Duel Yamaha MT-125 Vs KTM Duke 125: at loggerheads…
Pretty, efficient and financially attractive, the KTM 125 Duke quickly rose to the top 5 for 125 cc registrations. For a long time without any real competitor, it must now count with a Yamaha MT-125 determined to do battle…. Duel !
Opposition of styles…
Launched in 2011, the KTM 125 Duke quickly found its audience (read our). Designed in Austria but manufactured in India (at), it combines a modern and aggressive design to perfection with a quality chassis and a powerful engine of 15 horses, the maximum authorized in this category. Its attractiveness has further increased since 2013 with, all against the modest sum of 4,100 euros.
In the position of challenger, the Yamaha MT-125 (read our) yet struggles to compete with the KTM on the price level.
It is indeed offered at 4299 euros without ABS and 4699 euros with, or 599 € more! A price differential which is partly explained by the very design of the machine, based on the sports car with a Deltabox frame and high-performance engine, but above all by the fact that this motorcycle is built in France in the Yamaha factory in Saint- Quentin (02), with a workforce that is certainly qualified but a priori more expensive…
However, the MT-125 is already threatening the Duke over the first six months of 2015, with 636 registrations for the Franco-Japanese against 506 for its Austro-Indian rival. !
Opposition of styles
On the aesthetic level, the KTM certainly scores points with its plush and rewarding size of a big motorcycle, its orange color with the "flashy" decoration, its sharp trim pieces, its pretty tubular trellis frame, its compact exhaust silencer housed in a low position under the engine and its flat handlebar with handles fitted with supermoto-style hand guards.
Beautiful work, to top it off with eye-flattering WP "house" suspensions and a beautiful headlight in two superimposed parts, topped with a small windshield and surrounded by pretty LED indicators.
The MT-125 is not left out in terms of size, just as rewarding, but it can seem a little less sexy with its long – and false – scoops of air intake along the tank, its silencer of very ordinary exhaust and its voluminous low engine trim.
The same goes for the "Race-Blu" color of the alloy rims – otherwise pretty – which could have remained black for greater sobriety. The general line of the MT-125, however, remains pleasant and balanced with a nice fork crown, a perforated upper triple tree, an aluminum handlebar with variable diameter, an Alcantara-style saddle covering, a superb openwork swing arm to let the chain and a slender rear end, with the rear light housed in the wheel arch.
A style immediately identifiable and close to the other models of the range "Master of Torque" of the Japanese manufacturer (MT-09, MT-07). Both have a small box under the saddle with a tool kit, under the driver‘s seat on the Yamaha and passenger on the KTM. The latter, however, is the only one to offer real passenger grab handles..
In terms of dashboards, KTM and Yamaha are doing 100% digital: simple multifunction dial for the Duke and large three-part dial for the MT-125. There is more or less the same information, with in particular a fuel gauge, average and instantaneous consumption indicators as well as a shift light indicating over-revs..
The KTM takes the advantage thanks to its gear indicator engaged – not a gadget on motorcycles so mechanically sharp – and its very practical backlighting of the buttons on the commodos.
On the Yamaha, an "info" button on the right stalk facilitates the change of display on the meter, while the absence of a lug complicates the deployment of the side stand. We note on both equipment shortcomings, such as the lack of adjustment in the distance of the brake and clutch handles, as well as the absence of a warning control..
The capacity of the gasoline tanks of the two motorcycles is close: 11.5 liters for the Yamaha and 11 for the KTM, which has an aviation type cap mounted on a hinge. The chain tension adjustment is pushed pin on both.
Ready? In the saddle !
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