Living with Royalty
Rideamotorcycle.com is the newest motorcycle Internet web site, one that takes a totally fresh approach to catering to the street-oriented two-wheeled enthusiast. Rideamotorcycle.com is focused on 3 groups; the established street motorcycle rider, new motorcyclists, or those who do not currently ride motorcycles but are curious about learning to do so. Rideamotorcycle.com LLC Editor at Large: Bill Heald Webmaster: Mark Lesselyoung Publisher: Dean Adams Living with Royalty can one bike reign, or will it turn into a royal pain in the ass? by tim huntington We've all talked about it - what would our ultimate bike be? Typically the conversation concludes with a list of bikes that we'd like to own, a sportbike for the canyons, a cruiser for boulevard posing etc. The only problem with this is that in the real world, we typically can only afford one bike, and as that bike has to fulfill many roles, we often go for the more all-around bike rather than one of the bikes that topped the list in our niches.
the Duke in its natural habitat Well, in March 2002, I went down the other route. After a diet of CBR600's and a TL1000 over the last few years, I bought a total niche bike as my only bike. So how is it to live with a KTM Duke II as your only bike - did I find myself riding more or riding less than I used to? Does the car (yes, I have a car too) pile on more miles now or get to sit in the garage more often?
I did have an idea of what I was letting myself in for. I used to live in the UK, and had two bikes there (and no car): a GSX-R750 for the weekends and the country roads (the Brit equivalent of canyon roads), and a Yamaha TDR250 as my "commute" bike. The Duke could easily be described as a first cousin of the TDR - they're both pure road bikes with off-road geometry and suspension travel. The main difference between the two would be the Duke's single cylinder 4 stroke powerplant and the TDR's two stroke twin with powervalves (and a very narrow, very fun, powerband).
the trip decal is disconcerting at rest It is now December 2002, the Duke has just over 3000 miles on it, the car has spent more time in the garage than before and I have a big smile on my face. It has been used for daily commuting on freeways and fun rides on all classes of roads on the weekends.
It's a great bike for commuting. My commute miles of regular roads (straight multi lane roads with regular sets of traffic lights) and 6 miles of freeway. The Duke rides high, allowing me to see over or around most of the other vehicles on the road, and its wide bars enable me to easily maneuver the bike when splitting lanes at red lights. There's plenty of zip from the engine for merging with freeway traffic, and once on the freeway the compliant suspension makes the concrete block freeway surface a lot less annoying than any other bike I've ridden over such a surface.
I thought the upright riding position would be a pain at highway speeds, but 75 mph proved to be perfectly acceptable in terms of both comfort and a safe top speed to be travelling. In the summer, I was typically wearing a set of one piece leathers, but in cooler weather, I'd wear leather pants and a cordura jacket. At that speed wearing the cordura jacket, the air would flap the arms of the jacket a bit, which would translate into a slight wobble on the handlebars, particularly in turbulent air. Although disconcerting the first time it happened, it's never gotten any worse than a slight wobble.
the scenic route Although my commute would typically take 20 minutes, at least once a week during the summer it would take 1 and 2 hours to get home in the evenings. On these occasions I kept finding myself taking "scenic" routes home. These scenic routes would involve zero freeway and lots of small roads that would take me up, along, down and all around the nearby Santa Cruz mountains. On the Duke, I can take roads that are either a lot tighter or a lot bumpier than I would enjoy riding my previous bikes on, or I can take the same larger, smoother roads I used to enjoy my previous bikes on and have just as much fun as I ever did. My scenic route would typically take in a mixture of all these sorts of roads.
the unused kickstarter So far, the bike has proven to be very reliable. Once you figure out where the choke lever needs to be for a cold engine, it starts first time on the starter button every time. The bike has a kickstarter. I've yet to try it and see if it works, but it's a comfort to know it is there. The bike's single cylinder engine vibrates a lot though it only affects two things. Firstly, the rear view mirrors shake a lot. You can see that there is a car behind you, but you can't tell if it's a regular car or a cop car. Secondly, although the bike is one of the quietest I've ever owned, it's loud when you ride it. I believe this loudness comes from the vibrations travelling through the bike into the rider and after initially being surprised by it, I've come to rely on it to tell me what the engine is doing at speeds where the intake/exhaust noise is obliterated by wind noise.
The bike has had no mechanical problems during its young life. Dukes come with sticky Pirelli tires on them, and the rear lasted about 2500 miles. The front was half worn when I got the rear replaced, so I expect to be replacing both tires around the 5000 mile mark. The feedback from the tires was as good as any other bike I've ridden with sticky tires on it, even though the long travel suspension can make the ride feel slightly vague when compared with a stiffly sprung sportbike on a smooth road.
brembo calipers and braided lines, no wonder the headlight dives under braking The projector beam headlamps work well illuminating the currently dark commute home - easily the best headlamps on a bike I've ever experienced, though the soft suspension does exaggerate the headlight dive when the brakes are applied and I'm sure my dipped beam must annoy cars that I'm following when I'm accelerating. Even the narrow seat is comfortable for an hour or two and the upright riding position saves your wrists from pain in traffic. The seat is long and thin and it did take me a few hundred miles to find the most comfortable position. The tank will go over 100 miles before it needs refilling, so that provides a convenient reason to get off the bike and have a quick stretch.
It's not a perfect bike; I wouldn't want to take it on a track day (unless the track had no straights or was particularly bumpy); I wouldn't want to ride to LA on the freeways (though I can't think of any bike I would like to do that trip on - 400 miles of freeway is a car journey in my book) but as I can only afford to have one bike, I'm glad I took the plunge and got the Duke; more smiles per mile than any other bike I've owned.