To be honest, this bike is "hot" only relative to the feeble bikes available here. In the US, where the majority of bikes have engine displacements well over 800cc, there are plenty of notoriously-hot bikes. Buells and Harleys, in particular, because they use large air-cooled v-twin engines. Most Buells have 1200cc motors, and Harley "big twins" are all well over 1500cc. They are known for running hot enough to cause 1st-degree burns just from the airflow, but none have ever caused the gas tank to ignite. My ZX-11 and both the Magnas I owned would really toast your legs on a hot day, even out on the highway.

The Duke's "heat" is only noteworthy because you can actually feel it, something I suspect many Indian riders are not used to.

You need to catch up with someone who actually owns the Duke and will let you find it out yourself. I remember writing back to you on some other thread on how perceptions are formed.
BTW...almost all machines that are liquid cooled will start throwing gallons of hot air once the fan starts. The difference is that on a faired bike, the fairing vents away/diffuses the hot airflow to your legs to some extent. On naked bikes, this is pretty evident. You might get the same experience on a 200NS.
Regarding loss of performance, it's the biggest bull crap that I have ever heard of.
Other common issues and their solutions are listed below

1. Hard Gearbox = incorrectly adjusted clutch lever/play. Minor correction needed. In some cases, the gear lever is beyond the reach and this gives an impression that the gears are shifting harder.
2. Chain slapping = can be corrected by tightening the chain and the suspension preload to the correct level
3. exhaust discoloration = not an issue..all exhausts have this
4. noise inside the fairing = loose connector...tape it to the existing set of wires.
5. coolant spill = not seen this on any of the7 Dukes I know. Mostly due to overfilling
6. bike stalling = inherent to all large bore short stroke machines. KTMs are known for this....but this is not an issue

Stay away from the Duke if you are so skeptical. Opt for an R15 instead. The 200 NS might just exhibit similar behavior in some cases.

+1

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rohan200ns
i have noticed problem reports from dukers right from the first day to the first week of purchase .. very nearly all dukers .. these are definitely not problems developed over a long time .. most of the problems are reported with less than 400kms on the odo ..


"Rohan I hope you understand that you are just passing wrong information almost on all forums! How many Dukers have you personally met? How do you know all have problems? Do not give out information without proper proof and research. You are so confused that you definitely cannot be happy with any bike! I can show you hundreds of happy dukers who have faced no problems at all. I repeat without proper knowledge of what a bike is and how it is made don't keep prattling about something you do not know and ignorant about. "


Dear Dukers,

I don not understand the motive of such posts in several forums! The above was on the 200 ns thread. All the questions are just repititions of the earlier ones and no matter how many replies denying the claim he does not seem to comprehend what so many ppl are trying to tell.

Yes , Even I have been noticing his posts since quite a long time. "Rohan" please stop spreading rumors on so many threads. There are small problems and issues found in all the bikes, but it doesnt mean you have to go about posting it in all the threads. Please visit any Ownership Thread, you will majorly find people discussing only the problems of the bike because that is how we can seek help and resolve it. People generally dont post anything until there are any issues found. Not even half the bike owners are present on xbhp, and there are so many bike owners who are riding problem free but we do not know it because people dont just keep posting things like "Yay, my bike is problem free."etc. Seeking help is a different thing but asking the same questions again and again, and criticizing a certain bike is not good.

Some people are just impossible. I accept the fact that there were some issues with the bike but they were addressed by the Bajaj people with utmost care.

Besides, all the Dukers I know are fairly happy with the motorcycle.

Some chaps who are doing excessive research on the internet before buying the motorcycle remember the flaws more than the pros.

Yeah, I too tried to find that post, but couldn't find it. Please provide the link.
BTW, I will be needing it for my (to be coming) P200NS



Senior guys, can I get a link of DIY for tightening a o-ring chain.
Please send for tightening and not for cleaning

Did you guys mean this ?

Awww...Im sorry...its not the correct link...

Coolant Leak

On Saturday while i was driving i heard a light sound (Like a very old bijili cracker sound) Not sure if it was from my bike so i continued riding. When i got down i was !!! found Coolant leaked all over the Engine guard and a little bit in Radiator. So far i have completed just 490 KMS and 2 weeks since Delivery .
This was not due to over filling of the coolant, i haven't topped up the coolant since the bike was delivered. It was fine since the day 1. Not sure what happened to my DUKE . Left it to the service guys to find out.

If i have taken it for a Long ride and if i have to face this What can i do I Seriously doubt the reliability of KTM India. Will update once the service guys share me the info.

THat most probably has happened because there is a coolant carrier just above the upper right side of the radiator. It's not secured(and designed that way). YOu can pull it up and coolant can start gushing out and onto the radiator. Happened to me once after I had a mild fall. Now I don't know what made that thing come out resulting in the spill in your case? or may be the reason is something entirely different?

Check if any sharp object has been projected by your front wheel causing a rupture in one of the heat exchanger lines. The sharp noise that you say might be an object/glass on the road which might have cracked under your front wheel and got projected. Check for impact points from stones projected by your front wheel on the heat exchanger.

STOP BLAMING OR DOUBTING THE KTM FOR RELIABILITY WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING THE UNDERLYING ISSUE.

I haven't heard of coolant bombs till date

EDIT: If you still have doubts about the Duke's reliability, sell it off...many of my friends here in Pune who are willing to buy the Duke at lesser than the showroom cost...

No dude.. @Hunkofgals posted pics and procedure of how he made the radiator guard as DIY. very good stuff..

So far i haven't even taken it to the rough roads, been travelling in GST (NH 45) all the time. While the sound came i was driving in ECR and there was no visible object i could spot around the radiator, there were no object in the road that time so possibilities of a object hitting is minimal. Also i am following the run in guidance Religiously. There is nothing wrong in doubting once reliability.

First of all, determine where the leak came from. It's most likely one of two things:

1. A hose has either come loose or has split
2. All the coolant has been pushed out of the overflow tank

If it's the first, you can simply repair/replace the hose.
If 2, then there is either an airbubble or some other blockage preventing the flow of coolant. I am assuming you did not see a fast rise in engine temp just before this, and you say you've been riding a while, so it probably isn't the second option.



This should be a lesson for you and all riders: do NOT ignore odd sounds on a motorcycle (one good reason not to listen to music etc when riding). That sound you heard, like a small cracker fizzling, was probably the coolant boiling away as it sprayed on the hot exhaust. While this may have been caused by a Quality Assurance problem at the factory, it was still your responsibility to be aware of what was happening and not ignore an odd sound your bike was making.



As expensive as this bike is, comparatively, you should want to catch any malfunctions before they escalate into major problems. This isn't some piddly little Splendour or Discover that you can ride into the ground and push into the weeds when it dies. As you note, this could have stranded you far from help had you been on a longer ride, but you should also consider the following possibility: what if the leak had been more sudden, as in dumping all the coolant immediately, and had hit just as you were going into a high-speed curve in traffic? Coolant is notoriously slimy, and you would have instantly lost all traction, and maybe gone under the wheels of a truck.


As I noted in an earlier post, malfunctions on a bike have a much greater chance to render the bike unrideable, and not just in a coast-to-the-curb sense. They can literally render the bike instantly inoperable, even at highway speed. You HAVE to stay on top of what the machine is doing.


To provide an example, I used to own a 1990 Kawasaki ZX-11. Big bike, and very fast. I rode it halfway across the US in two days. During that trip, at one point I stopped to rest and get something to eat and some fuel, and noted a faint hissing noise coming from under the seat. I opened it up, and discovered that the battery had boiled itself nearly dry. Early ZX-11s (apparently) had a notoriously-bad voltage rectifier, and would overcharge the battery when the bike was ridden for long periods at higher speed (I was averaging 135km/h, and had been riding for a good 6 hours straight by then). Had I ignored it, the battery very likely would have exploded right underneath my crotch while doing 135 on the highway, and I might very well have panicked and/or wrecked, and killed myself in the process.



Because I discovered the problem in time, I was able to buy some distilled water, top off the battery and put a couple liters in my luggage for later. I had to top the battery off at least 3 more times on that trip, and several times after that. It was a design flaw in the bike that Kawasaki fixed in later generations, but wasn't considered bad enough to result in a recall. It's a known issue with the early bikes, and as long as you are aware of it, it's a matter of a couple extra minutes during that daily walkaround check to look at the battery, and just something you have to know to check on longer rides.

Anybody... I want Teflon Coating/ Waxing spray ?? plz tell brand name / online shopping address (price also if)... whatever you know

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