Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

That's Suman Bajaj in Sector 2 Noida you're referring to, it's a highly recommended svc, best workmanship I've found, very cooperative and understanding personnel.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Sector 2 .... hey is that near Rohan Motors and the Volkswagen Showroom ?

So KTMs are to be serviced at the Bajaj SVC ? I heard that KTM have their separate SVCs ...

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience


Why not just paint them black, and get rid of all the headache.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

No, there is a seperate pro biking zone for KTM/Kawasaki.
I don't know abot Rohan motors n VW Showroom, never checked.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

[MENTION=43844]HyperRetard[/MENTION] : I thought of that but repainting is never as durable as powder coating in my opinion. It start to chip of.

So here we go.

I'll be honest. Orange is not my color. This would have happened eventually. But courtesy of our roads made this quite premature. Some noticeable difference in weight is there. About 2 - 300 grams. Black ones are heavier for sure. But too sure by how much

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience


Now this gives me an idea. I'll swap it if I buy at the showroom itself. At 0 cost.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

there are plenty of guys going mad about the orange wheels, met one at the showroom after the installation was complete on mine, he offered if he had known earlier he would have exchange with mine. than i showed him the cracked ones lying at the corner.

silence persued but yes there is plenty of population ready to swap. i wonder how the extra weight effect the handling and abs especially. havent notice any problem with abs yet. so i hope all is good. but something is certainly wrong with.

The bike at slow speed feels very scary while turning. over steer under steer. not sure what has happened, something else has been affected after the impact in the ditch which cracked both the alloys. handle seems straight so i am assuming the suspension arent the issue, i could be wrong though. and at faster speeds all is good, but that sharp steering is amiss. while cornering aswell i dont feel that confident either. will have to inspect it thoroghly, may be its the cone set or the handle t hub. i hope its not the chassis. any pointers guys as to where should start looking for the problem?

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

It could be one of the problems as you have described above. Or it could be just that you are used to lighter wheels. You mentioned if i remember correctly, the new wheels are 300gms heavier. If the entire 300 gm increase was located at the centre of the wheel, then you wouldn't notice much difference. On the other hand if the 300 gm increase was entirely on the edge of the rim, then you would feel a far greater change.

Rotating mass increases disproportionately the further away it is from the centre, so in effect the increase is much more than the 300gm. That is the reason why people spend so much to get lighter wheels and tyres. Increase in spinning mass means your acceleration, braking efficiency, handling will all be affected.

Hypothetical situation, if you could reduce the weight of the tyre by the same amount that the wheel has gained, you would be better off. Since the tyre is on the edge, therefore the weight gained in the centre (i.e. the wheel) would be more than offset by the weight lost on the tyre (the edge).

Realistically the 300 gm increase in wheel weight would not be concentrated either at the centre or the edge, but spread out uniformly (or so i assume). But the increase in weight further from the centre would surely affect braking, handling and acceleration. Though i do not see how this should affect slow speed handling, except if by slow speed you mean 100 kmph

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Have you checked the Coneset?

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience


nope
but yes, what you said above is the explanation i was looking for. Explains a lot, Thanks . I truly loved the way it handled. it was too damn sharp and precise. I understand now that the steering would feel heavy, and can only hope that the understeera and oversteer is not associated with this weight increase but has something to do with some other underlying unidentified problem.

no, i just did the an overview. This would be the first place i'll start looking now.

Any chances the chassis might be suspect?

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

i've seen a guy who had a bent/cracked alloy on his duke 200 and he replaced it with the orange ones from a 390. direct fit.this was the front alloy. And by appearance what i can infer is that the alloys are identical across the ktm's with only color difference (apart from the older models with different no. of mounting holes for the sprocket)

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front end crashes are a pain. as you mentioned it could be the triple tree/stem, cone set or bent forks.
try and get em replaced under insurance. tinkering around with them is a waste of time and money.. unless the svc can guarantee that they will repair it to perfection

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

The black rims do look brutal \m/ Something Bruce Wayne would have asked Mr. Fox for sure . " Does it come in black ? "

That is good to know . Thanks mate :-)

Ride Safe

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Thanks bro. this was in the pipeline even before i bought the rc. But the idea was to get black alloys as spare and put michelin tyres for highway use in black and metz on orange for city and if i ever make it to track. But considering the current situation, that idea has been scrapped

[MENTION=16602]s1d[/MENTION]:

I am glad to inform that the steering issue is resolved. On my way back from work yesterday I was running all sorts of ideas through my head. As i mentioned earlier, since the handle was straight I ruled out suspension bend. Next was the disk rotor, but in high speed there was no wobbling while applying front brakes. As a matter of fact that handling issue only existed while riding slow through traffic and changing direction. After a lot of brainstorming it suddenly struck me that the svc guys might have over tightened the steering t nut. I looked at some old pis I had taken after buying the bike and the nut angle looked out of place. I reached home and took the pipe wrench and loosened the top nut above the handle bar clamp, next i loosened the t hub nut and re tightened the top nut. Since I don't have a torque wrench, i roughly tightened it to the angle as seen in old pics.
Pretty much a sleepless night after that, as i wanted to test it right away. But had a morning ride planned, took the bike out in the morning and voila, difference was spectacular and relieving. That similar surgeon's knife precision was back.

I was not upset when the alloys cracked, but this handling bit was truly unnerving. I have never trusted the mechanics at svc, this is the main reason I service the rest of my bikes at home. Be it major or minor. I just made an exception in ktms case. But i suppose it's time to take matters into my own hands now. Torque wrench has moved up at the tools to buy list.

Ride safe

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

That's a pretty good idea ... Keeping spare rims with different tyre sets since Metz are quite soft and can be damaged while removal .

My brother and me were having this discussion on Metzeler's running life which falls way short of 15000 kms ( usually around 10k to 12k , if rode with decency ) . Michelins and Pirellis are the only brands I can think of ... any suggestions on them ? I think CBRs come with Continental , but I dont really like them .

Good to know that your bike is back to normal . Afterall , Apna Haath Jaggannath :-p

Regards and Ride Safe

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience



As for tyres, dont even think about continental, the size is different and grip is ridiculous. as for metzeler's, yes general concensus is they last for around 9-10000 kms, i have seen very few guys touching 11000kms +.

Both Michelins and Pirellis are good option. With pirelli you can even upsize to 160 rear, again general concensus is around 15000 kms. Michelins are available in 140 and stock size of 150, I have used 140 on the cbr250 before after my contis gave way at 18000kms. good tyre, and have read good reviews about 150 aswell but havent tried yet.