Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

KTM orange day Mumbai 27th oct 2013 duke 390 final race - YouTube

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

Its been a great experience after 5 days of riding my 390!
Got my bike on the 24th of october . It was just my 44th day of wait ( I was 88 on the list) and KTM mekhri circle Bangalore had called me to come and take the ride home.
All excited went took delivery under temporary registration thanks to some useless change in norms at the RTO's The dealer told me that I had to come back to get it registered the next day. But as luck had it for me my boss calls me up and asks me to leave to Hyd the next day . I returned from hyd went and got the ride registered on a saturday. I had hardly ridden her for the 3 days it had done only 30 odd Kms .
managed only another 220 kms to add to that so here is what i make of the bike.
1. It grabs a lot of attention on road.
2.Throttle is bang on and razor sharp.
3. The riding position takes some time to get used to , specially if you have jumped to this bike after using a Unicorn.
4.The rear suspension seems to be set at the 3rd setting seems very soft, so soft that my rear Tyre hugger assembly managed to break my rear fender assembly when i accidentally hit a huge pot hole. I was lucky as KTM Mekhri came forward and replaced my rear fender under warranty. Hats off to them for that.
5. the chain seems to be slack has almost 25mm play Need to get that sorted out ASAP.
6.The bike is useless if you plan to ride with a pillion, as it uncomfortable for the pillion and they have to hold on to their dear life to thanks to the burst in the acceleration it can produce.
7. I have been averaging close to 28 to 36 Km/Hr In city managed to get 27.4 kmpl on my first full tank
8. Does get hot at times but its manageable.
250kms done as of now everytime you look at the bike you are tempted to ride. will come back once i clock more on my machine!

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

Yesterday, when returning from the RTO after number reservation for my D390, saw a duke 390 and two Ninjas(IIRC) plying towards Korani by the Attingal-Korani road. All of them were on full riding gear and were doing good speeds with acceleration bursts. I am pretty sure that they were xbhpians . Any one from this thread? I couldn't catch up as I was on my CBZ xtreme.

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

Yesterday, changed the engine oil at 500 kms to Motul 5100 15W50 semi-synth as the bike is in the running in period. I removed the engine spoiler and had a look at the bottom of the engine. There were oil deposits all under engine and the culprit was the loose drain plug. In fact, there were oil deposits in some parts of the crankcase and I am suspecting a gasket leak somewhere but couldn't find the origin. Thanks to the awful PDI job by the guys at service center. Attaching pics of the oil stainer.

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

@junaid12345678 did you just clean the oil stainer or change it? whats the price of that oil when bought from outside? and which oil do the ASS use there?

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

is the cost of service same as D200. or is it more pricy. what was cost for first service.

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

Oil stainer needs to be cleaned only. No need for replacement. Its the oil filter that needs replacement at every oil change/service. The oil cost 560 bucks a liter. (Got for 530 after discount as I bought two bottles together). Its the same 15W50 grade as mentioned in the user manual. Not sure about the oil used at SVC. I will check it at the first service.

First service will cost around 2000 ( if fully synthetic oil is used) but may vary from city to city due to vat and other taxes.

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

I took my own oil with me. First service cost Rs.170/- (Beat that for a performance bike!!)

I had bought Motul 5100 4T Semisynthetic for Rs.440/Lt. They made me sign the job card saying I am using this oil as per my choice. They claim that Motul 7100 is recommended but that is 20W50 Grade and Fully Synthetic. Manual states to use 15W50 Semi-synthetic.

Service center normally offers 300V which is around 700 bucks per litre I guess. It is a fully synthetic 15W50 oil. I will go for 300V after I run 5000K. Fully synthetic is not really recommended for brand new engines, hinders the break-in

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

Can you please post the recomended engine oil manual page here. There is so much confusion here about 15w50 & 20w50

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Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

here you go ...

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

Thanx buddy.
So its 10W50, but currently motul site is only showing 7100 in 10W40 & 20W50 full synthetic. Also there is nothing as 10W50 product. i mean its there in some international site but not in our indian site

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Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

As you can see in the above post, they have clearly stickered over the original recommendation from KTM. I don't understand why bajaj has done this but I would guess probably due to unavailability of other brands or types from Motul. Point to be noted here is, the 7100 is available only in 20W50 & 10W40 and not 15W50 as of today. This sticker on the manual is completely misleading.

Also, please download the original manual from the KTM website here: KTM Manuals & Documents

Even the Indian version and the EU version clearly states use 15W50 grade and recommends semi-synthetic. While synthetic is definitely better than semi or mineral, it is not recommended till the engine has completely bed in which is possibly above 5000Kms.

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

I agree. The user manual is totally confusing. The bike has a super high compression ratio and Bajaj recommends 91 octane fuel, while the PDF (Indian version) available for download advices to use 95 octane fuel. I have changed the oil to Motul 5100 semi synth at 500 kms following the PDF version of user manual, and observed that the oil came with the bike from factory was much less viscous compared to the 15W50 Motul semi synth. I guess it was 10W50 oil mentioned in the manual but still have no idea, why the bike came with fully synthetic from the factory as it will totally upset the running in process. Any way, the engine feels much better after the change.
The closest oil we have against the recommended grade is 10W40. And yes, Castrol power 1 racing is available in 10W50 grade but may not be as good as Motul. I would say use Motul 5100 15W50 till second service. Its semi synthetic and provide adequate lubrication for running in. Just forget what Bajaj is recommending and go with what KTM says.

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

Agree on the RON95 part.. again, the recommendation of fuel seems to come from the consideration of 'availability'. I have been using Speed 97.

From my understanding the oil that comes with the bike is Bajaj Mineral oil, not synthetic. This is probably the reason that they don't recommend an oil change within 1000Kms because then folks would change to the recommended 'fully synthetic' during break in and that would screw up everything. This is the reason I decided not to change till 1st service although I had my 5100 bottles in hand at 400kms and was about to change it, then it hit me that it's definately better to let the mineral oil do it's job for the 1st 1K rather than putting the semi-synth and make eveyrthing slip around

Re: Duke 390: Long Term Ride Review

I had my oil changed to the 7100 10w50 after about 130-150 km, and so far the bike is running incredibly great getting FE around 27 in city and the engine is running super smooth. The thing with mineral vs synthetic is bit of a myth actually, you can use any of them at any time and it in no way hinders/affects the break in of the bike. Heck you can even mix the two as long as they are of the same rating.