Advice with KTM Duke 200 for a Newbie

First of all I would like to thank the post her:

Really helped me a lot to understand some tits and bits about bike and taking care of it.

I am a beginner rider (and I mean literally). Have never ridden a motorcycle or a scooter or a car before(Learning by watching YouTube videos). Bought Duke 200, and starting riding it by own. Its been about more than a month now. Didn't take it out much (only 4 times to be exact), and broke my side mirror while taking a U Turn. The bike had stalled and I dropped...

However, for last 2 days I have been riding it to long distances of about 12+ km one way. Need advice on some issues:

1. Bike is heating up a lot. Just leaves around 4 bars from top. Reading from other posts I am guessing I shouldn't be concerned, or should I?
2. Bike stalls at lower RPMs even at 3rd gear. Seems to be stalling on 2nd gear but pulling in the clutch does the job. I saw something about ECU flashing. Does that really solve it?
3. Around what speed and RPMs should I be shifting gear upwards? Currently I try to keep RPMs between 3-5k on any gear.
4. Can you please give an estimate of recommended gears for speed range? My current pattern is this:
   1. 0-10 km/h 1st gear
   2. 10-20 km/h 2nd gear
   3. 20-30 km/h 3rd gear
   4. 30-45 km/h 4th gear
   5. 45+ km/h 5th gear (Could never touch 6th gear)
   
   
5. When going over a Speed breaker, should I down shift to second gear from 4th gear? Or can I downshift to 3rd gear and pick it up from there?
6. While riding down a slope or flyover, I pull in the clutch and use rear breaks to keep bike in control and pick it up from around 3rd or 4th gear depending on speed. Is it fine to do so? Or should I be racing the throttle a bit?
7. I will be taking it for first service at SHREERAM BAJAJ, Ghatkopar (W), Mumbai. Do I need to make an appointment by calling them? And is it fine to approach this service center as I bought bike from Sai Service, Andheri (E), Mumbai and they have their service center in Lower Parel, Mumbai, which would be a bit far for me.
8. How to clean this bike? Can I run water through hose on it or do I need to clean every part using wet sponge/cloth?

Thread Approved and Merged

Well even i learnt how to ride a geared bike on duke only after purchasing it
.


Q.Bike is heating up a lot. Just leaves around 4 bars from top. Reading from other posts I am guessing I shouldn't be concerned, or should I?

--> BIke heating is very normal , and that too 4 bars from top is normal operating temperature only



Q.Bike stalls at lower RPMs even at 3rd gear. Seems to be stalling on 2nd gear but pulling in the clutch does the job. I saw something about ECU flashing. Does that really solve it?

--> Just put on some more kms on the bike , the stalling issue will be gone , not to worry about it though , just watch out for the clutch movement

the same thing happened with me too , on the third day after purchase , during a u turn on a highway , i was about to fall due to stalling of the bike , luckily managed not to fall



Q.Around what speed and RPMs should I be shifting gear upwards? Currently I try to keep RPMs between 3-5k on any gear.

--> Yes try changing ur gears between 4-5k RPM until the run-in period



Q. Can you please give an estimate of recommended gears for speed range? My current pattern is this:

1. 0-10 km/h 1st gear
2. 10-20 km/h 2nd gear
3. 20-30 km/h 3rd gear
4. 30-45 km/h 4th gear
5. 45+ km/h 5th gear (Could never touch 6th gear)

--> Ur riding it absolutely fine in this speed , can take it about +5 km/hr speed from 3rd gear onwards , but not until u feel confident on ur driving




Q. When going over a Speed breaker, should I down shift to second gear from 4th gear? Or can I downshift to 3rd gear and pick it up from there?

--> Yes do down-shift while going over a speed breaker atleast come to 2nd gear or 3rd gear depending upon the speed




Q.While riding down a slope or flyover, I pull in the clutch and use rear breaks to keep bike in control and pick it up from around 3rd or 4th gear depending on speed. Is it fine to do so? Or should I be racing the throttle a bit?

--> yes u can do this , or even the either way around , but i just blip the throttle while shifting to the gear so that it matches the REV's



Q. I will be taking it for first service at SHREERAM BAJAJ, Ghatkopar (W), Mumbai. Do I need to make an appointment by calling them? And is it fine to approach this service center as I bought bike from Sai Service, Andheri (E), Mumbai and they have their service center in Lower Parel, Mumbai, which would be a bit far for me.

--> im sorry i cant help u on this,
Dukers from MUMBAI please do help him in this.




Q.How to clean this bike? Can I run water through hose on it or do I need to clean every part using wet sponge/cloth?

--> U can use water to clean the bike , its not a problem as long as ur not using pressurized water , take necessary precautions while cleaning the radiator and dont spray water directly on to it and dry the area below the rear seat as water seeps into it after bike wash

Yes you can take the bike to SHEERAM BAJAJ..book an appointment,..i am sure they'll help you out and do a good job as i give my bike there.

Hi sir amimesh21,

Sir where did you acquired that raceline sticker set? i've been dying to have that in my duke. hehehe! I'm from philippines by the way.

Thanks @hankofgals and @N E S T O Network.

where can i get good rim stickers in chennai? price? any retail shops for handguards??

1. That is fine for a new duke. It comes down a bit after a 1000km or so.
2. ANY bike will stall in any gear if the rpm is too low. More to do with your riding style here, i assume.
3. I mostly shift close to 10k rpm, but since you are a learner, i'd say shift between 7k and 8k rpm and keep the rpm close to 5k in whatever gear you ride. There is very little power under that.
4. Double everything. That will help you stay nicely in the power band.
5. Shift to 2nd, since there is a good chance are that you will be doing 20-ish kph.
6. You're a new rider and you should focus on learning with a good technique, so PLEASE don't learn from typical Indian riders who suggest against using the front brake. Don't pull the clutch. What you should be doing is using a lower gear. Using a lower gear will give you engine braking, so you don't have to use brakes much or at all. Use the front brake a tiny bit if you need to shed some more speed.

Also, I saw the DIY Lubrication discussion a few days back... Came across this video just now, i think this takes care of the problem. I'll probably get one for myself too.
Edit : Just got a response from the guy. The stand is Rs. 2000 including shipping charge (of Rs 150).

Re: KTM 200 Duke

+1 to what dishayu wrote above to your questions.

With these speeds and gears you're lugging the engine, which is not good for running in the new engine nor good for you to learn. This is good for 100cc bike but not for Duke...
Manual says to avoid going over 7000 rpm in first 1000 km. You need to push it over that every now and then to break in the engine.
In any case it's better not to shift gears below 5k rpm, and later when you feel more confident you can shift around 7-8k rpm...

And yes, Duke has a very good engine breaking, best to use it. It's safest to stay in power band.
I personally use rear brake only in panic breaking as an addition to front brake.
80% of stopping power is in the front break. Big bikes have a small rear disc and at the front they have even two big discs, and there's a reason for that...

Thanks a lot Dishayu and Splus. Really appreciate the inputs.

hello everyone!
Does/did anybody find it a bit hard to shift from 2nd to 3rd gear on the duke? I feel shifting from 2nd to 3rd is not as smooth as before on mine. I have completed all the free services but oil change ( of any sort) was not done in the third free service as the manager told that i can do a bit more before kms and then go for an oil change. Should i go for the gear oil change right away if it solves the problem?
Can anybody throw more light regarding the reasons for this issue?

Re: KTM 200 Duke

What oil is right now in the engine? And when was it changed? How many kms ago?
And is it synthetic or mineral or maybe Bajaj semi synthetic?

But even without answers I'm almost sure the situation would improve if you would change the oil, esp if you put Motul full synthetic oil.

2nd to 3rd has never been a problem for me. Although going from 1st to 2nd is a bit of a pain. And it's even worse when i'm doing clutch-less hard acceleration. I find myself in neutral more often than i am happy with. I've never had this problem with any of the bikes before.

I have been saying this to my friends (IRL) a lot but i think i haven't mentioned it here before, i think duke has the worst gearbox on an Indian bike since the old pulsar gearbox. I absolutely hate the build quality and the feel. (I'm VERY happy with the ratios etc, just to be clear)
I do however, like the cbr gearbox and build quality a lot (but not the ratios), which is one of the big reasons i'm considering holding out for a cbr500x instead on jumping on the duke 390 bandwagon.

Only recently I checked my friend's CBR 250 and my friend checked my Duke.
I've found CBR 250 a very nice bike, obviously specialized for cruising, straight line high speed. You feel like a bullet that goes straight and aims for the top speed. And very comfy, after being on Duke. But after some time (just half an hour) I found myself being bored with it. It's a very good bike, but after Duke every bike seems so much less fun and, sorry to say, plain boring.

My friend (who's 6' 1" and around 45, and has had 1000 cc bikes for 20 years already), on the other hand, was SO excited after trying my Duke for half an hour, he was jumping all around and saying "Wow, wow, what a bike!!! Wow, wow!!! What a FUN bike!". He said it made him feel 20 years younger, like a teenager. It was just simply so much fun to ride it. He rarely now rides his CBR, mostly uses his scooter, but he said if he had Duke he'd be riding it every day, just for fun if nothing else! He's now impatiently waiting to try Duke 390, its high power to weight ratio should give a very high levels of bliss... :-)

In regard to gearing the CBR 250 I tried was OK, but not much (or at all) better than my Duke.
But maybe it had more to do with how I chose my Duke when I was buying it - I sat and tried shifting gears on several new Dukes, and to my surprise they all had quite different gears. Some were very clunky, difficult to shift, and some were total butter. I picked the bike that had very smooth gear shifting, and it has remained very smooth till now (around 5000 km).
My Duke actually has one of the best gearboxes I tried in most 150-180cc bikes...

Gear ratio is the one I'm not a big fan of, though, I think they could easily put 31t rear sprocket, or at least 32t (which is what comes as standard in overseas Dukes). Duke 390 has little better ratio (still short) so it should be a hell of a good and fun bike with that amount of power and its low weight. Certainly better than higher cc but heavier new 500cc Hondas...