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| Review |
I had a KTM Duke II ('Last Edition') for aa year or so, and took it from about 3000 miles to 7000 (mostly commuting). Previously I'd had several years of riding sports bikes, and fancied a change from my R1.
Good points about the Duke include the fact you can work on it very easily. No plastics to remove and having only one cylinder, no fuel injection, plastic tank, and so on. It's also cheap for tyres (compared to sports bikes), although having spoked wheels means it does need innertubes, which feels old fashioned to me.
In terms of performance, it can be fun. Being very light weight, you can do stoppies pretty easily, and it eats up speedbumps with its long forks. It does feel like riding a dirtbike in many ways, and I quickly found myself doing skids and wheelies in a playful way that you can't get away with on a sportsbike (unless you're amazing!).
The Duke is also pretty comfortable, although the seat is fairly narrow. Brakes are okay but having a single disc on the front is a bit weedy, although the bike's light enough to get away with it. Finally, in traffic it's very maneouvreable with it's high, wide bars and small turning circle - very useful in London.
In terms of the down sides, the build quality was the main problem for me, and the main reason I sold it. Granted, this bike probably wasn't designed with winter commuting in mind, but still, the reliability was appalling. In a year the fork seals went twice (£130 each time), the front brake needed a new lever, clutch cable snapped, mirror fell off, etc. I forget all the things, but it needed to go into the workshop four or five times in a year and cost a total of £600 (the bike was only £1500, and remember it had only 3000 miles on it when i bought it). My mechanic told me they say in the trade 'Second service is the funeral service' for KTM bikes, and unfortunately he's right.
Secondly the clocks are literally a joke, saying 'Beats per Minute' on the rev counter. Joking aside though, the lack of a petrol guage or light is ridiculous, especially on a bike which has such an appalling range (70 miles on a full tank, about £8). When the petrol runs out you notice a slight drop in power, then about 500 metres later it coughs and dies, so it's clutch in and roll to a stop, flick it to reserve then you have another 7 miles to get to a petrol station. Insane.
the bike doesn't take pillions very well, and in fact the rear shock bottoms out going over a speedbump at all but the slowest speed when you have a 12 stone guy on the back.
The engine is fine, but drinks petrol and really isn't the arm-wrenching experience that I was expecting. I think this is probably because I've ridden bikes like GSXRs and R1s, which really do have awesome acceleration. However, 0-30mph on the Duke is nice and easy, and that's useful when commuting.
Finally, these bikes are surprisingly expensive (and overpriced for sure), but then you do make that back when you sell it.
In summary, to me it's a lot of fuss about nothing. It's okay, but for me wasn't worth the initial or running costs. I think it probably would suit someone who goes for a sunday morning ride with other people on under 100mph bikes, and who enjoys tinkering in the garage.
I've heard lots of people say 'once you've had a supermoto you won't go back to a sportsbike'. I did, I now ride a 2004 kawasaki zx636 and it's simply incredible. I can't believe the Duke has a similar size engine, and even costs a similar amount. I probably will get another supermoto one day, but i'd probably go for a japanese equivalent of a Superduke (which i've ridden, and really rated - but wouldn't chance the reliability of KTM again).
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| jacksavage on 23/05/2009 |
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