Our long-term KTM 790 Duke gets some much deserved high-end suspension. Here's why this expensive upgrade could be the most satisfying modification you could make to a motorcycle.

But the stock suspension always  felt like the weak link, especially on Mumbai’s  miserable roads. The bike struggled to deal with  bumps and imperfections, with the rear end  feeling wallowy under power and painfully  crashy over bigger hits. The front,  meanwhile, couldn’t be  trusted while accelerating  aggressively (something this  bike lives to do) over rough/ rippled surfaces.

After one massive, near pants- wetting tank slapper, I had the  stock 5w oil in the steering damper  swapped for much heavier 20w oil, which put  a bandage on the problem, but certainly didn’t  fix it. It was clear that this bike deserved better  suspension and my search led me to British  specialist, K-Tech. We’ll talk more about  why K-Tech a little later, but for now let’s  elaborate on what high-end suspension is  all about.

You’ll often hear how tyres are so  important because they’re your only  point of connection with the road.  While that’s absolutely true, what  doesn’t get considered as much is the  fact that the suspension is what keeps  your tires connected to the tarmac. A side from proper performance oriented  achines, suspension often ends up being overshadowed on most motorcycles, which get basic components that get the job done. You’ll find this across almost all budget motorcycles and it’s a similar story on cruisers, modern classics and many naked bikes as well, with the 790 Duke being a great example.

Budget suspension usually doesn’t give you any control over the settings and the way it is set-up is almost always a compromise. The manufacturer has to set it up to work across a huge range of scenarios, including riders of different weights, as well as to account for a pillion, luggage, poor roads, aggressive cornering and so on. What you usually get is a set-up that works, but never excels for your particular requirement. For some riders, ‘okay’ is just fine, but for others like myself, that just isn’t an option.

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