Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

MG was supposed to post some kinda comparo of 390 vs N300....Did I miss it or it's never got posted?

P.S. Pics on my earlier post are now visible, in case anyone's still interested!- http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/first-im...tml#post975710

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

It was never posted.. Well you too are regular to this thread, you won't miss that out
hopefully [MENTION=10454]MG[/MENTION] makes some time for this and post the compro between the two..

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

Took a Test Ride of the DUKE 200 & 390 at BAJAJ Company Showroom, Wakdewadi, Pune.
Unfortunately, they ONLY allowed Test Rides in the showroom premises.

DUKE 200 handles like a breeze. But, i did feel a sudden surge of power when i cracked the throttle & up-shifted in quick succession.
I could only do 50 kmph on it.

DUKE 390 stalled 3-4 times [due to my opening throttle immediately after starting it]
It is truly speactacular. The uright siting position & rearsets do not take a toll on the wrists.
Did only 50 kmph on this too , due to the sharp turns

Revved both bikes to hear exhaust note. To me somehow the DUKE 200's note sound's better.

My bro will buy a Black DUKE 200 for his burthday in March 2014.
I will get myself a 390 next year too [on my birthday, hopefully ]

Meanwhile, i will go to KTM BundGarden soon & get a Test Ride on the road

Thank You BAJAJ & KTM for making me realise that we will NOT be deprived from Power after all

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

On a slightly different note :

Was inquiring about the possibility of different colors for the availability of the 390 Duke. The KTM Langford road showroom manager, who seemed to be a knowledgeable and decent guy said to this effect :

Currently only one color is available (as we all know).

However, about five parts (which give the bike the color) can be bought separately and replaced : the headlight covers (two parts) the tank (one part) and tail area parts (two). These can be bought, for eg. in black and can be replaced onto the current (white) 390. The parts he informs, are the same as the 200, minus the stickering.

The damages come to around 4K approx.

Further, the 390 stickers are also expected to be available in due course (as I understand, the 200 stickers are already available for buying currently). The damages for the sticker is estimated to be less than 2K.

Net net, he informed me for a one time cost of around 6 K, every few days, I could change my bike color simply by replacing the panels !

Sounds too good to be true !

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

headlight covers ,the tank ,tail area parts

all just at just 4k [4000 INR]???

Tank Cap Sticker coast around R.s 2500
Sticker Kit coast around R.s 5000

then how we can get all this parts at just 4k ?

i haven't booked mine till now due to colors

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

Well, I was dumbfounded too.

But if I had to hazard a guess, the items mentioned by you are 'powerparts' imported into India. The parts mentioned by the dealer are made by Bajaj plastics.

Nonetheless, will be good if anyone else can also verify this at their dealers.

Btw, even if you go down this route now to get a - for eg. - 'black 390' , since the tank stickers/ decals are still not available, you may have to run your 390 under a Duke 200 stickering ! Now how beautiful a prospect is that !!?

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

Yes, that's what I was planning to do, put the orange tank with 390 stickers, when I was still intending to buy D390.

I checked with SC and these are the prices.
Duke's spares are cheap!
And the quality is far from cheap! :thumbup:

But all Power parts are crazy expensive, I think they are probably imported from Austria.

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

Yep powerparts

Like a review bike !

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

No, it's more. There is one blue-green kind of colour kit for D200 at the dealership and I have seen its priced at 6,500. They come in full kit I think and one cannot buy just one or two panels.

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

The 'blue green' thingy is again a power part is what I understand, hence crazily priced.

Anyway, I just conveyed what the store manager informed, as being available for purchase for the price which he quoted. Nothing more, nothing less.

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

Is it this one?



I loved the black neon/purple stickers on the Duke when it was 1st unveiled but later realized it was exclusive for D125 and wouldnt come to India

Seems like it's a PP set and is not std colour



Sent from my iPhone

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

Took a longish test ride of the 390 yesterday, and happily no one was sitting behind me. It had just finished raining so traffic was less too.

First impression about the bike was the clutch felt a little different from the 200, needed a bit more revs before it started moving. But once it moved, it felt quite good. The first thing you notice is that the engine feels a lot smoother than the 200, less vibey and the difference in power is apparent. Took the bike through the city and it felt really similar to the 200. Actually you forget you are sitting on the 390 until when you twist the throttle, though the difference in acceleration in the city didn’t feel that much as I thought it would be. On the 200 you just gotta keep the engine on the boil and the bike just darts in the direction you want to. The 390 was the same although I was in a lower gear because of the larger ratios and most of the time you don’t really cross 3rd. Moved onto the highway where I finally got the chance to open it up.

Now here's the thing when you ride the 200 and then know that the 390 has nearly twice the engine capacity you tend to have quite large expectations. The acceleration was quite good but the weird thing is that there's not THAT much of a difference from the 200. I guess maybe it’s because of the 200s short gearing that makes you feel like you're going really fast, but even then the numbers on the speedo of the 390 weren’t changing as fast as I thought it would and this was even with me full throttling and nearly whacking the rev limiter. What you do notice is that the 390 doesn’t lose momentum past 120 like the 200 does and just keeps going and going. I did notice that the 390 kept losing a little momentum near the top of its rev range though (weird) I think this is because it was a test bike and it hadn’t been run in yet. Gearshifts felt good though there was a missed shift somewhere (test bike issue I guess). Gearing was quite a big difference and the 6th gear is humungous, although people say that you can ride it in higher gears at lower speeds without the bike lugging much, the bike just doesn’t feel happy doing it. Bright side is that you don’t need to change gears that often and something you notice is that the 3rd gear on the 390 feels exactly like the 4th on the 200 and you only realise you're still in 3rd when you look down at the instrument cluster and go "yaay still 3 gears remaining". Engine heat was there though it wasn’t too much more than the 200, uncomfortable but not unbearable. Brakes felt good but I’m an even bigger fan of the ABS. I kept trying to lock the rear wheel at low speeds but it just wouldn’t. On the 200 locking the rear wheel is so easy that I almost never use the rear, but on the 390 it just wouldn't lock no matter how hard I tried. All you get is a small judder on the pedal and you slow down smoothly. It felt so good I kept stomping on the rear pedal 4-5 times (yea there were no vehicles around) you can actually feel the rear wheel slightly locking for a tiny fraction and then releasing. Steering when this is happening is also quite easy. Dint try locking the front though (not that brave). I WANT!! Can't wait to put ABS for the 200 when it does come. Massive peace of mind. Dint really get the chance to test out the Metzelers because the roads I took weren't really curvy. Although I realised the difference when I got back on the 200 and accelerated hard on a wet patch of road that I had done the same on earlier on the 390. The 200 felt a little squiggly while on the 390 I didn’t even notice that the road was wet, it just accelerated over the wet road without any drama. Those are my impressions from the test ride.

Would I consider selling the 200 and buying 390?
No.

For me the Duke 200 was always a bike that felt like it had a lot of coffee, a little hyperactive.. And it is something that most people enjoy a lot because it’s fun and exciting, not to say that the 390 isn’t. It’s really good fun and taken by itself I can’t think of anything that is wrong with it but as a successor to the D200 it doesn’t feel right. When I think of the expectations I had for this bike, I just feel a little disappointed for what could have been. I mean the 200 was always unique in the way that it felt. Something that was always excitable and just waiting to jump around all the time. Think about any other bike that is similar to the way the D200 delivers its power and feels like that. I can’t. That sort of high acceleration, Low top speed mantra is something that I feel only the D200 follows among the bikes being manufactured in India. So when I heard that a 44HP version of what I enjoyed so much was being released, I couldn’t wait to see how much crazier it would be than what I had. And after the test ride the answer was, well, not really that much. The D390 by itself is a great motorcycle but according to me, it’s not really a successor to the D200. Honestly it feels more like a successor to the 200NS. If I were blindfolded (metaphorically speaking) and was asked to take a test ride and guess which bike it was a bigger version of, I would have said the NS. I know the 0-60, 0-100 and other stats say otherwise but riding it I felt a bit let down. I just wish they had followed the same formula as the D200 because that’s something that a lot of manufacturers in India don’t really follow. Most of them focus on trying to give you a smooth engine, linear acceleration, good top speed, great mileage etc and that’s great, but this particular kind of bike that felt like it was pumped up on caffeine was something that I found only on the D200 and I guess I was hoping for even more of the same on the 390.

So in summary Duke 390: Fantastic Bike.
As a successor to the D200:

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

i got a call from the showroom today, and they said to me the delivery should be started from the first week next month and this time it is final.

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

Yup, you've nailed it.
Best comparo between D200 and D390 I've read so far.
My hat off to you sir.

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

A short clip on curvy roads in the Swiss Alps.

Another fix to keep us going till nirvana !

Oberalp KTM Duke 390 - YouTube