Re: The KTM Duke 390 Ownership Experience Thread I've never really posted pics as I've always felt that my bike was a work in progress. Finally for the first time the other day I did an inventory and decided that I am really close to achieving my vision for my 390 so I decided to post this as sort of a progress report. The following are
the mods you see in the pictures:
1) Baja Designs S2 Pro LED: You should see the jaws dropping when I pass a car and they see that they got out of the way for a biker. 2150 lumens out of a 3x2" led (guaranteed by a company that is composed of former desert racers, as they say that there is no loss due to optics, heat, or loss of voltage due to distance of wiring and these put together can be a loss of upto 30% of the lumens on a cheap chinese import) I realized the power of this thing only when I was alone on the Masinagudi road at 9 in the night and with one light was pretty much set to go. I am still waiting for a power cut in Bangalore to do a video review on this little beauty as its true power can only be seen in the pitch darkness. Also this is a 5000k light which is slightly yellow in the center. This is much less harsh in terms of glare than the standard LED's which are set to 6000 or 6500K.
2) Acerbis Vision Handguards: I was literally drooling at these handguards and when a friend came down for christmas from the US I begged him to get these for me. They fortunately fit on stock (the 390 bars are welded at the end) without needing the expander and they add a
touch of class to the bike in the night. The only crib I had is the switch which came with the package didnt fit the duke handlebar at all.
3) Givi Xs 306 tanklock tankbag: I love big tankbags (before I got this I was seriously considering a 40 liter shad) and this is the only reason I didnt go with Sw motech as that was only a 20 liter and this is 25 and expandable. Fits like a dream except that you need to order the KTM tank adapter separately. Easy enough to remove from the tank ring although the Motech is a bit easier as it has an extension cord which can be pulled.
This tankbag makes life way easier than the whole mess of my earlier Rynox with all its cords.
4) Sw Motech Mirror extenders: One of those things that you think you can live without till you get them and realize what you were missing. I bought a cheap chinese pair until I realized that it was messing up my threads on the mirror mount. Then I decided to splurge on the motech model and Im definitely happy. The one thing with German engineering is youre guarateed a fit down to the mm and its started a love affair with a lot of other motech products as listed below.
5) Sw Motech Universal GPS mount: This model comes with a mount which can be mounted either on the handlebar or on the mirror. I went with the mirror as I felt that its harder for someone to steal as they would need to use a spanner to get at it. Its super convenient as I can switch between my go pro and my phone. Luckily I had a cheap Rynox phone case which fit onto the motech mount. That saved me from spending another 5k on the motech phone case (although that is water proof and the touch screen on the phone would probably work better)
7) SW Motech Try Top case and Alu rack: The most expensive mod on the bike but worth every penny spent. In the city it means I can use the duke to go to the grocery store and not have to worry about carrying a bag back. Also I dont need to lug my helmet around everywhere when I park or rely on a a cycle lock to keep my HJC safe. On the highway I can carry my puncture repair kit an other assorted tools along with my rain gear.
The downside is that to put this on I had to remove the grab rail so I can no longer use my viaterra velox bags on the bike.
8) EBC FA213 brake pads: Definitely an improvement over the OEM pads. I've been through a master cylinder change, numerous brake bleeds and on top of all that put these pads on to try to sort out the back braking. The dukes back brakes still dont inspire a whole heap of confidence but its a little better than the original situation.
9) Powertronic ECU: Enough said and discussed till the death. I feel that the city riding has improved and is not as jerky as the standard mapping. Never had the time to play around with the mapping though. Ive managed to top out at 164 on the goa highway. The only thing Im trying to figure out is that in sixth the bike does not seem to move past 9000 revs so Im not sure if this is due to the powertronic.
10) Redline plus sofa rider gel seat: This has definitely saved my bacon from a lot of hardship on longer rides like agumbe. Only issue I have with it is that the straps have worn and got loose with time so I am considering taking out the gel sheet and memory foam and getting it put on the inside of the seat once I have the time to go to Rao Seat Covers.
11) Windshield: This is the only local mod I made. What you see is an Avenger windscreen cut into half and shaped to fit the 390. Im happy with this even though its not an exact fit because Im bulky and therefore all the standard screens dont protect me enough. This screen means that Im pretty comfortable upto 130. Anything more than that is still a fight though. Along with the baja LED and handguards it has lent a bit of character to the bike though.
12) Miscellanous stuff:
a) Trail tech water proof switch - you wouldnt believe how hard it is to find a good rocker switch in this country. I had to order this off ebay and wait a while to get it, but because its completely water proof its heaven. Did have to drill a 12mm hole to get it inthe console, which on the 390 is hard to position as the gap between the instrument console and panel is really small.
b) Osram Night racer 50 bulb - Prior to buying my LED I went through the whole gamut of locally available philips and osram bulbs which all promise 100% more distance (marketing BS in my opinion) and realized that these are all aimed at cars as there is limited room to focus the duke headlight. All the other bulbs focus way too high and pretty much landed up somewhere up in the trees (which is probably why they claim more distance) and therefore are not really useful at all on a bike. This bulb is the only one which is actually made for motorcycles by Osram. Again an ebay purchase which was worth while because for city use this has a much more usable spread than the standard osram which comes as OEM.
c) Posi lock Connectors - I currently have both the smaller handguard LED's and the main LED connected to the accesory cable. I really didnt want to rely on insulation tape to keep this in place as the dukes headlight assembly is a pain to take off every time you need to access the wiring. I therefore looked around and came across the posi lock connectors (once again a big shout out to ebay). They are brilliant in the fact that all you need to do is take off a bit of wire, insert it into the connector and twist to tighten. It gave me a lot of confidence that the wiring was ok as I cant afford a burn out of any of the LED's. The only downside is there are separate connectors for each guage of wire and also if you want to split(i.e tap) the wires so getting everything down was quite expensive for such a small item.
Planned Mods:
Brembo brake pads: Need to think carefully on which compound to order because they're 50 euros a set and brembo has very different stuff for each application (road, track and off road). Will definitely like to see the difference between the OEM pads, EBC and these though.
Bash Guard: just saw the post on the indimotard one above and this has been on my hitlist for a while now as I feel the plastic OEM one wont last the distance.
Denali Sound Bomb horn: If I can get past my fear of messing with my electricals any more than I already have with the LED setup, then Im definitely going to do this one. The only problem is that it will be a thief magnet as it cant be installed anywhere hidden on the duke.
Tyres: I wish there was a decent dual sport option for the duke. On the one end sbkstore sells the heidenau scout in a perfect fit for the 390 but at 22k a tyre it requires some serious soul searching to invest that much on a tyre, then at the other end theres the ceat which does
not inspire road confidence at all.
That's all for now folks. |