during the first service they skipped diagnostic tool test in my case, anyway tomorrow im visiting ASC for the suspension spring replacement. i will insist on that , thanks for the heads up

3800+kms with the Duke: A small review

Hi guys,
I have been a member since the very early days of xbhp in 2002 but haven't been active over the past few years- mainly because I have been outside India for a while. Most of the members I knew seem to have gone as well. I have been following the threads though and some of the discussions are very helpful. Kudos to the members and keep up the good work. So, that's why I thought that I should give something back to this community.

I got the Duke on March 23rd in Delhi and I have covered just above 3800 kms on it. Looking at some comments that are flying around and in general how people perceive the bike, I thought I should put up a little review about my ownership experience. Also, because I haven't felt so strong about a bike launch in India so far.

I am just like you guys- a passionate biker and I would rather be on my bike than in a car, on a bus, train or plane, or do anything else. Even if its raining cats & dogs, I am most happiest on my bike. I even quit my job to go on an epic 2 week journey to Lahaul-Spiti in 2010 after our plans to go to Leh got disrupted due to the tragic flash floods that hit just a day before our departure. Read about it here: The point is to travel...

To sum up my my life with the Duke, it has been a happy love affair. The range of emotions that this bike can evoke is enough to make me rethink my next bike from the Ducati Monster or the Street Triple to a KTM! Yup, so there will always be haters and let them hate. This is probably the best thing to have happened to the Indian biking scene and industry in a very very long time. The partnership between Bajaj & KTM seems like the perfect launchpad for great things, for both companies. A new world order of sorts! So anyway, enough chit-chat, here's my review:A 3800kms review of the KTM Duke 200

Cheers & ride safe!

Ps: I will be leaving the country soon so if anyone is looking for a as-good-as-new Duke to take home this coming August, feel free to contact me. I will be posting a listing soon as well. It would be the saddest goodbye I have ever said so want the Duke to get a good home before I go.

The engine doesnt knock competely so often.. It goes into a kind of hiccup stage for about 5 seconds. Theres no uniform acceleration at that point with the bike jerking to the change.

I use speed petrol.

The engine oil is regular Bajaj DTS-i oil

Is that applicable for 200NS as well??

This thing happened to me quite some time back. The bike used to get this hiccupish feel. I had to pull the clutch to stop the bike from stalling/choking/stopping... etc etc. But this issue got sorted out itself.. right now I have more than 4300kms on odo.

I don't even remember at what odo reading was the last time this thing happened.

If this problem is persisting from very long time (maybe 1 month) or is happening frequently (almost every day) then you should go to the SVC asap.. Also write in mail to Bajaj Customer Care about this issue. Many time their seniors respond to this as the regular mech's are not able to sort out such issues.


Wrong place to ask bro ... not many Duke owners own a 200NS. Post this in the 200ns thread for a proper answer..

Hiccup as in when you donwshift or upshift. Even i have experienced this when we slow down and then try to accelerate in lower gears, but that i guess is normal, we need to be gentle on the throttle. Other members can comment.

No. The 200NS is a carbed bike right?

Spot on with the ride report brother.. Couldn't agree with you more. Its a pity you won't be able to enjoy the bike more.. Hopefully bigger n better things come your way.. Cheers..

Very Nice & precise review. Covers all the usual points and riding conditions. After reading this i think one should just blindly go with the DUKE. Good luck with your sale.

finally! I got my duke

really enjoying the torque starting from the 4000 rpm
the brakes are awesome, the suspensions are great too (well, the rear suspension is liiittle bit too soft for me)

If I'm not mistaken, somebody in this thread have a problem with radiator coolant appearing on the right side of the bike ( bit of plastic covering the radiator )
anyone, enlighten me please about this problem ?

got some doubts dukers ...
the front disc is mentioned as 300mm in ktm india website but the same front disc is mentioned as 280mm in the catalog ..
it is clearly mentioned in the website that duke200 must be fed with RON95 petrol only .. i think u guys are facing these hiccups for using regular petrol ..
the website mentions the compression ratio of 11:5 ,,, i have seen many posts where you people have mentioned it to be 11:3 ..

which one is true ? website or catalog ?

Last night a few of my friends from office wanted to take a ride on the KTM and so I switched on the bike but before the console/ignition test got over, one of those Morons pressed the starter button. This happened twice...Anyway, what are the repercussions for this? Will this do any damage to my fuel injection or am I just over obsessing?>>

Beautiful review mate! I'm just gonna copy the link to your experience blog and post it for a few set of folks. Too bad you're signing off your Duke. However, wherever you're going, you can choose to get a Big Daddy KTM

Cheers and ride safe buddy.

That may be some coolant overflowing becuase of the collant level being near/above the max level. Also a bit of it might come out of the O ring black cap at the front of the tank if the screwing threads are a bit worn(happened with me).

The disc spec ambiguity was something I reported first in this forum sometime back. The actual spec is 280 mm.IT looks smaller than the Ninja front disc if you compare(which is 296 mm). compression ratio is 11.3 but I am not too sure on this.Will check.
Btw the manual lists wrong tyre pressures too

Don't fret over this at all, especially if it's a one off incident. The ECU embedded software must have a leeway for this. Might only result in a less than ideal fuel-air injection at startup(when probably all the sensors could not be read properly). I don't have very good knowledge about ECU functioning though(or any bike stuff for that matter)
experts??

From what I understand, during the initial seconds a diagnostic self-check is performed (it is very similar in cars).
Worst case, the test would've been interrupted.
In short, my vote goes to over-obsession