5 reaons why buying a Duke 390 was one of the best decisions of my life

1. Reliable
Whenever someone asks me ‘How’s the bike?’, my first response to them is not the speed or the performance of the bike but one word, that it is fucking reliable. Trust me when I say this, you can take this bike out for a long ride on any given day without having a slightest worry or doubt about its performance on a long ride or whether it leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere. For me, this peace of mind is what matters the most when I ride. So far my longest ride has been a 1700km over 3 days. It had mix of terrain and I never faced a single problem with the bike and its performance, not even a clutch cable breaking. I wasn’t even carrying the basic spares but that’s how much I trust this bike. I am yet to take it to Leh and that will be a different review altogether but so far over the 27000km I have ridden on this over last 1.5 years over all kinds of roads and terrains, this bike has performed way beyond my expectations. 

2. All round performer

If you are riding it in the city, you will love it for the quick acceleration punch it gives required for quick overtakes in the city traffic. Or its ability to maneuver across the traffic because of its light weight and superb handling. The gear-box is six speed but for city riding you will never cross 4^th gear (unless you ride in low rpms like me). Feels good to leave everyone behind at every traffic signal halt :P

Now talking about highway riding and touring on this bike. No doubt the seat is hard and it’s not the ‘most’ comfortable seat for touring, but I have noticed that over these 1.5 years of owing the bike the seat has taken the shape of my but and I feel that too soft a seat is not good for your back and a seat little hard like this one keeps you in alert mode over long rides and doesn’t make you fall asleep. I won’t deny that there were slight cramps in my thighs after the long rides but I guess that’s the case with most of the bikes- please correct me if I am wrong. Talking about the riding position, it is slightly aggressive and your feet rests slightly behind the regular position but over the time I have got comfortable with this riding position and I can’t deny I like it this way. Makes it easier for me to stand on the foot pegs too.

You can easily cruise on this bike throughout the day at the speeds of 110/130kmph which are according to me is a safe range for touring on Indian roads. Although it can still reach a maximum of 170kmph but why push it to the limits when the job is getting done in much less load on the engine. Find a patch of smooth roads and you can easily cover at least 70-80 km in an hour.

Have taken this bike for lot of off-roading as well and it has performed superbly. Durable and rugged performance. It’s not a very heavy bike so you can easily lift it in case you fall.

3. Low maintenance cost

As I mentioned above the bike is very reliable, this means less problems with the bike. This doesn’t mean you don’t pay attention to it and skip the regular services. That will be silly and do not expect any bike to perform if you ignore its regular service visits. But looking at the other general problems which other riders face on their bikes, I can say that I haven’t faced such small problems so far like breaking of clutch/throttle cable, breaking of chain, oil leak, wheel locking etc. and so I never spent money to fix these problems on my bike which are very common otherwise. You will however spend money on changing the tyres very soon because the Metzelers which come as a stock tyres with this bike wear out very soon. They are just wonderful tyres and there is no doubt about it but a new set of Metzelers will cost around 16,000-17,000 Rs. which is very expensive. Many of the Duke 390 riders shift Michelin tyres and they are very close to Metzelers in performance and are much cheaper. Anyways going back to the point, daily riding on Duke 390 is free from majority of common problems.

4. It's a headturner

It’s not a beautiful gorgeous and best looking bike but you will still find people asking about the bike and giving a second look to your bike. May be it’s the looks of the bike (same as Duke 200?) or may be the sound of the bike, I don’t know. I am just happy with the attention I get in the traffic :P

5. Value for money

I was all set to buy Duke 200 when Duke 390 was just about to be launched. I was expecting it to be around Rs. 2.7-2.8 lakh on road price and that was far out of my budget. But I was shocked to see that Bajaj launched the bike at a much lower price and I paid Rs. 2.03 lakh on road in Chennai. You find it expensive ? I will say the for the whole package of features of the bike along with the world class engine performance, this bike is a steal and a GREAT value for money. This bike is a clear winner in terms of value for money when you compare it with other brands in this class. 

All I can say is that I am very happy with this bike. Ofcourse nothing is perfect in this world if you want to know some of the negatives associated with this bike, head to RiderZone by our star moto writer Mr. Akhil Kalsh and click here to read the article. I am just mentioning him just because I love all his articles and I'm a fan :P

Nevertheless, whatever motorcycle YOU buy or are riding, RIDE SAFE! 

Benefits of wearing a helmet

Wondering why should you wear a helmet? Well why not ! it has so many benefits :

• Saves your head from injuries against impact on road
• Saves your eyes from dust
• Saves your eyes from rains (if raining.. of course duh!)
• Saves your hair from bird poop 
• Helmet makes you look cool, if you are ugly you should definitely wear a helmet
• Saves your money . Yes. If riding without a helmet you meet with an accident , you will spend more in getting the X-ray and MRI scan done , instead spend that money in buying a good helmet.
• Decreases the likelihood of death
• Protects you from wind noise
• Protects you from insects and bugs while riding (unless you like to chew them)
• Protects you from heat and sun rays
• If you are bald and you wear a wig, helmet keeps your wig intact.

Carl Sagan's Influence on Neil deGrasse Tyson

This video actually made me cry. Watch this very short video but the amount of impact it makes on your mind is huge. These are great people, and when they speak , you know what intelligence is. Imagine if everyone in the world is intelligent, unique, open minded and compassionate. People like Neil deGrasse Tyson , Michio Kaku, RP Feynmann, Carl Sagan, Bill Nye have raised the hopes for humanity and a better tomorrow by spreading the word of Science and rational approach as a new medium to think and act. Imagine where the world would be if every one starts thinking like them, in their own unique way.

When do we become conscious?

Everybody knows about consciousness. It's what we are, it's our soul, it's beyond our physical body and even the brain. We are merely the medium for brain to function and perform its action. Brain is its own being. So we can say that our consciousness is our brain's brain. Consciousness is that little voice in your head in which you are reading this text. It's always there, talking to you, thinking for you and even telling you what to do in split seconds before falling or accidents. Consciousness is the sense of good or bad even when experiencing a thing or feeling for the first time.

In an actual experiment to find out when does consciousness kicks in a newborn baby's brain, a newborn baby was made to smell milk first and then acetone. In former case of milk, the blood flow in baby's brain increased, showing more activity in vortex of his brain, whereas when he was made to smell acetone, the foul smell of the chemical reduced the blood flow in his brain. This means the new born baby has a sense of good and bad even before he opened his eyes and saw anything around him, even his own mother!

No other animal has consciousness, and only consciousness makes us human. Make good use of it.

The bigger question is what entity injected consciousness in humans and why not in any other creature on earth.