Re: KTM Duke 390 - Owners Reviews and Experiences

After writing to KTM, I received call yesterday evening. Senior service engineers from Pune and Hyderabad talked to me about the issue.

They are also clueless on how the spokes cracked, all of them. They say even with a high speed crash, Rims could crack or bent but nothing like this ever happens.

They are studying the impact scenario and the wheel for understanding if there are any defective moulds, which have produced such wheel.

Response from KTM is positive. This could be one off cases. They are working on the issue.

This also means that rims cracking on high speed impact may not be design but a manufacture defect. Waiting for further updates.

Re: KTM Duke 390 - Owners Reviews and Experiences

Hey guys, I just got a new front rim replacement. It seems to be missing the wheel balancing weights. Does it mean the wheel is unbalanced? I haven't come across anyone who balance bike wheel alloys yet.

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Re: KTM Duke 390 - Owners Reviews and Experiences

Hope u get the replacement soon and the bruises dissappear soon bro.

I think all our 390's require a second pdi by the company once more.

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Re: KTM Duke 390 - Owners Reviews and Experiences

No way bro. Even a second pdi wont help unless its done by KTM themself under the supervision of their engineers from Austria, which is not going to happen.

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Re: KTM Duke 390 - Owners Reviews and Experiences

If you feel bit of shake in handle or bit of instability at higher speeds, then wheel is not balanced.

Re: KTM Duke 390 - Owners Reviews and Experiences


Hey buddy,

Thank GOD you are okay and i hope the girl recovers from the shock.

This incident has surely highlighted the quality factor of the bike...

Whenever i visit the service center, i always find a cracked RIM from a duke 200 as well as forks with oil leak...

50-60 kmph is by no means fast..

If the KTM fellows are also surprised, then BAJAJ should definately check the RIM quality and recall our bikes for replacing RIM's if necessary...

A failing wheel is bound to cause a fatal accident..

BAJAJ wake up and dont play with our lives please...

Surely all of us would ride the beast nervously from hereon...

Re: KTM Duke 390 - Owners Reviews and Experiences

There has been so much written about the inferior quality of the Duke that Bajaj should stop manufacturing and selling these machines. In the same way, Yamaha should stop manufacturing R15s as there were similar occurrences and so should Kawasaki as the N250 rims are prone to deforming after going through a ditch at triple digit speeds.

All the people who have bought the Duke 200/390 should stop riding their bikes and Bajaj should give them their money back.....

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Above post in sarcastic vein

Re: KTM Duke 390 - Owners Reviews and Experiences

In most cases who have faced such issues did have external impact / face on collusion which would anyway have caused some damage. The impact was taken by Rims and they did work as they were supposed to. N250 Rims have had such issues so have the R15s but they will count for a very few numbers and such instances must have had some impact from outer forces.

The case above has already been taken up by KTM and i hope it will soon be sorted by replacement either through insurance or in warranty. Since this all did not happen on its own, so does not call for a recall by Bajaj/KTm from the word go. @psv_krishna can only update us on the developement further.

And like Niranjan said, (rims are prone to deforming after going through a ditch at triple digit speeds) the bold text duly carry the reason for such instances and the manufacturer needn't be blamed unless some legit defect comes up.

Re: KTM Duke 390 - Owners Reviews and Experiences

I am thinking KTM/Bajaj are replacing the rims out of good will.

I do not understand all the hoo haa about the quality been spoken about over here. Saying the quality is inferior because Bajaj tried to cut some cost is not right. I guess Bajaj introduced us to the world of alloys in India via Pulsars. How many incidents do we have of the alloy rims breaking on impact, considerably less. that was because Bajaj never thought about making a light bike. so the alloys were sturdy, though kinda crude.

While designing the motorcycle the manufacturer has a goal - build a particular type of mobike. And in case of KTM, they designed the bike to be light and fast and nimble. The alloy rims were tested on rough patches, pot holes and like wise. And the appropriate weight was shaved off to meet the design requirement yet functioning well on roads in India.
KTM wouldn't assume that their customers would be doing crash test very often, Their agenda wouldn't be saying 'lets increase the weight, make them sturdy and let our customers have a field day crashing into others'.

The link posted earlier by ZMAtic (Safety of Alloy Wheels) is a very nice discussion.

We Indians need to see forums outside of India to understand what is acceptable and what is not for motorcycles meant for the world.

Re: KTM Duke 390 - Owners Reviews and Experiences

As I mentioned earlier, KTM service engineers are surprised with these spokes, all of them, getting cracked. They said its understandable for rims to get bent and develop cracks but not spokes getting cracked at any speed.

I respect KTM, and I strongly feel they would take up these cracked rim cases serious. KTM is the best thing happened to affordable performance motoring segment, and hopefully they wont ruin thier brand image with cheap quality spares.

I will update on the progress of this case. Thanks for all support from the forum.

Re: KTM Duke 390 - Owners Reviews and Experiences

Alloy rims breaking and absorbing the impact is not a feature on any bike stop spreading myths. I'm overly sure of this and also KTM guys are clueless about this according to @psv_rishna if it was a feature, they would have mentioned it.

Re: KTM Duke 390 - Owners Reviews and Experiences

Built a paddock for my babe

Re: KTM Duke 390 - Owners Reviews and Experiences

[QUOTE=abhifusion;1030598]Built a paddock for my babe

This is moto fusion's paddock stand v2 rite..?


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Re: KTM Duke 390 - Owners Reviews and Experiences

Yes, we all respect KTM but can't do anything for their brand image. Their association with Bajaj is hampering their reputation badly. For both the dukes, the production is entirely controlled by Bajaj and the parts are provided by local vendors, which is not the characteristic of a KTM machine. KTM is well known for making expensive motorcycles with high performance parts right from the factory. But in India, KTM is the cheapest when it comes to performance motorcycling. Kawasaki sell way less than half of the KTM sales, but still they are not ready to handover the production of the Ninjas to Bajaj's hands because they have learned well about Bajaj from their previous association with them. They are willing to loose sales but they will never let anyone touch their reputation. Here, we even don't know who these KTM service engineers are and where they are from. Are they the same Bajaj engineers or people from Austria? The service technicians working at Probiking service centers used to service pulsars and got a couple of days training at the Chakan Plant and all of a sudden these people became well capable of servicing the Ninjas? Bajaj already owns 47% stake in KTM and is making a pulsar replica for every model of the KTM. Is KTM a joke?
As the 690 duke is coming, its almost sure that the whole manufacturing will be at Chakan and there will be a 690 pulsar friend and gradually the superduke and superpulsar.
Even the biggies Such as Honda and Yamaha have R&D's here but would they ever think of making the Fireblade or the R1 here?

I agree that Bajaj gave a new face to the performance motorcycling in our country, but affordable performance makes sense, not cheap performance.

Re: KTM Duke 390 - Owners Reviews and Experiences

Have a look at this thread.




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