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-   -   The KTM Duke 390 Ownership Experience Thread (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorbikes/138082-ktm-duke-390-ownership-experience-thread-437.html)

A few pointers that i can give you from my constant workshop visits are
1. Check the coolant levels and the coolant color. If you haven't changed it, please change it. Engine ice is a good option.
2. Check the battery charge and also if the bike is sending enough power to the battery to keep it charged.
3. Check the air box and see whether any cracks have developed.
4. An injector and throttle body cleaning will do wonders if they haven't been done yet.
5. Check the oil seals on the front forks as they can develop leaks.
6. I've switched to liquimoly front fork oils, the same 5w grade. It os much better and you can actually feel the difference. I felt a bit ambitious and changed the oil to 7.5w and the front is too hard now. If it's for road use, stick to 5w.
7. Clutch and accelerator cable check.
8. If you haven't done it yet, please bleed the brakes. My brake fluid looked like coal oil after 4 years of ownership.

UPDATE On My Duke

The last few weeks have been very hard on me. After the bike came back i was very relieved that the bike was fixed at least for the time being. I am very particular about how i keep my bikes. I cant stand the sight of my bike being dirty. So i planned on removing the Belly-pan and do a thorough clean of the engine and the front sprocket area.

Upon removing the belly-pan, I was in shock.



There was a puddle of oil on the pan. The bike has now developed an oil leak. I was very sad and angry because the bike never leaked oil and this was the first time. I called up Motonerdz and asked why there was a large puddle of oil on the pan. The owner was as confused as i was and explained to me that they had to take the clutch cover off for cleaning and the oil might be the residue when the job was being done. This was not possible as the clutch cover work was done with the belly pan off the bike. He was very understanding of the situation and as it was a Sunday (1st Nov) ensured me that he will check my bike the day after.



I noticed that the oil was leaking from under the clutch case covers and that it was indeed an oil leak. This part was removed and reinstalled when the bike was serviced.

On Monday (2nd) I went there and they immediately went to work on my bike. They removed the clutch covers and guess what, The gasket that is placed between the two surfaces had a massive cut on it.




it was leaking oil from there. They replaced the gasket and used some sort of sealant on the gasket before putting it back in. The oil was drained into a pan before hand and they measured it. it was missing around 400 ml of oil. They poured the oil back into the bike and topped up the oil to the recommended 1650 ml. The bike was fixed in around two hours and they did not charge me any money. The service experience a was very good and the owner is a very understanding gentleman.

Thing I've noticed after the service are

1) The bike is running smoother and the clutch feels light again.

2) There is a noticeable increase in engine temperature and the bike takes a long time to cool down. The fan takes a good 10 mins to turn off. This was not the case before and i suspect the coolant to be the issue here. Im running on Motocool instead of Enugel and when the coolant was changed, no coolant flush was done. I am planning on doing a DIY coolant change to EngineIce and would like feed back as well as pointers for the job.

3) The spark plug was changed today but i am still running on the old fuel filter, is it okay for some time or is it necessary to get it changed immediately

4) I've changed the clutch levers to those on the newer gen dukes and the adjustability is nice. At Rs.350 they are very affordable. they also have a sleeve on the inside where the screw goes in and thus the vertical play is greatly reduced now.

A very important pointer to keep in mind for Powertronics users

If you are using the Powertronics Ecu, Download the R-tune app from their site and do a calibration for your bike. It makes a lot of difference to the bike, it runs smoother and also feels a bit more responsive. Also you can set the rev limit on the bike. The Ecu makes the bike rev till 12500 and i don't think that's very safe for the engine. I've kept it at 11000 and i guess that's the sweet spot.

Once oil is drained from your bike, regardless of the precautions used, I would hate to have it poured back into my bike.

Actually I would refuse to let it go back into my bike.

Cheers, Doc

I enquired the same to the mechanic there and he was very confident that there won't be any issues to the oil as it was just 3 days old. I was sceptical about this, as i was not as much worried about the quality of the oil as much as i was about the potential contamination of the oil, and then a very funny incident occurred. They poured the oil into the engine and forgot to put the small magnetic filter inside the drain plug. He forgot he had put the oil back into the bike, opened the drain bolt and moved away for a sec. The oil started pouring out from the bike and almost 2/3rd was on the floor. So they had to put brand new oil into the bike (which they should've done from the beginning if you ask me) and it turned out okay for me clap:

I suggest you take your bike to an authorized KTM outlet ...

Cheers, Doc

Attaching a few more pics of the new chain. I am not sure I like it so much now that it is installed. But it was worth a try.







I think I will have to make a visit again soon to get the fork oil replaced. Saw your message only today after picking the bike back from service. Will also make sure I have the other things on the list looked at as well.
The coolant was replaced, that much I am sure of.

I have that planned on the to do list in the immediate future. Thing is, the service center in Trivandrum ( where I stay) is one of the worst and i have to go to Kollam SVC (70KMS) to get decent service. It's because of the corona problems that i am still not going far away from home. Will have my bike checked up asap.

Thanks doc.

What are the tyre replacement options (front & rear) available these days for a first gen 390?

Tyre size did not change for Duke since its inception.

Few options I could think of:

MRF Revz C
Apollo Aplha H1
Ceat Zoom Rad X1
Timsun
Michelin Pilot Street Radial
Michelin Road 5
Pirelli Diablo Rosso II

If you have supply of Michelin Road5 in your city, look no further. These are 95% of what Metzelers are.
I am seeing a lot of Dukes on the Apollo Alpha these days. The SA at the SVC too recommended these yesterday when I was there.
I had a mixed bag on the Michelin PSR. In dry, it was good, but had some oops moments in gravel and rain.
Timsums i had which were offroad bases, TS832 are excellent, but the steering and handling were compromised. These days, there are road based tyres too and seems decent for the price. A bhpian here is running the same on his N650 and has mentioned it was good.
I don't have any feedback fro my contacts on the MRF and Ceat.

After 2 sets of Metzlers, I am running Ceat and I find them good for road use. Done close to 13k on rear, 1 puncture and still good enough for 2-3k more. Takes little time to warmup but after that it is fine. I don't ride like an idiot on road but no scary moment till now - dry and rain. You need to be careful on sand and gravel, that is the case with other tyres too.

I had Ceat Vertigo for around 23+k kms and it was fantastic. These are now phased out and so I did not mention them. I too experienced a single puncture at the fag end just before replacement. The terrains of Ladakh were conquered with aplomb with these.
Which variant of Ceat are you using on your bike?

Zoom Rad X1. Front tyre will easily clock 20k it seems. My only problem was the behaviour of Ceat dealer selling them near my place. He didn't have proper mount to change the tyre on bike and when I objected he was like leave it or take it. Next time probably will get them from a bigger market like Karol Bagh.

I'm in the same city as yours! Any pointers on procuring them? Thanks.

The tyres are indeed brilliant. But a Bombay old biker friend cautioned that there is a huge shortage of all high end tyres in the market and to be careful about the date on the sidewall as many local unscrupulous sellers are using means to modify the dates on the sidewalls and selling really old stock.

Cheers, Doc