Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Sunday night ....Good weather in india throughout I guess ...nobody went for a ride? ... any updates?

Also owners who are now 3000+kms any observations ?
Will be nice to knw .
[MENTION=63586]DukeDey[/MENTION] ?

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Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Did a 200 km ride today! Odo at 1100 kms now. Blade actually feels like a living being. It is growing and maturing with every single km. Out of the showroom, there was a very narrow band of useable rev-range. Mostly between 4.5k to 7.5k. Now, this has improved to 3.5k to 8k+. Highway rides are walk in park now. Getting ahead of the traffic only requires a slight twist of throttle, no matter what gear or speed!! And leaves me every time grinning ear to ear!!!

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

^^ what was your 200 kms ride route mate ? just curious. have you gone towards and beyond rajnandgaon ? tons of killer ghat corners in that area as you approach the CG-MH border.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Suuperr! !! ....3.5 to 8 is enuf spread before you shift ....

"no matter what gear and speed" - tht is too good to be true man (assuming you mean this happens even outside the 3.5-8k band when rolling on in traffic) ... I guess the 390 cc takes care of indian city traffic irrespectve of weather u r in the rev band or not , shifting to a lower gear to overtake probably only for highways!


compared to when duke390 was launched this one is getting mostly positive responses .... very relieved to see that ... the problem solving on duke helped rc come out relatively issue free right from the start

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Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience


I know which route you are talking about!! I did go to Khairagarh few weeks back and then towards MH border! There was one small ghat section which gave me a glimpse of Blade's capabilities and totally exposed my noobness. Leaning into the corner and then trying to straighten up felt like lifting a toppled bike. Also, I did not have proper gear so didn't try anything fancy.

But this was a tiny ghat, maybe 5-6 turns. There is a massive ghat section 20 kms ahead but the area is disturbed with dug up roads and all.

Today I went towards Rajim. It was a pretty straight forward road with nothing to do except smoke a few truck/bus/car with insane power!!

8k is limit of sanity. Post that and till the redline, it is all insane power. Rolling in traffic is again a piece of cake. I think 4th is spot on for this. It pulls from as low as 35 kmph right up till 110. And I feel rev range would improve further and 4th gear might even pull from as low as 30 kmph!!!

Shifting to lower gear is not required even on highways. I mostly overtake in whichever gear I am. Of course, me riding at around 5k rpm helps.

The one chink in the armour that still remains are the gearshifts. They are mixed bag and go from acceptable to scary. I'll make a point to never ride a Honda ever. Even twister has better shifts.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Since max is 10k...and insane power as u say... I think 8-10 takes less than 3sec to cover :P

U mean gear shifts are jerky? Or they just have a thud sound?

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Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Shifts aren't jerky but yes, there is that thud sound with varying intensity. Also, while most of the time, shifts (up and down) require only a slight nudge, there are time where I have to make a conscious tap with some effort. I think it all comes down to matching the revs of engine with the final drive speed. But this was the technique of last century; makes me want to question all the developments in gearbox technology.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

ok would like to chip in here.
i went for a 110 km ride today.. my orange angel is now 300 kms old. but then even at highways no downshifting required. trust me. i mean mostly cars are at around 90 kmph and at those speeds the bike is just waking up.
and i am talking about rpms upto 7.5k. imagine how she will sing around 10k!
as i said earlier im in love again.
the way she gathers speed sometimes can actually be overwhelming to somebody not used to this.
grin? no! its more of a pants on fire rush!

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Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

i see...i was actually referring to the road straight to nagpur through ranjandgaon on the NH6...khairagarh is a different route, north of rajnandgaon...the NH6 road is quite full of kickass corners in the CG-MH border area..

why so man ? shouldn't feel like that at all actually...i think you probably started accelerating through corner exit a bit too late and as a result for a moment or two your bike was already past mid-corner and already into the exit part of the corner, thus wanting to lose its lean but no power to drive it through, thus feeling like it's tending to not naturally lift up for a moment..

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

It's a technique you should learn.. it comes naturally to some while some need to make a conscious effort to learn this. If you wanted better technology you should get a ninja which i suppose has a slipper clutch that aids shifting... i personally feel that the fun of riding is lost with such gadgets and 'assists' ,i remember people complaining that formula 1 is not what it is when traction control was first introduced a few years ago.. i still prefer a good old kick starter and analog speedo/tacho's .. but alas i too picked up a d200 due to the demise of new two strokes in today's world.. that was the closest thing i felt within my budget providing a nippy performance.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

One of the SVC mechanics told me that if you keep the clutch lever loose, the gear shifts will be harder(the thud sound you are mentioning). So try the other way round and it might solve your problem.

KTM RC 390 Ownership

Hi guys my name is Nikhil from Delhi, here's a short review of my new bike.

On 30th of November got my KTM RC390 after a wait of 35 days of booking from KTM DEHRADUN showroom. As the OTR price difference in Delhi and Dehradun was around 10,000-12,000.

GETTING THE DELIVERY
I actually went there for a test ride, there were no thoughts for booking the bike, so I asked them for a test ride and they got the bike out and handed the key to me, before that I only saw the bike in pictures, in in real she is beautiful 😚.





The test ride was short for approx 1.5-2 km, there were no corners so just the burst of acceleration was enough for me to get the bike booked. Paid 10,000/- there to the dealer and he told me that I would be getting the bike somewhere around late December. 😥

It was getting hard to wait. As I work in Delhi so came back Delhi and days passed away. One sudden day in the morning my phone start buzzing and an unknown number was flashing on my phone. I picked up and the other person (KTM DEHRADUN manager) said my bike has arrived 💃💃💃. I was so excited to hear that. He told me that I can get it anytime. I took leaves from office and went to Dehradun to take the delivery.😛😝

1st RIDE
It was 30th of November in the morning I went to ye showroom and took the delivery of my bike. Documentation took around and hour or so after that they washed it and handed over to me.😎

I took it for a short ride with friends and then to DAAT KALI temple 🙏 near by DEHRADUN ISBT.

As the road there is broad and empty I was somehow keeping control on my wrist as not to pass 6k mark on rpm. Even on 6k rpm on 6th gear the bike was doing around 120kmph 💫
That was just amazing and I was not feeling any stress on the engine. The running was smooth. The mirrors I heard guys saying one show them sky and other show them near road at the back, but for me both showed the near backside road, they can be only useful if you are in crouched position. I tried to remove them but that's making the screen buzz very badly need to think something to fix that.

HEAT
While coming back to home in the traffic I heard a notice from the bike due to helmet I was not quiet sure what was that, I stopped on a road side and removed my helmet then I noticed that it was the radiator fan which was making the buzz.💥🔥

Trust me guys this bike generates lot of heat and when I say lot of that means a lot of heat.
Even when you start the bike it's radiator fan starts and it will keep running till you run the bike. Any speed below 25 or where you use clutch 5-10 times the fan comes alive and you can easily see the temperature rise from 4-5 bars to 8-9 bars in just a few moments.🔥🔥🔥

Though that's not a big issue, the only thing which I dnt like is when it gets hot it takes long self to startup. Generally it takes around 1-2 seconds but when it does heard up it takes around 4-6 seconds.

SEAT
Second thing which is another concern is the seat, it will toss your butt, I you are on a bad road then forget about comfort it will toss your butt and you need to hold the tank with your thighs.

RIDE QUALITY
It's the ergonomics of the bike due to which you'll not feel the wind blast. I rode my friends duke390 a month before and that felt like a brutal machine at one time I have to grab the handle bars tight so that I can keep hold of the bike, but the RC felt more planted. It felt more nimble and soft. I was going on 6th gear on a highway and thought to increase the speed but when I looked at the speedo it was already doing 115kmph but I was feeling like I am cursing around 60-70 kmph💨. It's the ergonomics which makes the bike so planted and sticky on the road that you'll not feel the pace at which you are going.

Don't know about the wind blast on it at higher speed because of the running-in period, I have also decline the rpm1 to 6k rpm from 7500, so I am keeping it under 6k all the time.

As you all guys are much aware about the bike from different blogs lets talk a bit more insider.

FUEL ECONOMY:-
This is no where in my mind when I purchased the bike. but whenever I ride the bike I keep an eye on the fuel economy (though It's not precise and changes every now and then due to riding conditions and speed) to just get an overview that DETI KITNA HAI 😛.
The showroom guys told me that they put 3ltrs of fuel in it. My first stop was at a petrol station. I filled the tank full for 599/- I got around 8.8ltrs of fuel and the tank was filled to the neck. (So th showroom guys told me wrong about the 3 ltrs) anyways I carried on, after riding 80kms all the bars were top and steady. I was just amazed by the fuel economy, the first bar dropped at 101kms. I was so shocked to see that, then I thought that dnt know if they had put a 200's engine in the bike 😆 I continued the ride and thought that might cross 250 at this rate of dropping of bars, but my next notice on the fuel bar was at 180kms and what I saw was that the bars drastically dropped down and the reserve TRIP F starts over.
I JUST HATE THESE DIGITAL METERS😡😡
They never give a proper and exact reading, the next filling was at 185kms.





On the second fill the first bars drops after 30 Kms I got more concerned but at last she manages to reach 170kms for TRIP F.

So definitely not sure how much she gives I guess my bike is giving me around 20-23.

While these is one interesting fact you guys will love to see, while I was riding the bike to mussoorie with my friends I was doing solo And the speed would be 40-45 kmph and my showed me a crazy thing of 6kmpl I thought that I am driving a Lamborghini 😆😆😆.

And what's more trolling while coming back to Dehradun from mussoorie it showed my 57kmpl 😆😆😝😝 well that could be because the bike was coming down in neutral.

Here's something to joy for you guys


Now let's talk a bit more about the ride, I took her to "George Everest" a small beautiful place in mussoorie. I was with my fellow bikes FZ150 and Avenger 220. At one time there was no road and the gravels were big, the RC was shaking so badly as it will shed apart. Although that was my mistake because this bike is not made for those roads, all n all the ride was just amazing on the twisty and round roads or mussoorie the bike cornered just amazingly, felt planted and sticky on the road. Even on the dusty road it gave me confident to lean more that was just superb.

I was able to keep the bike on 3-5 gear whole time and it was doing around 55 kmph. And that was quiet good as my fellow bikers were doing 2-3 gear.

I did wrapped the bike'a side panels with clear plastic film, the front mud guard and the clear windscreen is wrapped in matte black. (As the clear wind screen is really hard to keep clean. 👀



Secondly just hate the orange alloys as they needed to be cleaned in every half an hour, you can see dust on them from a distance.😖

All and all a good trip and just amazing machine, just ride it for 3 days did 360+Kms and came back to Delhi keeping it at home in DEHRADUN as the registration and LISCENSE plate will take some time to process. M missing her and waiting for the 1st service so that I can unleash her full potential. 😛
Here are some pics hope you would like it.
One of the few places where you can see the horizon 😜 check at the pictures background.






This is my first review on any portal your opinion and suggestions are welcome. 😊

Ride safe ride long 😎

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Hi ..I feel my low beam projector range/throw is very less..Is there any way I can increase the range myself or have to go to SVC

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

.... at tht speeds the bike is just waking up . . . . . awesome man, the feeling of ample power at tap is amazing!

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

I do plan to go to Nagpur next month! I hope I find some nice corners!!

I honestly am totally uninitiated when it comes to cornering. No matter how much one reads about this, when the bike enters the corners, everything changes. I do hope I am able to learn with more practice. Of course, having a capable machine helps a lot!!


That's true. The joy of knowing when to shift creates a personal bonding with the bike. I ride discover and seldom use clutch for upshifts. The feeling for when to shift comes naturally. But I feel there is a purpose of dog clutch and I wonder what it is!!

Clutch lever loose as in not pulling the clutch all the way back? I always pull the clutch and only then shift. Anything less and shifts are even worse. I feel that Bajaj deliberately kept this character in the gearbox to remind riders who's the daddy of KTM!!!

There is a screw inside a recess beside the projector lamp on the left side of the low beam lamp. This is accessible from behind the lamp using the square screwdriver of the toolkit. All you need to do this is to rotate the screw to align the beam. Hope this helps.