Hi there everybody.
Just booked the Duke. Selected the bike at the garage. Everything looked ok. Delivery tomorrow morning. Very excited and just cant wait for this day to get over
I will post the pics tomorrow and then onwards my riding experiences as well.
Cheers...

Still, Give it a shot. It may not be clear but might give a fairly good Idea!
. This is 2nd report I read about snapping throttle cable. I hope U didnt pin it down everytime you ride

I don't really pin down the throttle as you put it, but yes I do some spirited riding when the traffic allows it. Although this happened just after a speed breaker before a police station and I actually went gliding right into their anxious arms after the cable conveniently snapped there!!! They were all asking me what happened and then another cop who came later asked me to rev it!!! What a night!!!

So did you rev it? You should have asked the Thulla to rev it as it pleases him. Must be an experience riding it back home with snapped wire

Can someone with a bike from new batch take a little better photo of this rubber rail and post it?
I'm booking my bike in 3 days in Chennai and I just want to be sure the bike I pick is from a new batch.

I guess another thing to do on delivery is to ask them to change the oil to fully mineral since I want to do a proper fast mode run in. If I understood properly Bajaj oil is semi synthetic?
Will they have a fully mineral oil there in the service center or should I bring some from outside?

by default the oil will be bajaj 10000 dtsi semi synthetic, i dont think so that they will do the oil change as it is the recommended oil but you may try your luck and change it with any 20w50 mineral oil. In my case i did chnage the oil at 65km on odo again to dtsi one and it was an eye opener

Mileage check

203kms at 5.13 litres.. which is a FE of 39.57 kmpl ; Haven't got this kind of mileage post run-in ...

how "EYE OPENER" ???

Why the oil change? And to what oil? Gear shift is tough while breaking-in, you can clean the front sprocket area by yourself as the tools required are provided in the toolkit. There are a few pictures probably 20 pages earlier(im too lazy sorry). The gearbox is normally clunky when you first use it in the day/after a long period/when it is cold. Best is to shift gears before starting for the first time to get it smoother.

According to the manual 3 bars and below is low, 4-10 is normal and above that is high which the display shows. When the engine is cool it is recommended to rev gradually and keep it at lower revs while increasing the revs as the temperature increases. Coolant is not pumped before 3 bars, as the thermostat is supposed to restrict the flow of coolant on a cool engine. And the fan is turned on to enhance the working of the coolant to keep the engine at optimum running temperature which is after around 20 minutes of riding.

For the reduced pickup, you should have used mineral oil in the first 1000 kms as recommended by the manufacturer, even if you change the oil keep using mineral as synthetic oil/semi synthetic glazes your piston walls, decreasing engine efficiency/reduced performance & reduced mileage. It also highly depends on the way you are riding it, as it is the break-in period, and the method of break-in you are following...

I didn't get you. You changed the oil "again" at 65km? You mean you changed it to mineral straight out of showroom, and then back to dtsi at 65km?
I'm guessing this "eye opener" was in negative sense, since you earlier reported your pickup reduced when you did it?

Yeah, then I'll come to showroom with 2 liters of mineral oil (any suggestions anyone??) and change it either there or outside.

I did run ins in several bikes, few in "regular" way (usually don't rev it for "prolonged periods" more than 5000rpm for first 500km, and not more than 7000rpm for next 500km, one time with Motoman's way, but the best results (best pickup and performance) were when I did the run in in 250-300km, and that to change revs all the time, rev it to higher rpms with proper load, but only for short time, and then reduce speed with engine breaking. And most importantly not overheat the engine, so making at least 10-15min breaks quite often. And change oil at 100 or max 150km. Even when I changed oild when I was doing regular run in (at some 300-400km) the engine felt so much better and lighter, as if it was choking before the oil change with all that heaviness from tiny metal particles from new engine...

If you don't push your engine at least every now and then to higher revs then the engine simply won't break in. How can it break in with babying the bike and keeping it below 5k rpms???
Especially the Duke...

oil changed was 10,000 dtsi as the svc told me this is the oil which comes prefilled in the bike, at that point of time i was not aware it was semi synthetic .
Is it true that the Duke comes with semi synthetic 10,000 dtsi oil as prefilled engine oil?

also if this oil was prefilled then how can it be harmful to the engine ? and if i was given wrong info then advice me recommended mineral oil and i will get it changed tomorrow.

ALSO to all fellow Dukers, which Running method you all are adopting and why and for those who have already completed Running In, which method is most successful for Duke i.e. Motoman's, KTM one or a third option ?
I am trying mix of Motoman's but strictly under 7000 RPM's with some of my modifications

I think Bajaj semi synthetic oil is much more mineral than synthetic, but I might be wrong. Either way, fully mineral oil is the best option during the break in period, and it's up to us what we'll put in regardless of what Bajaj puts inside initially.
Why bike manufacturers often do or recommend things that might not be the best for a bike is a very debatable topic...

Just to be clear - in KTM Duke 200 owner's manual it only says not to exceed 7,500 rpm during the first 1,000 km and to avoid fully opening the throttle.

Some are keeping it under 5,000 rpm during the first 1,000 km, and while that might be a good run in for Splendor, it is actually NOT the right run in procedure for the Duke.

Can you please explain why in more details ? Thank you.

As the engine running-in or as called breKing in is concerned Motomans method of doing so is good.
Although any rebuilt or new engine has to go through a
break in process...Each piece of moving metal
must get to know and fit with the piece of metal it
is moving against........Usually, the manufacturers put
a sticker on the speedometer or tachometer
telling you to take it easy for 1000kms or so.
and our buddy says "If you want to run it hard, break
it in hard.....but the truth is not
on the right hand or the left but, in the center.
The problem is this. All this rubbing produces
heat, which can cause oil to fail, which can cause
a piston to seize to a cylinder wall. On the other
hand, if there is not enough rubbing, the piston
rings will not seat right with the cylinder walls. If
this happens the engine will not reach it's full
power potential. If the only new parts are piston
and rings, as in an engine rebuild, we only have
to worry about heat build up from the new parts.
If the entire engine is new, the heat built up is
even greater, because all the parts are new.
Yes, it is true that we have much better machining
and quality control on new motorcycle engines,
then we did in the past but, moving parts still
have to wear in. If you have better, harder metal,
it will take longer then if you have poorer, softer
metal......if you run the bike too easy, you
run the risk of the cylinder walls glazing over and
then, maybe, never seating properly. On the other
hand, if you run the bike too hard, you run the
risk of engine seizure. I suspect, that even if you
do glaze the cylinder walls over, if your run the
engine hard enough and long enough, the rings
will seat. However, this may take a thousand
kms, or more, to do.
what i prefer is ....
"I put the bike in second
or third gear and accelerate with wide open
throttle to about one or two thousand RPM
"Below red line". I then shut the throttle and coast
down, in gear, to two thousand RPM or so. I then
do it again. I do this about ten times. Then I ride
around for a while at an easy pace. I do this
several times, if possible. This seats the rings
without overheating the engine."
Also an imp point with a new engine riding on a straight road never stick the throttle in one position for a very long time.....this might cause an engine seziure....regular throttle variation is necessary as it will draw more oil from the bottom of pistons ans keep it cool.

That means that throttle cable is not strong enough.