CARL KTM 390 DUKE
THIS MONTH I HAVE MOSTLY BEEN… “Playing with spanners.”
As much as I love the little 390 Duke and its edgy orange looks, I soon realised it could look a whole lot tastier with a few additions from the KTM PowerParts catalogue. So I did a bit of ringing around and sorted a few bolt-ons for my bundle of joy, meaning it was time to get to the spanners out and get pimping. First up were some lovely little numbers in the shape of KTM’s aluminium handguards, that not only added a bit of wind and rain protection into the mix, but gave the bike an edgier and more aggressive look.
They were a doddle to fit and I was buzzing somuch by their addition, I decided to carry on with the theme of things and put a call in to Evotech Performance to get the rest of the bike looking its best. Those guys make some awesome crash protection and their rad guards aren’t too shabby either. I decided to get the bike kitted with both, and was impressed by how quickly and easily they found themselves a new home on the KTM, without any bloody knuckles, or having said toomany expletives. I’m hoping to treat the bike to a tail tidy too, which I’ve actually got in my possession, but never got round to fitting, so that’ll have to wait till next month.
As far as riding goes, the little KTM really has been doing me proud. The more I ride it, the more comfortable it seems to gets, and after more than 2200 miles of bloody good times, I’m more smitten with her than ever. This is going to make me sound like an old man now but the only pain in the ass with these (and indeed every small capacity bike in its class) is the fuel capacity; it’s fine on whizzing around short distances, but as soon as you get above 80mph (obviously never on the roads…), it just drinks fuel like a university student on 2-for-1 Jägerbombs. And thanks to its tiny tank, it means you’re forever in the garage topping the old girl up. But hey, it’s not really the biggest problem in the world.
That aside, the honeymoon period is still going strong and I’m hoping that’s going to remain the case for a long time yet to come. In fact, I reckon things might even get better as by the time you read this the Duke will have been treated to a new exhaust, and I’m also hoping to have some Bluetooth kit in place (so I can jam to some tunes while nailing it through traffic). Just the thought of all that’s making my mouth water. I can’t bloody wait!