Ownership updates on my KTM 390 Duke after 26,000 km

Take the bike for a breakfast ride every sunday to keep the battery alive, as I am not using it at all for my commutes.

BHPian saikishor recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Odometer:26086km

I got the rear brake pads replaced with organic ones as well. The ceramic ones lasted for 9k kms. They still do have a wee bit of life left, you can see in the picture below.

Apart from this, after a lot of thought and contemplation, I got the db killer removed from the exhaust. There is a short backstory to this episode. I wanted to keep the exhaust whicj came with the bike as a spare and so I went ahead and procured a BS4 KTM exhaust. And to my horrible surprise this didnt fit my bike. I was under the impression that irrespective of BS4 or BS6 any exhaust will fit my bike and the same was also told to me by my mechanic. The seller identified a scapegoat in me and sold it to me for a very hefty price. After a day or two of purchasing the exhaust I told him about how it did not fit my bike and if he could take it back, to which he replied saying he did not have the money now. He said he wouldve took it back if I notified him within an hour, which felt like a joke to me because the distance to my place from his place itself was more than an hour. Nevertheless, I felt a little cheated as I spent so much time, effort and money in procuring something that turned out to be useless. That exhaust is still lying with me, been a month since I posted it on olx and now the listing got expired. I feel I might as well give it away to someone at this point. Not sure about this.

Leaving all of that aside, one fine evening, my mind said duck it, YOLO so get the baffle removed. On that very evening I went to a gas welding shop and got the baffle removed. And boy oh boy this is how the bike shouldve been since day 1. The bike sounds angry. It has character which was missing since day 1. The engine also feels like it is breathing freely with no restriction. I've done 80km till now post the db killer removal. However there is one thing that I am concerned about i.e, mileage. The bike used to return anything between 22-25kpl within the city. Now, post the db killer removal, I will be happy if it returns anything above 20kpl. This is something that only time can answer.

I have decided to take the bike out on every sunday to some nearby hotel to have breakfast and come back. Basically a breakfast ride every sunday to keep the battery alive, as I am not using the bike at all for my commutes. Another funny thing that I discovered, Citrus starts in a single crank if left unused for 2 weeks straight and it surprisingly requires 3-4 cranks to start if the bike is used everyday.

Regards,

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