The KTM 390 Duke is an aggressively styled naked bike that embodies these qualities, offering a peppy riding experience for new riders, and anyone seeking a compact, easy-riding streetbike for around-town use.
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SportsTranscript
00:00Well, good morning folks. Here we are in the city of Ponce in the U.S. territory
00:06island nation of Puerto Rico. Yesterday we participated in DukeFest 2024 where
00:14we got to ride with some three to five hundred like-minded motorcycle
00:18enthusiasts. A lot of them riding KTM Duke naked bikes. Here in the city, this
00:25340-some pound bike, this thing's great. In these narrow old cities you really
00:30want a compact light small motorcycle that just allows you to zip around town
00:35really easily and this thing fits the bill. That light clutch pull really just
00:41makes it easy to launch this motorcycle. Really like this five plus inch color
00:49TFT dash. It's the same dash that KTM used on its 2020 1290 Super Duke R. How
00:55cool is that? The switchgear is also new for 2024. I don't think it's the exact
01:01same switchgear KTM used on that 2020 1290 Super Duke R. That's the last
01:07time we operated a KTM street bike product but it definitely is similar and
01:12I like how chunky and substantial feeling it feels. The tactile function
01:17on the switchgear is way better than what I remember this bike what it was
01:23on the previous version. Of course it's been many many years since I rode a 390
01:28Duke. I think the last time I rode one was probably like five probably six years
01:32ago 2017. Wow it's like eight years ago now. But this switchgear is really nice
01:37it looks good. Nice chunky substantial feel and easy to use. I don't know why
01:42this bike's stalling like that but we just thumb the starter button and away
01:46we go. Now having ridden this bike for you know 100 miles or so we talked
01:54yesterday about how the ergonomics are set up or favor a smaller rider. So if
01:59you're a smaller rider you're really gonna like this bike. The seat on this
02:01motorcycle while the seat height is nice and low and while the single cylinder
02:07engine configuration make for a very slim position when you sit at the bike
02:15the seat itself it's it's not the most comfortable. The biggest problem with it
02:22is just the the cant of it. So the slope of the seat is more low in the front and
02:30more tall in the rear. So at least with this pair of Revit piston riding jeans I
02:35keep sliding forward and like we said before the the ergonomics of this bike
02:41are already set up for a small rider and then when the seats pushing you even
02:45more forward it gets even more compact feeling. I'm a tall guy so I want to slide
02:50as far back as possible in the rider's seat and I can't really do that. Well I
02:55can do that but I can't stay there because the slope of the seat just
02:58pushes me forward and the seat cover it's not so much slippery maybe it's
03:03just not compatible with these Revit piston jeans but I just have a tendency
03:07to slide forward over all these little bumps and chop which just makes the
03:14ergonomics on this bike even more compact. So definitely would like a
03:20better seat preferably one with a little bit more material in the front of it to
03:27keep you at more of a neutral plane I think that would be good.
03:31Of course KTM 390 Duke motorcycles really emphasize aggressive sport
03:37aggressiveness so that's probably why they wanted that seat canted forward
03:41like that but I would like if it had a little bit more neutral position
03:46especially for us taller folks. This engine this engine sure is a hoot to ride
03:51while it's a little bit tame down low you get this thing revving and my gosh
03:57this thing has some acceleration it is crazy it does throw off a lot of engine
04:03vibrations though but for the price tag for the experience I think it's okay
04:10it's worth noting that this motorcycle in the US costs $5,900 comes with a
04:17one-year warranty this motorcycle is assembled out of KTM's Indian partners
04:25manufacturing facility Bajaj in India so this motorcycle is manufactured in
04:32India and these Indian made motorcycles have come a long way the fit and finish
04:38on these bikes is definitely improving if you look at the paint and just the
04:43quality of the way the bikes put together these things are becoming more
04:47well-made we noticed that's extremely evident at the Royal Enfield factory
04:55with their new shotgun 650 which we reviewed a couple of months ago so the
05:00Indian bikes are coming they're getting better and that is really nice to see
05:05now in terms of maintenance on this particular vehicle after your initial
05:11620 mile service in which the shop will change the engine oil and oil filter
05:18this motorcycle goes 6,200 miles between engine oil and filter changes so every
05:256,200 miles you want to change the engine oil and filter and then every
05:3012,400 miles you want to replace the air filter and clean the air box you also
05:38want to check the valve each of the four valves to make sure that the
05:44clearance are within specification so you check that every 12,400 miles and
05:50swap the air filter and that's about it and of course change the oil so it's
05:56pretty cool to see that this motorcycle runs basically 6,200 miles between
06:00service and this engine this 398 CC single-cylinder engine takes right
06:07around 1.5 quart of oil so you're not gonna have to spend a lot of money on
06:12materials so pretty neat if you're looking for a relatively low maintenance
06:20cost vehicle this KTM 390 Duke definitely fits the bill you got to
06:25remember since it only has a single cylinder engine there's only four
06:29there's only one cylinder head and four valves for clearance to check yes
06:35finally some twisties now we're talking this is great for KTMs 390 Duke these
06:44small second and third gear for a single cylinder at 400 cc bike corners look how
06:52smooth this asphalt is gosh things are neat to ride in this environment it's so
06:58nimble this KTM 390 Duke rolls on Michelin's new Pilot Power 6 high
07:07performance street bike tire which is a new tire for the 2024 model and calendar
07:13year it's cool to see that KTM's partnered with Michelin if the dynamic
07:19the suspension isn't to your liking again you can easily adjust the rebound
07:24and compression damping circuits via the handy knobs atop the fork spring
07:31preload adjustment is not adjustable on the fork but it is on the shock you do
07:36need a tool to do it you're also gonna need a flat blade screwdriver to make
07:40rebound damping adjustments on the shock it's cool how KTM has these knobs on the
07:45fork but why not have the knob on the shock too really like the brakes on this
07:49motorcycle they have really good feel a lot of lever feel power out the front
07:53brake is plenty capable the rear brake on the other hand is a little bit
07:57doesn't have a lot of power you really gotta lay on that rear brake for this
08:01thing to to slow down but the feel is pretty good so when you do lay on it
08:08it's nothing's gonna happen you can lay on it so much you're gonna lay on it and
08:12the rear tire won't even slide that's how unpowerful the rear brake is that
08:18you can literally just slam on the pedal and the rear brake the rear end
08:24won't lock up we're in Supermoto ABS right now which disables your ABS so
08:30theoretically we would be able to lock that rear tire but there's just not
08:35enough power out of that caliper maybe it needs a good bleed still I'm not
08:40complaining because I'm having fun riding these corners on the 390 Duke
08:48alright folks here we are at highway speeds on the 390 Duke we're
08:53traveling in top gear at 66 miles per hour up a hill and this 390 Duke has
09:00plenty enough get up and go for highway cruising now this motorcycle is not
09:08gonna be capable of triple digit speeds on the highway but riding at freeway
09:13legal pace is this bikes plenty up to it you might be wondering why this
09:19screen is orange right now basically the LCD screen is telling us that we're
09:24exceeding the RPM threshold for break-in so once this motorcycle arrives after
09:32620 miles that light will go away and it'll no longer warn you that you're
09:38exceeding maximum RPM during break-in in our experience we found the most
09:45critical thing for engine break-in is heat cycles you want heat cycles and you
09:51want to vary RPM up and down through the gearbox revving the engine at high
09:56RPMs is actually okay on the engine as long as you are varying the RPM and and
10:03working up and down the gearbox the biggest thing again is heat cycles you
10:07want that metal to expand and contract during heat cycles but freeway capable
10:13this 390 Duke is at the speed I'm not gonna lie it would be nice if there was
10:18a windscreen obviously these naked bikes look super awesome but they're devoid of
10:23front air protection and a windscreen which kind of blasts air onto the rider
10:29it's kind of a warm day so having that air is not a bad thing at all
10:34engine vibration wise there definitely is engine vibration present through the
10:40handlebar foot pegs and especially the seat well that guy just took a digger
10:45you got a tire blowout so that kind of stinks the engine vibration but again
10:53what do you expect for a vehicle that costs $5,900 another gripe would be as I
10:59wish we had cruise control I love cruise control especially on a low
11:05capacity engine like this sometimes I'm futzing with my things and if you let
11:09off the throttle you're gonna decrease speed in a hurry so cruise control would
11:14have been a nice touch on this bike but it's all good alright folks that was a
11:19fun day in the saddle of KTM's 2024 390 Duke we covered a lot of miles nearly a
11:24hundred and twenty miles today we're almost to the city of Rincon which lies
11:29on the western side of the island of Puerto Rico that's our destination for
11:33the night it was really fun to hit some twisty tight twisty roads and really see
11:38how agile and fun this bike is to ride of course I really like this five inch
11:43color dash it's easy to read it's this improved switch gears really nice and I
11:48love how much power this engine has at high rpm but a couple knocks number one
11:54this motorcycle is designed for smaller riders I'm six foot tall 205 pounds and
11:59I'm way too big for this bike the ergonomics are really compact number two
12:03this seat it's not the most comfortable OE seat I've sat on in quite some time
12:08if this bike was mine I would definitely upgrade that seat number three while
12:14this engine is punchy up top it has lots of engine vibration president really and
12:19any engine rpm especially at high rpm you feel it through the handlebar seat
12:25and foot pegs but if you're looking for an affordable and good-looking small
12:34displacement naked bike with all the bells and whistles I think this fifty
12:39nine hundred dollar 390 Duke will be good for you it looks awesome it has
12:43this awesome TFT as adjustable suspension and LED lighting I think this
12:49is there it is Rincon we're here I think this is a really good value if you want
12:54that kind of aggressive look and you're a smaller rider once again if you're a
12:58bigger person this bike's not gonna be good for you if you're a smaller person
13:02you will fit on this bike really well and maybe you won't have to change up
13:05the sweet seat because it'll just work for you well folks that wraps up our
13:09official review of the 2024 KTM 390 Duke naked bike as always make sure to
13:16surf on over to our website give this video a thumbs up if you liked it thumbs
13:20it down if you didn't we'd love to hear from the naysayers out there and we'll
13:23see you in the next episode thanks for riding with us