Car & Bike TestDriven: The New KTM Duke 200 Launched in India

[puneetritehere]

I went to chennai showroom as he had called me on monday and told me arrange for finance. Upon entering the showroom, saw 9 Brand new fresh Dukes standing there. Immediately got goosebumps thinking my bike could be one of them.

Upon the approaching the store persons they told that my bike will be arriving in 2-3 days. They are planning some inauguration ceremony next week or may be this weekend also which they will inform soon. They said they will be handing over the bikes in the first lot on that day. They said they are thinking of calling some celebrity. The store person confirmed that my bike will also be among them.

Now the wait is becoming really impatient. Getting goosebumps already.

BTW : the booking number for duke in chennai is 85 till today.

cool.. do make sure you get some pics and post them here.. .and all other basic views about the bike.. blah blah.. whatever you think of it. after spending some time on it.. ride quality, is it an attention seeker??/ a head turner.. ??? etc etc. .this bike was definitely a head turner in my city..

 

[sunny27]

A bit on the mileage will let me plan my finances better for this new mother-b!tch!

 

[aka911]

Hmmm now to see If I can convince my parents.. maybe If I get admission into a decent college I can win them over..

 

[puneetritehere]

Hmmm now to see If I can convince my parents.. maybe If I get admission into a decent college I can win them over..

heheh.. you know...i've known friends of my younger brothers and sisters who are so rich and so poor in studies, that one of the parents promised their kid a porsche just if he passed.. not even score well. just pass..

one parent already bought their kid a BMW to put emotional pressure on him to study well .. and these kids dont even have driving licenses ..

so i think if you get admission in a decent college, a bike like this is definitely well deserved.. (provided you make your parents realize that you'll also be a responsible rider.. not one of those show off losers who get on big bikes, stop respecting their vehicles potential, stop respecting the road and end up killing themselves. )

A bit on the mileage will let me plan my finances better for this new mother-b!tch!

you know what.. i say if ridden with a goal of extracting the best fuel efficiency, this bike should give 30 to 35 easily.. just my assumption based on the current bikes ..

 

[puneetritehere]

the people who were to get the bike, if you have got them, plz post some details and your personal point of views about it please.. .

 

[devesh38]

the people who were to get the bike, if you have got them, plz post some details and your personal point of views about it please.. .

Not yet.. these showroom guys are making me w8 a little too much. They say that the bikes of second lot have arrived in the showroom and RTO registrations are being done. So will definitely get my bike this week.

Overall the reviews from the persons who got there bikes have been very positive. Plus few are getting mileage of more than 50kmpl too. But this can be only for run in period only and may change after first service. Cant wait to get my hands on it.

 

[sunny27]

Just heard from a Bajaj Pro Biking Dealership about the Pulsar 200 NS being priced at 97k onroad and the premium version at 1.08 lakhs on road with soft compound tyres and probably two tone body as displayed by Bajaj in the launch. The Pulsar is priced very very close to the KTM.

 

[devesh38]

Just heard from a Bajaj Pro Biking Dealership about the Pulsar 200 NS being priced at 97k onroad and the premium version at 1.08 lakhs on road with soft compound tyres and probably two tone body as displayed by Bajaj in the launch. The Pulsar is priced very very close to the KTM.

if the price of 97k/1.08k is on road, then there is difference of almost 30k/20k in on road. This is quite a significant difference in my opinion. Anyways its gr8 pricing from bajaj. Pulsar will sure be a huge hit.

 

[puneetritehere]

Just heard from a Bajaj Pro Biking Dealership about the Pulsar 200 NS being priced at 97k onroad and the premium version at 1.08 lakhs on road with soft compound tyres and probably two tone body as displayed by Bajaj in the launch. The Pulsar is priced very very close to the KTM.

the pulsar 200 ns is a straight rip off the Duke with minimal unimportant changes.. observe closely .you will notice the large similarities.. not specifically cosmetics, but the overall structure of the bike.

and 50 KMPL??? is that first hand info?? or just something that has been going around.. i seriously doubt the bike giving 50. 40 is still easily believable but 50 i think will be with a lot of careful riding.

 

[devesh38]

the pulsar 200 ns is a straight rip off the Duke with minimal unimportant changes.. observe closely .you will notice the large similarities.. not specifically cosmetics, but the overall structure of the bike.

and 50 KMPL??? is that first hand info?? or just something that has been going around.. i seriously doubt the bike giving 50. 40 is still easily believable but 50 i think will be with a lot of careful riding.

Most of the structure design of pulsar200ns is like duke 200. Engine exhaust placement, rear suspension, even engine spec and performance of bike etc is also similar. To me in the first look it was like a duke 200 with cheaper parts. But still as both KTM and Pulsar is bajaj's own, i am not complaining. In the end people are getting a better performance at a cheaper rate. And thats what people india want. As long as the bike can deliver without many problems, it will be gr8. Inside my heart i am little jealous for the new pulsar200ns, but for now i am all in for Duke.

And for mileage look at this pic, the reading is done in the run-in period of bike.:

Plus one guy did tank to tank method for calculating the mileage. He covered 102kms with just 1.69litre of fuel. Thats a whopping 60kmpl. He said he was riding around 60-90kmph on highway constantly throughout.

 

[puneetritehere]

thats really nice man.. i am sure most of the people right now are skeptical about the fuel efficiency.. but this will completely take them by surprise...

anyone got the tech specs for the pulsar 200NS??? lets have some comparisons..

 

[sunny27]

This should help you - http://www.mypulsar.com/compare_pulsar_200ns.aspx

The pulsar 200ns review + realistic comparison with the KTM Duke - http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/770208-post1.html

 

[devesh38]

Got Duke'd today..

Now finally the wait is over. I went to chennai KTM showroom to collect the bike today evening. One guy was taking the delivery when i reached there and left as soon as i entered. Went inside the showroom and on talking the showroom person, he leaded me to the basement where the delivery process was being done. The person there did some paperwork, handed over the owner's manual and bike papers to me. He also gave a small talk on the regular stuffs like servicing, smart-card, bike details, RPM limiter, console etc. The odo was showing 43kms. On asking the person, he told it was taken to RTO for registeration. I got little suspicious, but didn't investigate it further. They had filled the bike with 5 litres of petrol and advised me to keep atleast 3 litres in the tank. Upon asking how would i know that 3 litres of petrol is left? , he said dont let the fuel indicator fall in the last square. Triangle was for reserve. Currently the fuel indicator was in third square. After all formalities were done, the bike keys were handed over to me, my friend took some snaps and we were ready to go.

I was accompanied by my friend, who also had a close look at the bike and gave the green signal. When i tried to sit on the bike i noticed that I was having a difficulty in reaching the ground (my hieght is around 5'10"). On the Test drive bike i was able to reach the ground comfortably. Thought it's ok for now and if there is any major problem will change the setting of rear suspension in the coming days. We soon took off, but even before crossing approx 300m and my friend(who was on his bike) stopped me and told that the chain was lose. We immediately went back to showroom. The mechanic saw the chain and he also agreed that the chain was lose. He immediately took the bike inside and removed the slackness in chain. In the meantime i told him to change the preload of the rear suspension. It was previously in 3 setting and i got it changed to 4. Then i tried to sit again on the bike and now it was perfect, as i was able to reach the ground comfortably. BTW I am around 70kgs. Now it looked like as if the bike was designed for me.

We again took off. But it was one of those days in chennai when the traffic on roads was at peak. My house is in Anna Nagar and showroom is in Adyar. Decided to go via marina beach and Poonamalle High road as they are quite wide roads and i expected them to be empty. But due to peak traffic time and also due to lot of one-way re-routes(thanks to metro construction) the distance to home became 28km(checked on odo and google maps at home) and it took around more than 1 and half hour to reach home. But the real surprise was that i didn't feel any back-pain or butt ache. The only thing that was paining were the palms as there was lot of neck to neck traffic and lot of start-stops of the bike. The hard thing was to control bike in the low gears. Lot of times (around 7-8) engine stalled due to fast release of the clutch lever. The clutch lever is really too sensitive, will soon get used to it, or may be it was the traffic and wont be much of a issue on free roads. About neutral gear, It is really tricky to find the neutral gear. So many times i wanted to give my left palm rest at signals by getting into neutral but by time i used to find neutral gear it was time to take off. Just before reaching home the console told me that bike has come to reserve and i was like WTF the showroom people had just put 5L of petrol in it. May be 3 litres is when the fuel indicator starts showing indication for filling the tank. Finally after a long time i reached home. My friends were waiting for me at home as they knew i was bringing the bike. Had some discussions with them. They tried to fiddle with console after restarting the bike. To my surprise, the console now showed one bar of fuel i.e the bike was not in reserve.

Anyways will be filling tank soon.

As i was riding the 3-4 gears most of the time, the engine did get heated up. The radiator fan started many times throwing hot air on my legs. After reaching home i looked at console. The trip meter was showing 28km and it also showed me a reading of 18 kmpl, which was expected as i driving in low gears and lot of stoppages at signals. It will definitely be lot better when i drive it on free roads. On the way home lot of people were curious about the bike. Many were asking the price, mileage etc. One guy even asked me the showroom address for booking the bike.

Will try a better drive tomorrow in daytime and on free roads. Overall, felt really good upon reaching home as i was still feeling fresh and not at all tired.

 

[Vidy]

#devesh38 congrats bro!! first duke in TE!!

 

[puneetritehere]

#devesh38 hey. post the pics of your bike too .. and maybe some closeups of all there is to fiddle with it.. .and also if you can, little performance figures .. 0 to 100?? etc etc.. fastest braking that you can do??

 

[kidpikoon]

KTM is 25BHP @ 10,000 rpm, whereas CBR is 25BHP @ 8500rpm, so will giv extra BHP for every small airfilter and exhaust upgrade...

 

[puneetritehere]

KTM is 25BHP @ 10,000 rpm, whereas CBR is 25BHP @ 8500rpm, so will giv extra BHP for every small airfilter and exhaust upgrade...

yeah. buts whats the point..you already buy a premium overpriced bike and then spend even more just to get better acceleration??? its stupid

 

[devesh38]

right now there's no electricity at home. so not able to post pics. will post some by midnight.

and regarding acceleration figures i will not be ripping it hard till run in period. On papers it has 0-100 in around 9 sec which is around 2 sec faster than cbr250. This all because of lightness of duke. Its just 125kgs where as cbr is around 187kgs.

But one should not compare both the bikes. CBR 250 is made for touring and duke is made for city riding and it does its job fantastically well. Juat loving the way it handles.

Yesterday had come to home from showroom in neck to neck traffic and it was giving mileage of around 18kmpl, but took the bike for a small 11km ride on highway. I was cruising at 60 kmph most of the times in mostly 5-6th gear. Today the console was showing a healthy 53kmpl.o_0

Will post more impressions soon. For now painting chennai city in ORANGE colour..

HAPPY HOLI "to all of you guys.

 

[bsd]

congrats for your purchase, about fuel indication , i think digital indicators are not good in showing exact fuel in tank, because my yamaha fz fuel indicator always blinks if it is still has half the tank of fuel.

 

[devesh38]

Some Pics of my bike...