The bike is stable and never once felt jittery.
BHPian shyamg28 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
The Duke goes to school
I attended Indimotard’s Throttle Wide Open (TWO) Level 1 School.
Let’s get a few FAQs our of the way, based on their current structure/pricing –
How to register?
https://indimotard.com/product/t-w-o…riding-school/
Or you can reach out to Indimotard via phone.
Where is the school?
As I understand it, they shifted from Kari (Coimbatore) to MIC (near Chennai). This is where it’s at right now.
How to get there?
You can ride down on your motorcycle – this is what I did. Or you can use Indimotard’s transport facility. As of now, it’s INR 6000 both ways from Indimotard, Bangalore to/fro MIC.
Transporting seems to be a preferred option. You reach fresh, ready to give your full towards the learning on track. The bike also arrives unscathed.
What about riding gear?
Leather suit + helmet with Double-D ring + full gauntlet gloves + riding boots – these are mandatory. Indimotard does rent leather suits, for 5k per day. It is recommended that you try out your size at their place, which they will then mark with your name, and they will carry it to/fro the track. You can pick it up from them before your 1st session and give it back to them after the last.
I chose this option along with a friend. Lucky for me, they had an old pair of boots as well, which I ended up taking from them for a steal deal. They were almost willing to give it away for free lol. They don’t have riding boots to rent anymore though.
Gearnride and Sharepal are two other sites that one can rent from. Adv boots are also fine. Essentially, what they want is for you to have decent ankle, toe and shin protection. Even Orazo’s longer boots are fine.
There are also various rental agencies local to Chennai where you can rent from. I’m sure Indimotard would be able to help with some contacts.
What session types can you choose?
They have Level 1, Level 2 and Open sessions. Open sessions require a minimum of an L1 certification from either their own school or any other reputed ones, including California Superbike School (CSS).
They do Level 2 school only once a year. And when they do Level 2, they don’t do Level 1.
Level 1, as I can see, is about 3-4 times a year, maybe more.
Open sessions are intended to enable members to come with their own focus areas of improvement. These are split into 2 types – Intermediate and Advanced. While you can choose, the trainers do observe and shift people based on what they see.
How may days is the school and what’s the cost of each session type?
It depends.
Level 1 is a 2-day event, costing INR 33000. Level 2 is also a 2-day event, costing INR 48000.
Depending on you, Open sessions can be either 3 days or 2 days. 3 days cost you INR 42000. 2 days cost you INR 22000. The reason for that extra day costing INR 20000 is because the turn-out for that is low, but the cost of the track being rented out by Indimotard is the same. That’s my understanding.
How are the days structured?
Each batch (L1/Open or L2/Open) gets to go out in rotations – Intermediate Open batch, followed by Advanced Open batch, followed by L1/L2 students. Each session is around 20 minutes long. Each batch gets roughly ~6 sessions per day.
L1/L2 students start with a 1 hour classroom session as the 1st for the day. Each consequent classroom is around 20 minutes each. The last 2 L1 sessions post lunch on Day 2 are open for students to go out and practice what they’ve learned over the previous 1.5 days.
With that out of the way, let me come to what I was there for.
This would be my 3rd time on track overall, although I would like to discount the 3 honorary laps around Kari I got to do during the KTM RC Cup last year. After attending CSS last year on my V StromI was determined to make this at least a once-a-year affair. At least.
While I was technically eligible to attend the Open sessions, it had been more than 1.5 years since I had attended a track session, and in addition, this time I would be attending on the Duke. I decided to attend Level 1 for this reason, to ensure I had my basics in place.
Essentially, the drills were focused on smooth throttle control, corner entry/exit, body positioning, counter-steering, braking and one of the most important ones, vision. We were a large L1 batch of 25 students and 5 trainers, so we got split up into 2 batches internally of 12 and 13 so that we could get adequate space on track, and so that the coaches could provide meaninful feedback to us. It can get very tiring being a coach I’m sure. The two primary classroom trainers are Anand and Shumi, who explain the core concepts brilliantly. It’s always nice to understand how things work and therefore, what the active rider input needs to be. One of the main aims of the school, as Shumi himself put it, would be learn how to act and not react. Side note – Shumi provides ample comic relief through the day, so you’re also paying the school for the entertainment.
Take-aways for me – my body positioning is off and needs to improve. The bike is leaning more than it should. Ideally I should’ve had more of my body/butt off the seat. My head is still pointing downwards, and would do well do chin-up and look further. Apparently, your head should move towards the mirror to give it a kiss, as a good way to adjust your body. Which I didn’t implement too well.
On the positive side, my throttle control, braking, entry/exit, were much improved.
Absolute Bonus – Having the august company of BHPians CrazyDriver (Sujai) and Sr71 (Sharath). We caught up near the STRR exit towards Chittoor, Sujai in his Jeep Compass (he had transported his Gen 2 Duke 390), and Sharath & me on our bikes, a V Strom 800 DE and me on the Gen3 Duke 390. I had the pleasure of meeting Sujai and Deepak (deepfreak15) during CSS last year. Sujai has since had multiple outings on track, going on to do CSS again this year, alongside an open session with TWO as well. As usual, I bugged him before this one on which bike, what level, etc. Thing is, Sujai is one of the most intelligent and nicest blokes you’ll ever meet
Coming to the Duke itself, which is why it’s on this thread isn’t it? What. A. Motorcycle!
I had to do some last minute damage control to fetch new tyres since my older ones went missing. I replaced the regular Apollo Tramplr XR tyres with the Apollo Alpha H1. Absolutely brilliant set. Cost me about 12k. If the journey to/fro the track itself was an indication, the sessions on the track, just blew my mind about the efficacy of these tyres. All dry weather, good tarmac riding, so I have no comments to make on wet weather or loose gravel traction. But the main point is, I never once lost traction throughout the 12 sessions out on track. Not once. I would like to call out that I never turned off my TC and rear-ABS, but I don’t recall a single instance of intrusion, which by itself is a testament to how the tyres performed. Upon reviewing the photos which we received later, I realized that my body positioning was off and the bike was certainly leaning more than necessary. Despite this, for me not to have used up the entire width of the tyres, and to not have had any incident, was a testament to the grip levels for sure. The other thing is, the bike’s wheelbase is so short, the rear wheel never really gets light because of it. Rider’s weight is usually centered on this bike, so there seems to be adequate weight on both front and back. Just my 2 paise analysis.
The bike is fast, no doubt about it. In the corners, it allowed me to correct my lines mid way as well. Throttle control on this is smooth, no doubt. Especially at higher levels, there isn’t any jerkiness. Regardless, the Gen 3 does have a more refined delivery that isn’t twitchy like the last two generations. I had also switched up to the fully sintered pads (cost INR 2800) before the track day and boy was it worth it. One finger was enough to modulate the brakes. I did overshoot my entry a couple of times and the brakes did a fantastic job of keeping it cool. The most idiotic thing though – I forgot to turn on the Quickshifter
The coolant did shoot well above a 100 but everything was kept in check overall. I did face a Coolant Hot warning on the screen, but luckily I was already on way toward the pit lane.
The ergos for a 5″11 guy like me are actually decent. Not too much knee bend needed. My flexibility and skill (or lack of it) is why my knee isn’t fully out and my toes are pointing outwards. But the bike has adequate space. I also found moving side to side a breeze on this given the narrow seat. The bike is stable and never once felt jittery. That said, from the photos it’s apparent that I could have had more part of my butt off the seat. You live and you learn!
Total cost for me –
- Level 1 School Fee – 33000.
- Hotel – 9000 (divided by 2 but let’s say I was alone).
- Leather suit rental – 10000 (5000/day).
- Food – 2000.
- Petrol – 3000.
- Total – 57000.
Miscellaneous –
- Bike service – 10000 (fork oil, brake fluid, engine oil, etc).
- Tyres – 12000.
- Boots – 8500.
Leaving you with some photos. Thanks for reading.
P.S.: I see the Royal irony with the suit lol!
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