I understand how much fun light bikes with short gearing are. I subscribe to the same school of thought and that's exactly why i chose to buy a duke over a cbr. Fundamentally, i prefer the duke 200/390 over honda 250/500 but the build quality and feel of the duke gearbox makes me think hard about my choice. I can ignore bad build quality when it comes to chain slapping, plastic parts rattling and those little niggles, but i want my bike to be mechanically top-notch. Duke's gearbox doesn't really impart that feeling.

Me and My Orange Monster

Found that the thread is starving of pics....so just a few

Thank you Splus!
Oil in the engine is Motul 7100 20W50. It was changed at about 2.5K kms around good six and a half or seven months ago. It was changed during the second service when i had just done 2.5K kms. Now my ODO reads 7.1K kms.
I was thinking i'll drop my duke off for service when i finish around 7.5K kms but i think should do it right away.

Re: KTM 200 Duke

Nice pics! I like the higher contrast...
This reminds me I completely forgot to post some of my Duke photos I did with a photographer friend of mine some months ago.
Will do it now. :-)

Yeah, that was quite some time ago. It's synthetic but at 2.5K km your bike is still relatively newish so needs more frequent oil change than when it gets to 20k km...
You can do it now and skip the oil change at the service. And if you're still not happy with gear shifting after the oil change then tell service guys to look into it.

On my Duke I recently had few false neutrals coming up when shifting between 5th and 6th and now also the bike can't start if in gear but with clutch pressed, which it could before. Something to do at my 3rd service in a week..

the bike not starting in gear is the problem in contact in clutch switch. It gets corroded very soon and looses contact. The service centre guy just pulls out the clutch switch, rubs with sand paper and puts it back after applying some electrical paste. But this doesnt last long and gets corroded soon.

And false neutrals are some other problem with the gear box. In my bike along with the false neutral in 5-6 gear, the 2nd gear slips to neutral if taken accelerated to around 40kmph. The svc guys are trying to find out the fault.

Ok maybe I will do it tomorrow then. Thank you!

Here's some photos of my Duke with me shot by a photographer friend of mine some time ago.

For anyone interested in buying a Duke but curious about body and bike dimensions - I'm 5' 8". The jacket is Spartan and the helmet is LS2 Matt Black.

And as for the rear tire hugger - I took it off 2 days after I got my Duke and I can say that my bike gets LESS dirty without it. A lot of mud is bouncing off it, mud hits the inner rear side of the tire hugger and bounces towards up and front, making the rear part of the bike even dirtier. Needless to say the bike looks the way it's supposed to look without it. :-)

lovely panning shots there

Great pics!
I am totally bugging my photographer (not a pro but does know little tricks) friend for some pics of me

Well, barring any mishaps or major changes of plan/schedule, I'll be going to our recently-opened dedicated KTM/Kawasaki dealer here in Bhubaneswar to test-ride a Duke later today. They have 5 Dukes on the floor at the moment, two Orange, one black, and two white. They also have a Ninja 650 in that metallic apple green Kawasaki seems to be fond of at the moment, but I won't be riding that (and I don't think they'll let their one example off the showroom floor anyway).

I really would rather not buy one, to be honest. I've given my reasons before for not wanting to get tied to such a little bike. Also, I would prefer to have as much money in-hand later for my big bike as possible. But because life is what happens when you have other plans, my job/living arrangement situation is fluid enough at the moment that I won't know where I'll be or when I'll be settled enough to buy that big bike (I don't want to have to ship an expensive bike; I want to get it once I'm settled in), so I will probably buy the Duke anyway just so I have something to ride for now; I'm tired of waiting and of not having anything to ride.

If I do manage to ride today, I'll let you all know tomorrow how it went. I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

That's quite the set of "chicken strips" you've got going there .

Good to know about the rear mud deflector making the bike dirtier; good tip. For those who do this, I would recommend fixing up a rubber flap that hangs down from the underside of the tail between the tire and the rear shock assembly. That'll keep the tire from filling the rear spring with mud and crap in wet weather. Best is if the flap hangs all the way down into the swingarm so all the mud will fall right back onto the road, but the tire hugger may prevent that arrangement.

Hahaha, wait, I can explain the chicken strips!
First, these photos were taken in August, just couple of weeks after I bought my Duke. Hence the temp registration...
Second, the road was brand new, it dark colored the center of tires within 5 minutes.
Third, if you see Duke's tires you'll see that they're SO rounded (in fact almost closer to V shape than O!) that it's practically impossible to shave the strips away! I actually read some English review of European Duke even before I bought mine, and the guy was complaining how he couldn't get the chicken strips off. He pushed the bike real hard in corners but, as he said, you'd literally have to go horizontal with the bike in order to get the strips off!

Good tip because most of the mud goes onto the rear suspension. I don't know how doable this would be though...

Good luck with the test ride! And with possible booking 10 min after the ride as well, hahaha...

I think Duke is pretty good for going around and also having lots of fun with it. If we have some great European roads then no, Duke 200 wouldn't be enough. But here it's pretty good.

My situation in last months has also become more "fluid" that I'm starting to let go of idea to get Duke 390. And the fact that its release has been pushed to April/May doesn't help either.
So I'm thinking now that as soon as I do my 3rd service in a week I'll get either Kiirus or RaceDynamics ECU fitted. Duke already has very good power in high rpms (7k+ rpm), but it's missing the smoother lows and more power in mid range (5-7k rpm). And that's exactly what those remapped ECUs offer - smoother jerk-free power delivery in low rpms and boosted power in mid rpms. AND, rev limiter lifted to 11,700 rpm from 10,000 rpm in 5th and 6th gears and 10,500 in 1st four gears, which gives it top speed of 150 kmh.
Sounds maybe too much to rev it to 11,700 rpm but when I tested RD ECU in Dec which was limited to 11,800 rpm it didn't feel that stressed out at 11,800 rpm as I thought it would be. And it certainly held the power all the way to that limit, despite the peak power being at 10,000 rpm!
I also tested and drove my Duke for an hour non stop on a highway at 10,000 rpm redline (132-134 kmh) and it was completely OK (except giving less than 25 kmpl mileage, that is!), which gives me a good feeling Duke's engine can deal quite well with pushing it to limits.

If you can wait till May and afford another 80-100k Rs then it's probably better to wait for Duke 390. I'm sure it'll partially satisfy even the big bike hunger.
If not then Duke 200 is the bike to get - it's powerful enough (and even better with modified ECU) to get a great fun out of it and it's small enough to be a great bike for going around a town...
Almost 6 months into owning one I still have a smile on my face every time I sit on it. You don't get that with just any bike...

I tried out a Duke running Kiiru's ECU recently and to be honest it doesn't feel all that different to ride. The gears are longer, sure, but the accelaration and power throughout the rev range feel completely unaffected, so i'll just save up the cash for a bike upgrade. Speaking of which, I started saving up for a 390 Duke as soon as it was confirmed (even before announcement), so I have the money to buy a 390 right away but since there seems to be little chance of getting one before May and the fact that the ABS version will cost north of 2.5L (acc to the showroom guy) in Bangalore, I'm toying with the idea of waiting a few more months and getting a Daytona 675 when it gets here, if it indeed ends up costing between 6-7 lakhs like the rumors suggest.

Ok, got home earlier than I expected. So, here it is:

I was able to get something approximating a test-ride about 2 hours ago here in Bhubaneswar. I had to take someone from the dealer on the back, and they charged me a nominal fee of Rs.50. I was restricted to a very short loop of maybe 2km all on the same road. So, to review, the bike I had was one of several the dealer had, which had been used for a demonstration in the area. I don't know if they brought them in specially, or if they were pulled from local stock. Anyway, the bike I rode had a malfunctioning speedometer, so I had only a vague idea of how fast I was going. Other than that, the bike performed well. It fired right up, to what felt to be a fairly fast idle. Despite my being heavy, and not being able to adjust the suspension prior to riding, the bike didn't feel overly bouncy or wallow-y, and stayed mostly controlled over the short path the dealer used for the test ride. There was one traffic circle, about 6 traffic signals, and one U-turn. The bike stayed stable through the circle, even taking it at about 50km/h. I would have gone faster, but there were a few other vehicles wandering through the circle, so I never got an entirely clear line all the way through. I was able to take the bike far enough over to get within half a centimeter or so of the edges of the tires. Without a passenger, I would probably feel comfortable enough to lean the bike far enough to produce sparks from the footpeg feelers.

I was able to be at the very front of the line at a traffic signal, so I was able to get a good sense of the acceleration. When I was given the signal to go, I wound the bike out as hard as it would go, though not all the way to redline as the bike did only have about 20km on it. Given that, the acceleration was acceptable, though not wrenching. It probably would have been better without the passenger. I would judge it to be noticeably but not significantly stronger accelerating than an FZ-S, though the real test will only come once I can ride one solo.The clutch is very light and easy to modulate, and the engine is very responsive, so I got a good launch. The clutch on the bike I rode engaged when the lever was just barely away from the handlebar, so there is very little freeplay, though even with that the clutch is still easy to handle. No doubt because of the fuel injection, the bike always responded promptly to the throttle, and only once did it stall, at the first light I had to stop for. I didn't have any further trouble, so I attribute that to my not being "adjusted" to the bike's idiosyncrasies yet. I was able to restart instantly, so other than the short silence from the engine, there was no other indication the bike had stalled, and I didn't hold up traffic at all. The transmission always shifted well, without any undue effort or stiffness, except that I did hit neutral one time going from 1 to 2 as I accelerated away from a light. All other shifts were precise without feeling heavy or overly notchy. Again, the bike I rode is quite new, so I expect the transmission will smooth out with time. I found the brakes to be a bit grabby on initial application, but otherwise fine, and well-suited to the bike. Both the front and rear provide plenty of easy-to-control braking force, and the bike can be stopped in a very short distance if both brakes are used. Once they've bedded in, the initial grabbiness should go away, and the brakes are otherwise very forgiving.

The ergonomics of the bike are pretty good overall. I'm pretty large, at 5' 10" with size 11 (India size)/Euro 46 feet, and very large hands. I never felt the brake/clutch were too small or too far away, and even wearing heavy riding gloves I didn't have any problem with any hand controls. The handlebar felt a bit close to my body, but otherwise positioned well, and the riding position was neutral overall. Both the brake and shift lever were fine despite my large feet even with my riding boots on. I did feel that the gauge cluster was a bit low-set, so it was hard to find without taking my eyes off the road too much, and the display is cluttered and hard to read initially. Again, I would imagine that with time and familiarity it would become easier to get information from it. Being used to bikes with nice large, clear analog gauges probably makes it a bit harder for me. Most of my "big" bikes have had tachometers and speedometers large enough to read with my peripheral vision or at most a brief glance; this one requires actually taking a second to decipher, especially the tach. The seat is firm, and surprisingly wide.

In summary, it was better than I expected overall. The bike is very light and controllable, with decent brakes, fairly robust acceleration, and excellent handling. The controls are well laid-out and work well, though the gauges are hard to read at a glance. The bike feels a bit cramped in the bar-to-seat distance, but is fine on the legs, and should be fairly comfortable over longer distances. It's not a monster, but is interesting enough. I will say that even my short ride showed me that after even 6 months to a year of ownership this bike would be nothing special to me, and I'm going to find myself more and more frequently wanting more than the bike can give.

do you really think the acceleration is not significantly stronger than fz-s because i myself own r15 and when i test rode duke it felt way more faster than r15