- So, if you're going
to use this bike for,
especially for commuting
and you want to do some mountain riding,
if you want to do some curvy road riding
and even cruising because
it's very upright,
I think this is a great bike for that.
(upbeat music)
Hi, I'm Doodle and this
is a 2020 KTM Duke 390.
Thank you so much, Mark,
for letting me borrow your bike
while mine was in the shop.
So I've been riding this bike,
mostly commuting with it,
for a little over two weeks.
I put around 300 miles on it.
So this bike has one cylinder, 390cc
and compared to other
bikes around this cc level,
surprisingly tall seat height, 31 inches
and my inseam is 31 inches
so I was tiptoeing this bike really badly.
But luckily I just started doing
the one foot down technique
that dirt bike riders
and apparently everyone
outside of America does
in their riding courses.
We don't for some reason,
but I just started doing that
so I didn't have any problems
with the height of this bike.
And since it's also so light,
I want to say 350 pounds wet,
this is the most nimble
bike I've ever ridden.
And I have a Triumph Street Triple R
and I got that because,
after test riding about
12 bikes in a year,
it was the most nimble
bike I had ever ridden,
but I hadn't tried this yet.
When I borrowed this, it
only had about 700 miles.
I mean, it's brand new.
The dash is beautiful.
My rule is never borrow
anything you can't replace.
I was so excited to borrow this bike,
I forgot about that rule.
So I didn't check the list price for it
until after I borrowed it.
But you will be pleasantly surprised
if you don't know how much this costs.
That brand new this retails
at about six or $7,000.
My triumph was $7,500
when I got it used at two years old
a few years ago.
So KTM is an Austrian company
and an Indian company bought it out.
And um ,
but now it's being sourced in India.
So that's why the price
point is able to be so low.
And you would think,
so at that price point,
it compares to other cost effective bikes,
not luxury bikes, like maybe
BMWs, Triumphs, Ducati.
This would be more in line
with maybe a Honda and Suzuki,
Yamaha and Ninjas,
but just comparing to those,
just riding in person,
this does not feel like a cheaper bike,
like the materials of it,
just, they just look and feel really nice.
So this is surprisingly torquey
considering it's only
390cc and one cylinder.
I actually didn't even notice
that I was riding with
300 less cc than usual
until several days of riding it,
when I tried to get up
to speed really quickly
and also just testing out for you
how it does accelerating from first gear
and you do have to start
shifting pretty early on.
Just to test it out
I saw what would happen if
it went to 30 in first gear
and it red lined real bad.
But I've ridden it mostly on the highways
and a little bit of in town and
a little bit of curvy roads.
At highway speeds, it does great.
My first bike was a Suzuki S40 Boulevard
and pretty much once it got to 65,
it was so rickety
and you did not have any
more power in the upper end,
but surprisingly, this still has
a pretty good amount of
power in the upper end.
Even once you're already
at highway speeds,
you can accelerate really quickly.
You'd definitely notice that one cylinder.
It is, it is a rough ride
and this exhaust sounds,
sounds kind of funny.
I'll let you hear it.
(motor running and revving)
Something else I noticed about this bike
is that, how nimble it is.
It's insane.
Like, I felt like I was able
to lean so well in the curves,
probably because it's
just so light and just,
I don't know what makes
a bike lean so well
and be so nimble, but it felt great.
And I felt like I probably
look really good in the curves.
Probably not.
It always feels like you're
leaning so far when you're not.
And when I say you, I mean me.
So if you're going to use this bike for,
especially for commuting
and you want to do some mountain riding,
if you want to do some curvy road riding
and even cruising because
it's very upright,
I think this is a great bike for that.
It's great for commuting on the highways.
It really keeps up the speed well.
I never felt like I
didn't have enough power
compared to all the cars
I was surrounded by.
It's so fun in the curves,
it just feels really nimble.
The seating position is pretty upright,
so it makes for a very good practical bike
in addition to just being functional.
And you really could just
cruise on this if you wanted to
because it's so comfortable and upright,
but I guess you can't technically be,
maybe cruising your feet
needs to be forward.
I don't know
but the pegs on this are about
as far back as a sport bikes.
Your legs are going to be
bent at less than 90 degrees
so keep that in mind too.
Now, if you're trying to figure out if
this is a good bike for you,
whether you're going to
want to upgrade soon,
if it's not going to be enough power,
that it really depends on your personality
and where you're riding.
Sorry, if you can hear the plane.
I mean I feel like your personality
with how you are in life and driving
will translate to riding too.
So if you don't really watch your speed
when you're, when you're driving,
if you like the idea of going fast
and you either want to do track days
or you have a lot of wide open roads
like we do in America
or in any countries that have
just wide open country roads.
If you're like me, someone
who minds her speed limit
and that actually doesn't
usually go more than nine over,
you're just going to love this bike.
You're probably not going
to need much more power
than it has,
but if you want to do track days
and you're the kind of person
that just likes speed and adrenaline
and maybe you don't always
play things very safely,
then you might not love this bike.
It doesn't seem to be the case
in some other countries I've been to.
We just seem to ride higher
cc than other people.
Which I really don't know why,
'cause on a sport bike with 1200cc,
you're really not going to
use all that on the road
unless you are doing something illegal.
But if you're in a,
if you're like in a part of the world
that has a lot of traffic
and you just want like a, a
small, compact, nimble bike
to get around
and then every now and then
maybe rip it a little bit,
then you'll probably be really
happy with this bike too.
This has got some really
nice features about it.
I'm really gonna miss that
sweet looking digital dash
and the adjustable mirrors
and the fact that the lock
position on the ignition
is not really close to the park position.
I just have a couple more hours
and I got to return this bike
so before I do that, I'm going to clean it
and clean and lube the
chain, it is filthy.
So I just feel so lucky that
he lent me this bike for weeks.
So I want to make sure that I return it
in as good condition as possible.
If you want to see any more review videos
on any of the other
bikes I've test ridden,
which is about 12 bikes,
you can click this video right over here
and that'll take you, it's a playlist
with all the rest of those videos.
Maybe I've already tested
something else you're considering.
Thanks for watching.
See you in the next one.
