KTM Duke 200: Duke of Hazzard

The boys over at Bajaj sure have been busy lately, eh? We certainly aren’t complaining though, all that hard work means we get to enjoy great rides like the Ninja range from Kawasaki and now, the Duke from KTM. This latest product, the Duke, comes to us all the way from Austria and well, it will rock your socks off. So, just how much of a thriller is this little one? Well, let’s find out, shall we?

Looks
There’s no mistaking this for anything else, that’s for sure. As you walk up to the bike, you’ll realise just how compact it really is. The screaming orange on black paint and alien-like looks really set it apart from anything else that’s on the road.

The big orange tank screams ‘Duke 200’ in an unmistakable font. The headlight is a little oddly shaped, but it bears a strong resemblance to the 990 SuperDuke and the other bikes in the KTM stable, so we definitely like that. The well-placed handlebar and muscular tank round out the front, while at the rear end, you’ll see the stubby tail section with a small pillion seat and the tail-light cluster. The exhaust is conspicuous by its absence, because it is of the stubby variety which ends just aft of the engine under the bike. This reduces the centre of gravity of the bike, but at the same time, if you wanted to get an aftermarket upgrade for the exhaust, you’ll have a pipe sticking out at the back like a sore thumb.

Ergonomics
Atop the Duke, you really feel like a giant. The floor is not too far away from you, and, unlike the other big bikes, if the need arises, anyone of average height can put both feet down comfortably and flat-foot the bike. The handlebars are well within reach and the pegs are placed a couple of inches behind where you’d expect them to be, but this lends you a great posture to take on anything the roads offer you. The riding position is slightly forward, but after an hour-long ride, my back could definitely take a lot more of that.

If you decide to take a pillion rider though, things could get a little uncomfortable. For starters, the seat is very small, and well, considering the kind of power it makes and how it delivers that power, not having anything to hold on to back there, is a bit of a disadvantage. That seat is the perfect place to put your bag or other luggage though, if you’re into the whole touring thing. The lack of the exhaust at the sides means you can hang a couple of pannier bags without worrying about them melting from the heat of exhaust gases.

Ride and handling
Well, this one’s a bit of a bittersweet category for this bike. In one word, the handling is brilliant, it lets you attack corners like no other bike. The compact form, the handlebars and rear-set foot-pegs all come together to give you complete control of the bike. The way it changes directions is almost telepathic, you think of leaning over for a corner and the bike is already one step ahead of you. If there’s a moderately twisty road anywhere near you, it’s worth taking this bike on that road. It will completely change your perception of what is and isn’t possibly within the limits of gravity and centrifugal force.

Okay, so we called it a bittersweet category yet sing high praise for it? Here comes the kicker, the ride is, to put it mildly, very bad.

With both ends of the bike dialed to their softest settings, the ride was still bone-jarringly bad. That’s bad news, considering the kind of terrain this bike will be experiencing. We must say though, the bad ride is all but forgiven the moment you see a well-paved section of road that you can go crazy on.

Performance
So it’s just another 200cc bike, right? Wrong! The big-bore, short-stroke motor is a far cry from the other 200cc bikes we see running around here; it’s closer to a superbike engine than to anything else, which means only one thing, stonking performance!

The engine loves to rev and it catches you off-guard, the first time you whack open the throttle and find yourself with the rear wheel fighting for traction and the tach needle, err, well, digital needle, gunning straight for the red-line. You better be ready to upshift quickly through the slick six-speed gearbox, because the engine picks up revs faster than you can say “shift light!”

This screamer of a motor is very liveable too, you can short shift every gear and hear no complaints from the engine at all. And as good as the gearbox is to use, you can slot the bike in 6th gear and let the motor do the heavy lifting for you.

And now for the real important question. How does it fare on the fuel efficiency front? Well, with a lot of hard riding, the Duke managed to return a phenomenal 35 kmpl. And when we decided to just cruise, that figure went up to almost 50 kmpl. So, it seems that in this case, you can have your cake and eat it too.

Verdict
Have they cracked it? Has Bajaj given us what we really need? A bike that flies on the straights, attacks the corners with a voracious appetite and at the same time won’t burn a hole in your pocket? We certainly think so. The only reason not to buy the Duke would be the fact that the new Pulsar 200 NS is just around the corner and from what we gather, it will come very close to the KTM’s performance for a lot less money.

This bike definitely has the makings of a cult classic though, so hurry up and get an orange monster in your garage while the waiting period is low.