2025 KTM 250 Duke Review – First Ride

We gearheads live and ride by certain rules, wrought in carbon fiber and signed in full synthetic motor oil. One of these rules states: if someone offers to loan you a bike while you’re in town visiting, you say, “Yes, please.” And so it was that I found myself standing next to a KTM 250 Duke, calmly contemplating my odds of surviving SoCal freeways on a 30-horsepower (claimed, at the crank) bike. Nic assured me it moves along pretty well “until you hit about 70 or 75” — I was just relieved to hear it was capable of such speeds but we both agreed that sticking to two-lane highways and city streets was ideal.

Not that I am complaining. Mere quarter-liter or not, I was on two wheels, which in California is the only sane way to get around, and the diminutive 250 Duke was ridiculously easy to thread through heavy traffic. It is the entry point to the entry level of KTM’s naked bike lineup in the North American market, close enough on paper to the next-size-up 390 Duke that the two can almost be considered trim levels of the same model.

The two singles share a redesigned steel trellis frame and die-cast aluminum subframe combo with an aluminum swingarm, ByBre brakes, and a 3.9-gallon steel fuel tank. Dimensionally, they are almost identical, with a 53.4-inch wheelbase and 364-lb claimed wet weight; that said, seat height on the 250 is almost an inch lower at 31.4 inches. Both sport ride-by-wire throttles, a PASC slipper clutch, LED headlights, an optional quickshifter ($274.99), and competent WP suspension components, but this is where the 390’s $1,300 price premium comes into play. The 250 Duke’s 43mm WP Apex big piston fork is non-adjustable, and its WP Apex Emulsion shock is preload-adjustable only. KTM also saved some pennies on the 250 by swapping the 5-inch color TFT display for LCD and doing away with ride modes , traction control, and launch control. Meanwhile, the decidedly on-brand Supermoto ABS, which disables the rear, remains a standard feature.

Then, of course, there is the question of displacement, i.e., power. Both LC4c singles were reworked for 2024, with the 250 Duke’s liquid-cooled 249cc mill simplified from DOHC to SOHC. Claimed figures for the 250 Duke are 30 horsepower and about 18 lb-ft of torque, compared to 44 and 29, respectively, for the 390. The figures align with my seat-of-the-pants impression of the 250; low-end grunt is sacrificed at the altar of high-end power. Not much happens until you hit the six on the LCD tachometer, and that’s about where you’ll be keeping your revs if you’re doing anything other than just cruising along. The upshot is that the 250 Duke will indeed keep up with freeway traffic, although bear in mind that at 75 mph it doesn’t have much more to give, so plan accordingly.

Interestingly, it was around town that I felt the lack of immediate oompf was most noticeable. Launching away from a stoplight, especially when trying (in vain) to keep up with a riding buddy on a larger bike, requires a generous handful of throttle, some clutch slippage, and a willingness to ignore the annoyingly early red blinky shift light atop the LCD instrument — adjust that posthaste. Fortunately, my helmet’s chinbar completely blocked my view of said LCD unless I purposefully looked down, making it easy to ignore. Speaking of which, while speed, tach, gear, and fuel level are all easy to read at a glance, the rest of the trip info is displayed in a font small enough that I had to strain to read it. The fact that my eyes are getting old is my problem, not KTM’s, but there’s plenty of unused real estate on the 5-inch display, so I feel justified in griping.

Riding through city traffic was just the means to a twisty end, however, and this is where the little 250 Duke came into its own. At first, I tried to ride it like any other naked street bike, weight slightly forward, actively countersteering, and I chalked up its twitchy demeanor to skinny tires and general small bike-ness. For the record, I actually enjoy small bike-ness. Sailing through sweeping corners with a silent “woot!” and then looking down to see you’re moving at the blistering pace of… 54 mph. And not caring because you’re having a freaking blast anyway.

In retrospect, I should’ve known better. Between its low seat, high, rearset footpegs and short reach to the handlebar, the 250 Duke fits more like a supermoto than it does a standard naked bike. So once I hit the infamously twisty, steep, bumpy Gibraltar Road above Santa Barbara, California, I figured I’d try riding it like a supermoto. Light touch on the bars, hips, and knees moving the bike under me…and the little guy hauled Austro-Indian ass. For such a small bike it’s a pretty thrilling ride. Our tester was equipped with the optional bidirectional Quickshifter+, which actually worked best when you’re wringing it out (and ignoring the annoying red blinky shift light). I sometimes felt a little kachunk going from 5th to 6th, but otherwise transitions were smooth and predictable.

The 250 Duke may be KTM’s entry to the entry level, but it is still a performance-minded KTM, and I felt it most in the well-damped suspension. That’s where many (most?) manufacturers sacrifice on their entry-level machines, which is a shame. Thankfully, the 250 Duke goes against the grain. Well-sorted handling makes up for raw power, and it definitely outweighs color TFT screens and cool graphics. On a tight, technical road – even an imperfectly bumpy one – the 250 Duke’s well-damped suspension impressed me. I’m probably on the lighter side of the average rider, yet the little Duke stayed planted and confident as it was flung back and forth up the mountain. During the photo shoot later in the week, Nic and I swapped bikes throughout the day, and he confirmed my opinions. In his words, “Once you’ve got it on a twisty road, it says, ‘ah! I am home!’”

It also looks the part, all bright orange origami angles and KTM attitude, yet the underslung exhaust is so quiet at idle that I felt nary a hint of guilt about returning to my Airbnb after a late-night donut run. It’s a hooligan, but it’s a polite hooligan. And the best part: at $4,599, it’s a cheap ticket to KTM land. Now, savvy readers might point out that, on paper at least, the 390 Duke is all that and the bag of chips and still buys you a ticket to entry for less than $6k. Sure, the spec sheet backs this up, but since I haven’t ridden the revised 390 yet, this remains conjecture. The bottom line, though, is the 250 Duke is a fun bike in its own right, and if that’s what’s in the garage next time I visit, well…I’ll be the one wooting my way up Gibraltar Road with a silly grin on my face.

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