KTM Duke 390

LOL! I knew I'd draw you out, hehehe. Yeah man. It's a cool bike, I wouldn't have known about it if it weren't for you! Many thanks man.

As for the Rebel, I am betting it'll last longer than the Duke (gut feeling, could be wrong) but the Duke is a better fit for her in my opinion. She rode it a little yesterday and likes it. She told me that "I can tell it's a 390" to which I replied "It's actually not even THAT big, it's a 373.2!" lol.

Her old Shadow Spirit 750 is what she was used to, it has more torque and was shaft driven so she just needs to get used to the KTM being MUCH lighter and a single versus a twin. I told her that the Duke is close to 200 pounds lighter than the Shadow and the horsepower is  about dead even but the Shadow had about 20 more ft.lbs of torque. My argument was that since it was a LOT lighter and with the same HP that it should still accelerate about the same even though the torque is far less. 

That's what I told her to make her feel better, the truth is that the Shadow was faster at least in low rpms. Time will tell how the Duke does once it's through its break in, where she can push it a little harder and see what it's got in midrange.

With all that said, she loves the TFT display with all the info. Her Honda didn't have a fuel gauge much less a fuel range display. She didn't have a gear indicator (just a neutral light), she didn't have a voltmeter, she didn't even have a damn tachometer on the thing! So having all of that and more makes her happy. She looks good on it too! That bike looks good beside the FZ I think.

She is short (5'4") so I thought I was going to have to lower it a few clicks but she said that she can deal with it where it's at. She has long legs and a short torso whereas I have a long torso and short legs, lol. I am short too (5'9") but I have fatness on my side to lower the seat naturally, lol.

I'll post some pics and videos in due time. Waiting for nicer weather so we can plan an outing. Gonna be fun!

I haven't ridden my friend's 390 yet, but I know it likes to rev. I think the power will be ok for her once it's past break in and she can give it some revs. I'm glad she likes it.

nice man, i'm sure its a fun bike. I had bought my wife a ninja 300 and just recently upgraded her to a gsxr 600 last year. I remember when she first rode the 300, she was completely fine with the power. Then as she rode it more, she quickly outgrew that LOL. Seems your girl had previous riding experience so my situation was a little different, but cool to see another couple that ride together nonetheless.

haha, yeah my wife grew tired of that rather quick after she really learned how to ride on the street. Once you get over the millions of dangers that constantly surround you and get comfortable, having no power becomes the most obvious thing you are lacking (at least to my wife). She was funny the first time she took out the 600, I remember riding behind her, and she was just slowly pulling away from me. We have Sena headunits and i'm like babe how fast are you going? she looked down and she was going like 80 in a 55 LOL. Having to constantly throttle the hell out of a smaller bike to moving to something you can do 100mph in first gear is quite the change.

Tail looks great. I really don't know why motorcycles come with such large fenders in the rear. Was the first thing I changed on both mine and my wifes bike.


Is that a GT in the background? My buddy has a new GT, few things done to it, honestly its a pretty nice car, and i've never really cared for mustangs. I come from a car background so I had the modding bug right from the getgo when I got into motorcycles.

I got to ride a 390 for a day and had a blast on it. It is fun to ride a slow bike fast and the suspension on that bike is great. Has a blast tossing it around in the canyon, I think I was actually faster on that light little bike in the twisties, just so easy to ride and flick around.

It's a great little bike. I would buy one of those before buying a Grom.