The Duke is a work of art and superficially has really impressive build quality, unfortunately under the skin it has Italian electrics and build quality which is scary given its huge complexity. Duke is great if it works and the v4 sounds bassy but its a bit peaky and there is so much power up high its hard to get there as fun starts about 9k and runs out about 15k at which point you’re well beyond points on the license and into jail time. MPG and Range is a major issue, I typically get under 60 miles from brimmed to light on and thats moderate road riding. Handling, brakes etc are as near perfect as I can tell. The nineT is totally different, its not worth even fair comparing but I know which I prefer to actually ride, the nineT may be a bit agricultural but thats a lot of its charm in a world of ultra modern, it is “FUN” not just a top trump tech fest bike. The nineT is a keeper, the Duke was an Italian fling for a year.
Hola from Herts, UK
Decided to return to 9T ownership after a few years break riding a Ducati SF V4. Couldnt get the boxer out of my blood so just bought a new black 9T 2 weeks ago. Very happy with the bike compared to the Duke but snowy weather has put time to riding for the moment so focussing on getting the bike sorted and sounding more like it should.
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Thats Lucy, she’s ~2 and 1/2 years old golden retriever. Rather odd pairing with my tiny pug which dominates her.Welcome back from Massachusetts, USA.
What's the name of your dog?
Ok, I retract the offending agricultural gearbox description, maybe I should have described it is as “even the gearbox captures the essence of bygone motorcycling”. The Duke had a tight gearbox and up/down quick shifter which seems like a great idea on paper. In reality it was terrible, it ran a 22mm-24mm chain slack which is super tight and every time you used the quick shifter it put another slack spot in the chain so had to adjust every 100 miles max and avoid said shifting. Its literally impossible to find neutral on the Duke gearbox if at a standstill, you can only do it whilst rolling along then it snicks in fine. I love the fact that the 9T has no problems with the basics like this and the shaft drive is largely stretch and maintenance free.
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