Bike for the Mrs

[Beef]

Happy New Year!

My wife passed her bike test in Nov & I've been hunting a bike for her. This is no easy task as she is only 5' and hates cruisers! Whatever I got would have to be lowered anyway.

She has a KTM Duke 125 with factory lowering kit and modified seat (read no padding & totally butt destroying!) so we knew that a Duke 390 would also fit her. (Even lowered she was proper tiptoe on the 125)

I showed her nearly every naked bike on the market (honestly) and she screwed her nose up at most!

She sat on the little Triumph triple 'low' and whilst the seat height was OK, she really struggled with the reach and weight to get it off the side stand. She sat on the Street Cup and although it was heavier it's lower CoG meant it actually felt lighter......after a bit of searching, we couldn't find a used one in our price range!

So...... she now has a low mileage 2014 KTM Duke 390 & I am fitting a Wilburs shock and spring kit that will drop it 50mm from standard, so hopefully the seat won't need to be unpadded!

Not looked at my 'Storm in a while, work always seems to get in the way of fun stuff!

If anyone knows anyone after a lowered 2015 KTM Duke 125, let me know!!!

[Wicky]

See if you can find an ol' classic GPz600R (or GPX600) - Germans refer to it as a 'ladies bike', well they did when I turned up at Assen on one a couple of decades ago...

Seat cut out means it has a low seat height.

[Mav617]

BMW F650CS, can get lowered suspension and seat

Thumper, easy to ride, can crack a ton, belt drive, wide bars, low CofG.

[tony.mon]

I think he's already bought the 390 ktm.


But I have to say, it sounds like a fair swap, but how much does she eat?

[Beef]

I think he's already bought the 390 ktm.


But I have to say, it sounds like a fair swap, but how much does she eat?

Yup 390 Duke in the garage for her now.
Whilst forks were off I thought I'd check over the calliper...... 2 pistons stuck fast, had to strip it to get them out, they were proper stuck! I might've been able to clean them up, but found a complete overhaul kit on wemoto for£38 delivered - I was surprised to say the least, they should be here tomorrow.

Just the sidestand to get cut down now......

[bigtwinthing]

I think he's already bought the 390 ktm.


But I have to say, it sounds like a fair swap, but how much does she eat?

Yup 390 Duke in the garage for her now.
Whilst forks were off I thought I'd check over the calliper...... 2 pistons stuck fast, had to strip it to get them out, they were proper stuck! I might've been able to clean them up, but found a complete overhaul kit on wemoto for£38 delivered - I was surprised to say the least, they should be here tomorrow.

Just the sidestand to get cut down now......

platform bike boots ? practical and possibly sexy

[bigtwinthing]

I think he's already bought the 390 ktm.


But I have to say, it sounds like a fair swap, but how much does she eat?

Yup 390 Duke in the garage for her now.
Whilst forks were off I thought I'd check over the calliper...... 2 pistons stuck fast, had to strip it to get them out, they were proper stuck! I might've been able to clean them up, but found a complete overhaul kit on wemoto for£38 delivered - I was surprised to say the least, they should be here tomorrow.

Just the sidestand to get cut down now......

platform bike boots ? practical and possibly sexy

and get the wife some too

[Mav617]

[Beef]

Fitted the Wilburs rear shock and springs, still had to narrow the seat for her to be able to get her ball of her foot fully down. Rode it and it ran quite rough, did some research on the KTM forum and it appears that these bikes run very lean to get through emissions regs so if you decat them you must fit a piggy back ECU system Powercommander etc.
After some research, I went for a BoosterPlug https://www.boosterplug.com/shop/frontpage.html I'm not going to be doing any other mods, so a Powercommander seemed to be a waste of money as they are tuneable beyond belief. Reading up on the KTM forum (not as easy as here) there was a lot of praise for the BoosterPlug. At £120, it is a very quick item to fit & forget. BP don't claim to release loads of extra power, what they do claim is to add 6% more fuel throughout the full rpm range. It does this by making the ECU think it is 20 degrees colder than it really is. Constant throttle would still be controlled by the lambda sensor but low rpm & accelerating would be controlled by the air temp sensor. took all of 15 mins to fit, and the difference is amazing, like a different bike, really smooth and picks up really well. Result.

Seat has been done & fitted

[Stratman]

I fitted a Booster Plug to my other bike, the BMW 1200RT. I was amazed at the difference it made, especially low rev acceleration and the 500rpm flat spot. Mpg hasn't been adversely affected either.