Upgrading from a Hunter 350: Is a Duke 390 the right choice?

My daily commute is 40 km in moderate to peak Chennai traffic, with occasional touring.

BHPian Piston_head recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

I’m looking to upgrade from the Hunter 350. While I initially enjoyed its long-stroke nature, I’ve started finding it a bit bored, and the suspension is quite poor. I want a bike with power on tap but one that can also be ridden sanely.

So far, I’ve test-ridden the Himalayan 450, Scrambler 400, and Duke 390:

• Himalayan 450: Felt top-heavy and had a proper big-bike feel. However, my experience with Royal Enfield’s service has been disappointing. With the sheer number of REs at service centers, getting an appointment has become difficult. So, I dropped this option.
• Scrambler 400: Premium feel, and at 5’8”, I could almost flat-foot it. The bike was powerful, but the brakes were underwhelming, making hard braking feel unsafe. Also, the design felt ordinary, it was tall yet compact and lacked a big-bike presence. It blended too easily with commuter bikes. I ruled it out due to the uninspiring brakes and average looks.
• Yamaha R3: Considered it briefly, but no Chennai showroom has test rides or even display models. I’m waiting to see how sales pick up after the price cut. Also, as far as I know, there are currently no aftermarket accessories available in India for R3.
• Duke 390: Initially went to check out the new Adventure model but ended up noticing the Duke 390. Despite being compact, it looked well-proportioned. During the test ride, I found it manageable under 5K RPM and felt it could be ridden calmly when needed.

I’m now considering the Duke 390. My daily commute is 40 km in moderate to peak Chennai traffic, with occasional touring. Would the Duke 390 be a good fit for this use case?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Here's what BHPian Balaji31582 had to say on the matter:

If you consider the duke 390, you should also wait for test drives with the adv 390 versions from ktm. Just maybe couple of weeks and you should start seeing TDs in KTM showroom.

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