Team-BHP - The KTM Duke 390 Ownership Experience Thread

Some Breaking news this Dusshera. My bike completed 7 years a month ago. Last Friday, when I was riding to work, the noise over the painted humps became unusual.
That evening, I was washing the bike and then I saw this:

The KTM Duke 390 Ownership Experience Thread-img20201017wa0007.jpeg

The KTM Duke 390 Ownership Experience Thread-img20201017wa0009.jpeg

The frame has cracked on both the sides. The weld joint is perfect and looks like these particular pipes have rotted from within. I have found such failure due to improper treatment/ cleaning methods adopted during manufacturing.
I have gone ahead with replacement chassis for this failure. The order was placed as no spare was available in Bangalore for this model. The SVC has given a lead time of 2 weeks for the part to arrive. Until then, it's covers up for my Ka.

Hello All,
I've been having the worst time of my biking life for the past couple of weeks now.
I own a Duke 390 (2016) and i have been taking care of it as best as i can.
I've never missed a service and have done anything and everything to keep it as best maintained as possible. i bought it new and is kept in the shade at all time and is used 2 or 3 times a week for solo rides (very Spirited).

ISSUES

A couple of years ago when the bike was still in warranty, i heard a weird sound coming from the engine.I went to the service center to get it fixed and the supposed "head Tech" there informed me there is nothing wrong and that its natural for a 390 to sound like that. I came home and yet i was not satisfied. i went back 3 days later and i was met by a junior tech (later becoming a good friend) who informed me just by cranking the engine that the crank and head are gone and need to be replaced. I was furious and yet i left my bike there thinking that the will fix it and everything will be normal. i got the bike fixed under warranty after i sent a lot of mails to KTM India after the service center claimed that the bike was out of warranty by a month. The bike was fixed after spending more than a month at the KTM Trivandrum service center. The junior tech was supposed to take care of my bike and then he left the service center to join a private garage here in Tvm. So the HEAD TECH assembled my engine. Everything seemed fine after i got the bike back.

I started noticing that the coolant levels used to dip a bit and when informed this they changed the seal near the coolant pump and thy claimed that it was a known issue with my model of 390's and that it was fixed. So i believed them. This was the same time i heard that installing a Powertronics ECU would be better for fueling and will increase the rideability and also make it faster. So i had it installed too.

This was 1.5 years ago and after about 6 months i had the vehicle completely serviced at a Local Garage after the service center proved to be bad. They informed me that the seal has gone again and that the oil was mixing with the coolant. I had the seal replaced and it ran around 5 k KM after that. But i still noticed the coolant levels going down. Then the whole lock-down happened and the bike was sitting still. i still used to turn it on every 2 days and let it warm up.

The issue i'm having right now is the coolant reserve tank is completely empty. the entire coolant is inside the engine mixed with the oil. The oil levels are way higher than the required amount as a result of this. I am so frustrated now. I don't trust the KTM service in TVM to fix my bike as I've heard a lot of bad user experiences about them. I heard that the new duke 390's (2019) have a new seal that is better quality, would that be a perfect fit for the old gen dukes? Did someone else have this issue? IF yes how did you get it fixed? any other pointers? is the Powertronics ECU a bad addition?
Any help is much appreciated.
thank you.
ARUN.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArunRS2305 (Post 4916571)

Arun, from what I have heard, some KTM 390 owners in Trivandrum take their bikes to the Kollam KTM SVC if their bikes are within warranty. Since your bike is out of warranty, there is no point of heading back to the Trivandrum SVC again and dealing with the same folks. Just check on the availability of parts, I believe there was a shortage of some KTM spares earlier due to the impact of Covid on the logistics front. If everything required is available, it would better to just take your bike to a reputed garage in Trivandrum like Motonerdz and get things sorted out.

As for the Powertronics piggyback ECU, from what I have seen around 8 or 9 out of every 10 owners who use it, are very happy with it. As long as it isnt creating any issues for you, keep enjoying it :thumbs up

Quote:

Originally Posted by neil.jericho (Post 4916900)

some KTM 390 owners in Trivandrum take their bikes to the Kollam KTM SVC if their bikes are within warranty.

Thank you for your advise. I planned on doing this and then I live around 60 Kms away from this place and if it wasn't for the covid situation return travel wouldn't have been a cause of concern. I've also heard that using the dominar 400's seal is better for longevity. I'm not sure weather they would use a spare part that is brought by the customer. I want to try this out and see if it works.

So the next option available is to go to Motonerdz and that's where i have been getting my bike serviced for the past 2.5 years. The senior techs there however have all left and now there are just non experienced people there. I'm not sure they are as experienced as the people before.

As there are no other options available at the moment I went there today and left the bike there. They informed me that the fork oil seals are also broken and that also needs replacement. They have quoted RS.6200 as the complete charge for the service. They said that Motul oil for both the engine and the forks are not readily available at the moment and that they have Liquimolly at stock. So i gave them the go ahead although it is an expensive option. I will give the detailed price breakdown and the service feedback once i get my bike back.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArunRS2305 (Post 4917637)

As there are no other options available at the moment I went there today and left the bike there. They informed me that the fork oil seals are also broken and that also needs replacement. They have quoted RS.6200 as the complete charge for the service. They said that Motul oil for both the engine and the forks are not readily available at the moment and that they have Liquimolly at stock. So i gave them the go ahead although it is an expensive option. I will give the detailed price breakdown and the service feedback once i get my bike back.

Arun, there is an ongoing shortage / lack of easy availability of Motul fork oil in Kerala. There appears to be fair demand but lack of consistent supply from the company is the issue from what I hear. So going with Liqui Moly fork oil was a good choice, I have heard very good feedback on their products. Next year, I plan to switch over to Liqui Moly fluids on my bikes.

Hope you get your bike's issues sorted out and do share feedback on the service experience.

Quote:

Originally Posted by neil.jericho (Post 4917688)

Neil bro, I completely understand and i have personally used the liquimolly fork oils when i changed the fork oil last year. One funny thing is that i was on my first fork oil seals for almost 3 years and they were still fine when i changed them. The new seals lasted less than an year and they were claimed to be the newer model. Don't know what happened, but as its a wear and tear item exposed to the climate i am not complaining. This is my first time using liqimolly engine oil. I will share user feed back once i get my bike back in the evening.

UPDATE ON THE COOLANT MIXING ISSUE

I had online classes till around 1.30 so had to come back home after dropping off the bike. I usually stay back and keep a check on whats being done but this time I couldn't. I got my bike back from motonerdz at around 5.30.

The bike feels okay for now, My clutch felt Really hard and felt a bit of resistance when I pulled it in before the service but that issue is resolved to an extent now.

The seals were changed and all oils were changed to liquimolly (both engine and fork)

The coolant used is Motul Enugel and its a very pale yellow color, so the coolant levels are really hard to see, need to shine a flashlight from under the side panel and squint really hard to see the levels.

The fork seems to have a very light scratch and this is what is causing the leak. Maybe if it Leaks again, I might change the inner tube.

One thing I noticed is that there seems to some sort of staining inside the engine clutch casing and that is what was preventing me from checking the oil levels through the small window. They are not sure what might have caused such a staining to form inside the engine. They cleaned the clutch case covers and also put a new gasket in but the issue is still a mystery. Any thoughts on this?

I've removed the powertronics for the time being and will run on the stock ecu tune for a while before putting it back. needs to check if that was the issue or not, Although I doubt that will be the case.

The service experience was nice and the owner was very cooperative to my queries.
Would recommend going there.

Attaching the detailed service invoice below.
Arun.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VijayAnand1 (Post 4914837)

Came across this few handlebar mod videos for the RC 390 with that of Apache RTR 200 and R15, butch job. Hope it helps,

This video shows the rider's position, and it's almost as upright as a CBR 250R.

Got this R15 handlebar swap done today on my RC. Short feedback after 40 kms ride are:

Torso stays quite upright now. Never got a chance to ride CBR but I think it is in same category. Pressure on wrists has eased out a lot, much easy to ride in traffic now.

Vibrations in handlebar have increased considerably. On lower speeds it is more or less same as before but are noticeably high above 70-80 kmph.

Legs feel even more cramped now. Upright torso and rear set footpegs is a deadly combo. lol:

Dynamics of the bike are now nowhere close to stock bike. I didn't get a chance to push the bike due to traffic, will go an early morning ride tomorrow to understand better.

I will make a detailed post about entire swap process if anyone is interested.

The KTM Duke 390 Ownership Experience Thread-20201031_182035.jpg

Hello all,
Yesterday I had a breakdown with my bike, I was returning home from some errands, somewhere in S.V road ,I put the bike off at a signal to check how much was in the tank. When I attempted to start the bike, it refused to start, there wasn't any cranking sound, and it threw the usual J.G.1.7.7 and brief flash of the ABS light there wasn't any warning like low battery. Luckily there were some garage's after the signal, so I pushed the bike to one of the garage's, one of the mechanic attached a jumper battery, started the bike but as soon as he disconnected the jumper the bike shuts off. He explains that either the battery, stator coil or rectifier is gone kaput.

After all this I called up ICICI RSA and requested a towing service, the customer care person transferred my call to the towing person, he said he'll reach my location in 1hour 45mins. After the wait the towing person reaches loads the bike up, he suggested to drop off the bike at the nearest service centre which was the Goregaon one, I said that its already to late, but he said if the service centre dosen't accept the bike we will drop it off at your house. When the towing person reached the service centre they did not accept the bike because it was past closing time. In the end the bike was dropped off at my house. Tomorrow I'll give the battery for charging and take the bike to service centre somewhere this week to check it.

Here the bike getting strapped down for transportation

Hello all,
After the bike broke down and towed to my house, the next day in the morning i gave the battery for charging, the same evening I picked up the battery, installed it in the bike and tried starting it and voila it refused to start, so I connected a CBR 250r battery and it started right up. It was clear that I needed a new battery, I took the bike to the same battery shop where I got it charged with the CBR battery connected and my old battery in my bag. To my shock they didn't have any battery in stock for the duke, then I went to nearby shops and even they didn't have it in stock. Made some calls and asked for a battery ,even they didn't have it. After a week I was able to source a battery and blocked it.
Yesterday night I recieved the new battery and installed it in the bike. Today morning went to the service centre for a check up to clear up my doubts.The technician connected a voltmeter to the battery and started diagnosing, the bike was maintaining the voltage and showed no sign of discharge. In the end it was just a dying battery lol:

My Duke 390 was up for a new set of chain-sprocket and while looking for options online I found this BPR Kit from Rolon. The Brass finish caught my eye and the fact that it is just ₹500 more than the regular kit sealed the deal. I am not sure of the benefits of Brass over the regular one but I am doing it for the aesthetics.lol:

Contacted IndiMotard as a friend was visiting Bangalore at that time but the response was slow and the friend had left by then so ended up ordering it from a relatively unknown website.
https://motoavenue.in/shop/bike-part...tm-dukerc-390/

Their price was a shade under the MRP and I was willing to take the risk so ordered it. Shipping to Hyderabad cost ₹150. There was no receipt issued initially and their customer service wasn’t the best so took a couple of days to get in touch to find out they had already shipped it but via India Post. I knew it was going to take 10 days at least with Diwali holidays coming up as well and right I was. Ordered it on 7th November and received it today finally!

Will run it on my trusted old setup of a 14T (-1) OEM front sprocket from the Duke 250 with a stock 45T rear sprocket.
Been running this setup for a year and 10,000kms now and I like it a lot. I have even forgotten how the stock gearing feels like.

Also changed the rear tire to a stock Metzeler Sportec M5 (H). Found one in Ramkote, Hyderabad for 6,700₹. It was dated mid-2019 I think.
A brief look at my quirky tire history-
The rear tire my bike came with from the showroom (Metz) lasted me just 10,000kms and I made the rather quirky and off-beat decision to switch to a Michelin Pilot Street while still running the Metzeler front. Ran this setup for a good 10,000kms till it was time to change the front tire. Now I could go for a matching Michelin Pilot Street as the rear had some good 50% life left in it but I decided to go for a Metzeler front and continue with the Michelin rear. I don’t know why but I was just comfortable with it. My theory was I need a grippy front and a durable rear that will last me 20,000kms.
So now with the Metzeler front having run 10,000kms and the Michelin rear at 20,000kms, I felt I should switch back to a more safe and reliable all-Metzeler setup. Common sense finally prevailed, I guess. Also, I had lost confidence in the Michelin rear over the last few weeks. It looked good tread wise but I had a few scary moments so decided to switch over. So I am currently on my second front tire which is a Metz that has run 10,000kms and on my third rear tire which is a brand new Metz.
I personally have come to the conclusion that for the spirited riding I do, I prefer Metzelers front and rear. The bike feels so much better after getting rid of the Michelin.
Also, have gone through three sets of chain-sprockets in the same duration. Just thought I would put that out as well.

Quick question: I wanted to change the Fork oil because I don’t think it has been done since I bought the bike. That’s 4 years and 30,000kms ago. The service guy told me they dont have it in stock so I have to get it myself.
Any suggestions what I should go for and where I can find it?
Also, are there any other specific things I should get checked for its 4 year/30,000km service?

Cheers.