjusters. Perhaps the end is the 5th and does not click? Interestingly, I could not hear any clicks on the rear rebound setting at all when going from soft to hard, the click is audible only when going from hard to soft. It looks like the owners manual and the settings under the seat count clicks from the hardest setting (except for preload).

Garbage owners manual. No KTM, I don't wont to download an 'app' and get my data harvested to read some text. I thought the whole tagline for the duke series was 'No bullshit'. Give me a simple PDF I can view on my real computer on my giant monitor without an internet connection. Get your pdf here guys https://azwecdnepstoragewebsiteuploa...4960_en_OM.pdf . Some data is different between this manual and what is on the bike and has some extras like heated grips and some german gibberish.

Interestingly, tyre pressure recommendations on the above manual and the bike's sticker are different. I filled 29psi, 29psi as mentioned on the bike sticker before the ride(well, it says 28.5, 28.5, I debated getting a 28 on both wheels as I am lighter than the ideal rider but it is winter, the surface is cooler and since my local 'air man' insists that all pumps (yes, all pumps, not just his faulty pump or whatever) lose some pressure when taking the tube out, I went half a psi higher on both).

Started the ride with rear rebound 2 clicks, front compression, rebound 2, 2 and had a devil of a time on our bangalore roads.

After getting to B-roads with a knackered back before even getting started for real, I bumped all three knobs to 3 and set the bike to track mode and disabled the quickshifter. I disabled the quickshifter after a crest yeeted the bike and me off the road at fast speeds and I landed my left foot on the blipper instead of the peg and vroom, the tacho went from the power band to redline. That loud blip in the wee hours of morning was probably enough to wake up anyone unfortunate enough to live on the main roads. Blips do sound good in general, especially for a single, but I do wish the bike was quieter overall. That way, I don't inconvenience other people (gentle reminder to all readers that you yourselves are this demographic for a greater portion of your life than you are a rider) and animals in those lovely reserve forest roads and I get to enjoy high revs.

The disappointing (to me) part about the suspension is that all the settings on the forks felt the same to me. Softer rear rebound felt more comfortable to me on bad roads.

On the positive side, the rear is stiff for cornering and plush enough to plod along at traffic speeds on bumps without standing up like a dirt rider. The front is a revelation and its brilliance can be understood only under brutal acceleration. Coming off a left turn from 60 something to 125 on a straight, let off the gas to 115ish and braked to 25 to take a 100 degree right turn, all in just about 400m. The front was so composed with no noticeable fork dive at all, a first for me. This was at 3, 3, compression and rebound on great surface and a mildly (and correctly) banked turn.

Even with fully soft compression and rebound, I managed a clean emergency brake from 75-15 under severe rear wheel hop while banging down from 3-1. It was likely the slipper clutch being pushed to its limits as the rear wheel flopped around like a dog wagging its tail with an audible ksssh sound.

Speaking of rear wheel hop, I had another possible instance with rear wheel hop when entering a long left. While I could not feel the hop clearly, the rear made a very audible kssssh sound. It could have been the rear cornering abs giving up too. I had both full ABS and TC on for the entire ride. For 10 and 11, better tyres (and more skill obviously) would help I feel.

The suspension is great on dirt as well. It can cleanly hold a lean over Bangalore's pesky rumble strips designed to prevent motorcyclists from having fun in corners and on bumpy but non dusty surface. On bumpy dirt roads, I faced no issues bottoming out the suspension or anything and with great ground clearance I was gliding on dirt at 60s, overtaking raised hatches and SUVs lol.

Standing up and dirt riding is doable by pushing my legs back close to the rear subframe and gripping the frame there. The posture itself is a stand up tuck because of high pegs but it gets the job done as long as keep an overgrip from the side, don't need to do sharp turns, and don't accelerate.

That said, I discovered no suspension can prevent losing the front under heavy lean due to red sand. I've had a few encounters with them but none so severe, mostly due to carrying a lot of lean and speed on a blind corner (totally on me for going faster than I can see).

The front also seems susceptible to sand, crosswinds and other vehicles zooming past you, even in straight lines. The fact that makes the duke so demanding to ride is not its power or the way its delivered. It is purely due to this I think. The slightest road imperfection, which is not that uncommon on our highways, will yeet you into the sky for precious few seconds leaving you unable to course correct, meaning we need to be extra alert each time we push this bike to be ready to brake. I blame european bike reviewers for this. For some reason they seem to abhor slow sportbikes like the devil. Nooooooo, muh hands, the reach to the bars is too much, the pegs are toooooo high, nakeds are so comfortable, WHAT??? WINDBLAST YOU SAY, NEVER MIND THAT. ARE YOU NOT COMFORTABLE WITH LOW PEGS AND HIGH BARS. Seriously, would it have killed KTM to make a RC790, Triumph a current gen sprint or something, Suzuki to update and release their GSXR 600, 750 (even if it means less power, who cares really) instead of their hideous GXS-8R.

The triple digits are madness on this bike. The bike keeps pulling, crosswinds are brutal on my neck on highways, wind noise makes me lose sense of engine rpm, the rubber pegs are so finicky to hold and initiate lean, everything is a blur. Its worse on B-roads with low visibilty giving me proper tunnel vision. This is arguably the most effective form of getting people to slow down more than fines and laws and the only time I wish I was in a car like a BMW M340i.

On the topic of keeping yourself supported on the bike, the ergos are more manageable than what reviews suggest, at least for a 175cm, 30"-32" inseam (depending on till ankle or ground measurement) guy. The seat is curved towards the end (unfortunately, frame demands it looks like), making you go into a bit of a tuck but on a naked. The giant, dispropotionate tank shrouds give excellent wind protection for your legs for what its worth. Except the pegs. The rubber pegs are fine once you get a hang of it, at least when its not raining, but it feels like a waste on such a capable bike. The seat is perfectly padded for both city and highway rides, I don't think its too hard or soft. I also weigh 60kg and lose both water weight and weight from my bottle with each second on the bike. Very comfortable seating position overall.

The ergos surprisingly don't seem to lend well to counterlean slaloms (more pothole evades and weave counterleans than sustained counterleans) as well as the R15 or even the hunter despite the high pegs and moto gymkhana showing up prominently in promos.

It is toasty at about 90c after a 100km thrashing even in sub 30c temps and no traffic. 109c coolant temp after 30min of city riding in overcast conditions, 27c ambient which was 'ok' according to the dash once the bike was turned on but is considered hot by the dash if the bike is not turned on. i.e. when the fan doesnt spin. Interested to know if (fan on + idle engine) cools faster than (no fan + off engine).

I don't like the white led. Lets all just agree to go back to orange lights guys. Come on KTM, you are the orange guys, at least you should stick to orange lights.

There is so much mechanical clatter at idle, it sounds like something is broken until 3k like Ducatis and MV Agustas. And the engine doth protest too much until 4k.

The engine is eerily calm at 4200ish rpm (up to 4th gear) has very polite speeds and sound at this point, vibey from 5-6k, smooths out after that and comes back 8.5k telling you to shift up. It has a disgusting amount of vibes when engine braking and coming down to 4k. Still, for what its worth I had no buzz or tingle after 150km of riding surprisingly. It helps that the throttle is light. I've had to sleep the tingle off on smoother bikes with heavier throttles.

The throttle does not click like kawasakis. I don't know if its a ride by wire thing or KTM. I miss the click. Same with front brake lever.

I'm not sure if its ride by wire lag, but it certainly feels lethargic until 4k which I am not sure should be the case for a 'torquey single'. I think this ride by wire lag might be why everybody thinks KTMs have poor low end torque. To verify this, I tried grabbing a handful of throttle at 6k, ready to discard the results if the TC lights came on and sure enough no TC light and some lag. Whether it is TFT lag on the tacho I cannot say (it does have much poorer response times compared to a pc monitor). i.e. the time between the throttle off where engine braking drops the revs and when the throttle comes on, this might be frame skipped on the dash

No idea about speed control. The manual is not particularly detailed on it and I turned it off. I would certainly like cruise control though.

This is a big deal breaker for me, wind noise. Sure nakeds are noisier than sportbikes but I never expected it to be this bad. With earplugs I could hear a reverb sound at idle just by sitting on it. It disappears when I stand up with feet on the ground. I tried this with both earplugs on and off and it doesn't happen without earplugs.

With earplugs I cannot hear the bike until 4k which means its working but the helmet gets loud quickly after 70 and unrelenting past that with no respite. No amount of tuck, forward and backward shuffles relieved me of the noise. It was a booming noise with plenty of engine noise filtering through too. Either this means past 5k this bike is much louder than all the other bikes I've ridden or I did not insert my plugs right. This happened throughout the day but I was reasonably sure my earplugs fit me correctly. On the last leg, I decided to test it out without ear plugs and the sound levels were pretty much the same, only from 60 instead of 70, with the sound being more of a sheet of wind like thing instead of wind pressure boom.

KTM has alien headlights and giant tank shrouds, presumably because its aerodynamic. I fear our government regulations insisting on a front registration plate is ruining that flow. Unfortunately, Bajaj has a good reason to stick the plate on top of the lights because of that fat radiator intake below the lights. That or the mirrors should go, because man that noise is just obscene. The new RC390 can't come soon enough for me.

In a way, I think the (Duke | RC) 390 and the Kawasaki ZX-4R are very similar. Both are fast slow bikes, with all the top tier tech, suspension gizmos and riding dynamics in the world to make you feel 'ready to race'. I very much look forward to the future with a RC390 with all this, serrated metal pegs (pls KTM), a steering damper, customisable engine braking and other kewl stuff.

All I can say after this very engaging ride is, I don't feel like I am missing out on anything the blokes riding their S1000RR or R1s have minus the extra wind noise, cost, service and parts times. And for whatever little I do, I hope the ZX-4R waits for me when I master a 40hp bike.

Preload at second softest, one level softer than recommended.

Recommended suspension settings. If Max payload preload is 7, then what are the other 3 for? Track sessions with pillions?

Recommended Tyre pressures. The manual says 29,32 for solo at multiple places.

Anyone know what this orange ring on the fork is and why its down here.

And why the orange ring is somewhere in between here. This is where the orange ring is in the cover art for the manual, not down below like it is on the other leg. Also sick fork aero bro. I imagine its more useful to block out the debris in India.

No way to just remove some bolts and get some clawy pegs like the new Himalayan. Why can't you just make a less vibey motor and give us real pegs with proper leverage KTM.