Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Sad but true, I too am running with bent fuel filler grill, you just cant stop the petrol pump guy from shoving the nozzle fully, we have to live with it I guess!

Also, yes I have changed the handlebar race bearing when bike was around 12K kms, symptoms would be while front braking the bike would dive and lean slightly to either left or right, also you might even hear "tak" sound coming form steering column when you apply the front brake hard.

Another thing can be check the smoothness of handlebar by moving left to right and right to left, if you feel any kind of gripping in few places and loose in some place then again that's another sign. It should be smooth evenly.

My 2 cents, if you are planning to take the bike even on 30% gravel road better to switch to at least Michelin Pilot street or Pirelli Scorpion Rally str.
Wouldn't recommend the stock Metz M5 H/W rated ones or any MRF ones.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Hey Speed Demons, I hope all of your RC390s are treating you well.

I purchased a second hand 2018 RC390 a month back and wanted to contribute to this thread seeing that this thread provided me with such wealth of knowledge on what things to look out for while purchasing and what things to constantly monitor during ownership. Thanks to the motorbike xBHP community for that.

Talking about the bike, it's a really low mile (640 kms) RC390, really clean almost looks brand new. Guy had put some stickers and stuff on the bike which I left on and a K&N aftermarket filter which i absolutely removed during the 1000 km service (yes i got the 1000 km service done, although the bike already had a service done on 320 kms apparently). The K&N is up for sale if anyone wants it for cheap.

Very happy with the bike's performance, looks and the features on offer (that display packs a lot of info). One thing that just brings the experience down is the vibrations, which coming from a FZ25 (one of the most refined bikes in the segment), will take some getting used to.

That's that for my contribution. Just posting 2 questions here on which i wanted more perspective.

1. Chain noise. There's loud chain noise coming from the front sprocket area, possibly from the chain hitting the guide. The sound is fairly audible when i have my left leg close and gripping the tank and godawful loud (like louder than the bike) when i open my left leg and take it away from the tank, such as when taking a left handed corner. Normal?

2. When i took the bike in for service, the service tech told me that a round bottle like cylinder is missing from the exhaust system and has been replaced with normal piping. The round bottle is placed just upstream of the catalytic convertor in the exhaust system. I saw the 2019 Duke and RCs and all of them had this round bottle contraption thingy such that its the round bottle > cat con > muffler in the exhaust system. I'll also attach a picture of the part that's missing in my bike.

Any ideas what that part does and is it ok if i roll without it?

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

The part you see is called the CAT assembly,
The exhaust order goes like this Head Pipe->CAT assembly->Main Canister->Muffler. All 2017+ models have it by default

Looks like the same guy who put K&N filter removed the CAT assembly and fitted a straight pipe, basically he did what is called as "CAT delete" lowering the back pressure.
The reason is to get more low end torque at the cost of 1-2ps peak power, this will make the bike accelerate bit quicker compared to stock bike but lose a bit top end speed.

Ideally not recommended on stock ECU map unless your bike also has an aftermarket ECU or Power commander something like that without a proper tune, would be good if you revert everything to stock without the K&N filter and CAT put back on unless you want to mess-up the AFR and back pressure.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Thanks for the quick reply! Are you sure that the round bottle is the catalytic convertor? I was always under the impression that the big box just upstream of the muffler is the catalytic convertor.

That is really worrying since running the bike on the stock ECU without the cat is a bad idea.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Yep, that bottle thinge is the CAT, the bottom box is just the exhaust expansion chamber and sound damper, it won't have CAT components inside.

If the pipe you are saying looks something like this, then pretty much whatever I said earlier holds good



Stock one with the actual CAT looks like this


Since you say your engine is pretty brand new, the damage will not be done overnight, it'll take prolonged kms to show, either by then tune the engine or add back the bottle thinge.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Yeah did some research on my own and it seems pretty obvious. The Catalytic convertor is missing on the bike. It seems like the previous owner put in a mid pipe which replaced the cat but retained the pre silencer and the muffler.

That seems pretty counter intuitive. Is this mod regularly done on our 390s? As far as i know a complete full system is installed to reduce weight and back pressure, but what's the point to remove the cat but keep the pre silencer and the muffler?

Also what do you guys think about the damage to the engine because the presilencer and the muffler are still there to apply enough back pressure so that the engine doesn't run lean. Just putting it out there, the bike hasn't been running hot.

What i think is that the owner had a K&N and a full system but while selling installed the OEM exhaust (which a lot of people do while selling the bikes) but forgot to install the Cat. That might be the case.

What about the first point though? I have been experiencing very loud chain noise. The SVC in gurgaon misdiagnosed it as shrapnel stuck in the front brake pad, which is wrong because the sound is coming from the front sprocket.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

that short segment of the missing exhaust is the 'Assembly CAT' as per the parts manual. Seems to have made its appearance since the 2017 models (bs 4). the older bikes have a catcon probably located in that big black box (called 'silencer sub assy'). i don't there's a bike out there that is made post 2002 that doesn't have a catcon.

i don't think it should cause any issues per se.. but if you are worried, just get that part and have it installed.

here is something i dug up: someone who's dissected the exhaust.. just so you better understand what i mean.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

The part is called the Catalytic convertor, just checked the 2018 390 Duke service manual. You are absolutely right that in the pre-2017 models it was all part of a single assembly

Regarding the link you reference, that is the pre-2017 underbelly exhaust dissected, where the cat and the muffler were integrated in a single system.



All in all, I'm not too worried, since the presilencer and muffler are still installed, but i don't know if i should be.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

yep, what i tried to imply was that maybe some 'extra' cat was thrown in (keeping the existing integrated stuff) to meet stricter emission norms.. will have to wait until i come across someone who's dissected a 2017 or later exhaust sub assy but most likely i am guessing it was moved back in to a separate unit.

if you want to keep it bone stock and that gives you a peace of mind, go ahead and have them order that part and installed.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

As far as i know the cat is one of the costlier parts of the exhaust system since it has a lot of reagents and catalysts that are hard to manufacture and specifically designed.

Will probably go for it later.

What is the view on the chain noise though?

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

inspect the front sprocket to ensure it is tightened properly and not worn.. and get the chain adjust to spec (or sit on the bike and ensure the slack is around 15mm) making sure the rear wheel alignment is proper.
clean and lube the chain.
beyond this i can only give you a definite answer after physically checking the 'noise'.. these day a lot of normal sounds are considered 'noise' by some folks

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Just for perspective this is how my mid pipe looks like without the cat. Pretty odd find actually!

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

The mid-pipe without the CAT actually looks sweet, by the looks of it, it's defiantly not some cheap jugaad pipe and built by some reputed company. I am guessing it might have not been cheap to put by previous owner and has spent quite some money on it.

Just get in touch with the previous owner if he's nice enough to answer your doubts, only he can tell you what and why, keep it if you are okay after hearing the reason, the exhaust sounds bit loud and raw aswell I think without the CAT

Also, the chain looks so dry and has so much gunk on it, clean it as told above, post your observations after that.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

The previous owner has left the country, i bought the bike from his mom

Regarding the chain, I got it cleaned 300 kms back from the SVC during the 1k service!

Moreover, i installed the Axle spools and secured a paddock as well, but the tyre hugger gets in the way of the hooks on the paddock. Due to this i'm relying on a friends Groller.

Don't want to take the hugger off since it is pretty functional, but i guess will eventually have to remove it.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

i won't be surprised if it was the header pipe from the pre-2017 model that was plonked in.. looking at the color of the pipe it does look like one to me.