Test Drive: First Impressions

Went to the MG Road, Gurgaon showroom. Surprisingly, it wore a deserted look and the sales staff was too happy to welcome me.

Took a small TD, the bike ran nice and fine but I couldnt hold 100kmph for more than a second or two. Asked for a longer TD over the highway (NH8) and they obliged. Took the bike to 131kmph. No issues, very stable and fully in control. Raced a little with a beemer which beat me by going 150+

Rode the bike at 120-130 for a while. Dont know why, but I thought that the engine is not meant to do that all day. Could just be psychological given the bike's weight and cubic capacity. Views anyone?

Did a little bit of corner carving and lane changing, the bike showed good manners. I liked the brakes. They were progressive and felt linear. The bike did not wag its tail under heavy braking. Someone who wants amazing, jerky bite maybe disappointed.

Pillion seat is small but adequate. I asked the showroom guy to drive while I sat in the pillion seat. I would need a backrest or top-box to not feel nervous given the twitchy acceleration that wants to throw you back. Or maybe I am just not experienced at sitting pillion. The seat should do fine for my wife. If you remove the seat you see slots for adding a topbox mount - good!

And yes, the big selling point for me is how light the bike feels. Very flickable and super manageable. Feels like a splendor with lots of acceleration - for me that is a good thing.

The suspension is good and quite responsive. With one hand on the pillion seat you can easily press the monoshock a couple of inches. I liked the monoshock, frame and weight so much that I had to rule out the new pulsar.

Negatives:
- Not a torque monster. I did all my riding with a pillion from the showroom. Can not pull away in any gear with pillion and luggage. If you play the gears correctly, it works well. Clear loss of torque for bullet guys. No big deal for me.
- Booking amount not completely refundable. There is a 3K deduction.
- The big one: Vibrations in the foot pegs at speeds above 90. The right foot peg vibrated enough to make me a little uncomfortable. This is coming from a bullet guy No vibes in the unweighted handlebars or anywhere else. The bike had 10kms on the odo so maybe it wasnt meant to go that fast this early and with running in this may be resolved. But this felt odd and could be a deal breaker. Any views?

I hope that this is among the first non-journo riding report of the duke

Test drive


Here is bangalore we don't have that option only .. I booked the bike without test ride with KTM name ... Hope that won't disappoint me

Can i have more motivation like this?
I mean, a friend owning v2.0 happens to advice persistently that i go for Duke cuz of the massive power and a steal of a price, another friend owning anothe v2.0 suggests i look at the new pulsar,its dirtcheap price tag and its 58kmpl average.

Guys I am so thrilled and at the same time J of you all, well... at least at the ones who get to ride the Duke-200 there. I use the Duke-125 here and I can only imagine the fun it is going to be with those extra horse POWER !!fficeffice" />>>
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@JALVA>>
About the vibrations I am not sure why but up till 100kp/h it should feel smooth. But I have the same experience on my 125 too, wip it past 100 and it does vibrate but IMO its not really that bad. >>
I agree with you on the lack of torque with a pillion rider but again it aint too bad if you ask me. Its best ridden solo!! Personally I like to ride solo if I am riding for sheer biking fun. Like I have said before there is just too many things that are so different about riding this bike, it’s agility, ability to inspire confidence while taking on steep bends, styling, breaking etc. Its a bike that stands out even here in SG which has no shortage in terms of the line-up of bikes available. I have now owned it for about 6 months now and its absolute fun to ride it everyday...and its only a 125, (just wishing if it can be upgraded to a 200 mill[mechanically] now)

that's great.even I had doubts whether it would be able to maintain 120+ for long stretches (especially with pillion/luggage) without breaking a sweat like cbr.I took td of Cbr with pillion and reached 120+ easy and maintained that.lots of torque that engine has.

KTM showroom at MG Road, Gurgaon is accepting bookings, the on-road price should be around 1.28 - 1.3 lacs.

that wil be ther bcoz its an oversquare engine...at high revs oversquare engine i will have high viberations

Hi,
As u said there is loss of torque.. did u mean when u try to pull away at lower RPMs, there is engine knocking ?

Thanks for a short ride report

Thanks for the non-journo report

Guys, I'm sorry for claiming 38 kmpl for Duke 200... It was not for Duke, it was for P220. Here is the link:

Engine and Transmission on the New 2012 Bajaj Pulsar Page - 2| Zigwheels.com

and here is the extract from the link:

Really sorry for that. And about choosing Duke over P200, I would do that if I was in the market for an Indian performance bike.

After all, its power to weight ratio is still amongst the best of the Indian bikes PLUS the super low gearing. If you want to feel that front getting lighter as you rev up... it will happen on the Duke only if it has to happen on any Indian bike at all. And that sensation is priceless... Enough said.

Now, it has rev limiter at 11500 rpm, so its gonna be faster than Pulsar too it appears, as even Pulsar is naked (no bikini fairings!) now.

Did not detect any knocking. The engine would just cut off in a millisecond if you burden it with more than what it was ready to take.

Also, all my riding was in the higher RPMs - a combination of my excitement and the nature of the rev happy engine.

Did it revv till 11500 rpm? according to MG it will, please confirm. Thanks for the ride report.

I had suspected this.. the torque graph put up in this forum looked very unreal for a short stroke high revving motor(infact, for any motor).. maintaining a torque of around 18Nm right from the low revs!! impossible.
Thats a huge negetive, that i had already considered. I am buying for other reasons.

Thanks for the report

@Jalva: Being a bullet guy & one of the first to test ride the duke, you are THE person to answer my doubts.

Am in the process of selling my 2008 machismo 350 and intend to book the duke. I have a C5 which will accompany me on long rides (800kms+), and i intend to use the duke for city commute + occasional short rides, and some off-roading. Would love to take it on longer rides as well, provided it is comfortable to ride/sit on it for about 12 hours a day.

This morning, i went to the pro-biking showroom in Bangalore to see the duke in flesh. When on saddle, the first and most important observation was the foot-peg is placed way behind where i would find it to be comfortable. Not sure if that is how it should be, or is it my being used to riding posture of a bullet? Being a bullet guy, what are your thoughts on this?
You also mentioned lack of torque, and excess vibrations at the pegs at 100kmph. My M3.5 and C5 both vibrate like a tractor at speed in excess of 90kmph, so much that the RVM is just a blur. I always thought that single cylinder, low revving long stroke bikes with pushrods, were meant to vibrate, and high revving short stroke ones with the given suspensions and frame of the duke would hardly have any vibrations. could someone throw some light on the existing vibes in the duke?

when at showroom today, it was like a fish market with all the crowd & noise. however, they refused to start the bike to get an idea of the exhaust note. Said, the test ride would start in about 10 days time. Did ask one of the fellas wearing a duke t-shirt about mileage, and he said around 35kmpl with sedate riding. I am still holding my money, will wait for the test ride and take a call.