A weak battery and a faulty relay will cause the same problem. I would suggest you start off by inspecting your starter relay. A relay that's working intermittently will cause the starter to not spin up and cause a "khrrr" or "khat khat" when you press the starter button. While doing so, get your battery voltage and health checked, you just never know. Get it inspected at your SVC.

Cheers!
VJ

Thanks..battery is new..its starter relay issue...will get it checked next month..

Unlike the SMT based box relays, the one on RC390 is a solenoid relay it barely ever fails.
If you do hear the "tak" "tak" after hitting pressing the starter button then it is from the starter relay which is fine, the sound is from relay clicking and battery is also new.

What you might have is weak starter motor, either worn out Carbon brushes or Armature inside. If you bike has done around 20-40K kms, depending on number ON-OFF cycles, it be only the Carbon brushes.

the block piston kit for the 390 now costs around Rs.8200, down from the prev Rs.13000 !! for 14k you get a new cyl head and the block piston kit now.. just saw the new prices today at the svc.

Yup, it happened long back, new Piston kit came in effective from July 2020. Mine was the last kit made in June 2020 with old price and old forged built quality.

New one appears to be no longer Forged Piston(attached pics), has KTM India has silently downgraded from aluminum forged to aluminum cast/machined pistons as part of cost cutting? and its no longer imported anymore and made here locally by Indian vendors, hence the ₹5000 price cut.

Also heard from my mechanic that Nikasil coasting has been removed, not got confirmation on this(still a myth as of now).
Will be used common across new Husqi 401, 390 ADV, D390, RC390.

deadlock69 is running the new kit from Sep 2020

New kit 36JY0251, MRP 8188. deadlock69's kit


Old kit 36JP0031, MRP 13194. Mine


New non-forged piston kit, deadlock69's kit


Old forged piston kit, mine.


Difference between two old forged vs new non-forged pistons are pretty much clear right from pics.

Thank you both for bringing this up. So, it was true after all, I was told the prices of cylinder kits have been lowered, which I didn't bat an eyelid, and Kiran appreciate you adding the pictures up for better understanding, concise. From what I can see, the new piston is definitely not forged, you can the grains on the valve pockets. Compare that to the forged one on yours, you can see swirl marks and the faded pockets which is how forged components look. Also the V2 means downgraded quality, me thinks

Interesting to say the least! IIRC, the Dominar's engine had neither of these, either Nikasil nor forged pistons for the same output. If Dominars can hold their wit, perhaps Bajaj thought why not with the Duke series. If you guys do a comparo with the Dominar's BLOCK-CYL kit vis a vis the Duke, the Dominar's was hovering around 4 to 5k for their cylinder kit, last I remember. How well the NIKASIL too has been shaved off is yet to be seen, but I am pretty much sure NikAsil is something very much important for the Duke series considering the stresses the engine is subjected to, and I hope Bajaj hasn't skimped too much on quality. Let's see.

So folks can now buy another Duke 390 at the servicing cost of a D200. Well done Bajju!

Cheers!
VJ

Yes, the grains in valve pockets and circular CNC machining marks on the top of the piston was the dead giveaway that this was no longer a forged one. Also insider info is that KTM has tested this for over 1.5L kms in laboratory test-bench over a period of 3 months and on-road riding for over a 60K kms and seems to have checked out Q&A on the D390.

But from my service advisor suggested as his per chats with other technicians from his WhatsApp Bajaj group, this will defiantly not hold a candle to the performance and durability of older ones, if one is always gunning the throttle wide open at every traffic stop.

If older ones lasted for 50-60K kms, new ones only will last only for 35-45K kms max with same hard use and cycles.
But hey we're saving ₹5000, so loss in long durability is compensated by lower price.

Dominar always has been a relaxed lower compression ratio bike, older Dominar made 9bhp less to D390, new UG still makes 4bhp less to D390.
I'm still apprehensive if the non-forged piston kits will hold up to higher compression ratio and extracting extra 6bhp compared to the Dominar sharing the same piston build quality.

I've a shot a message to KTM India over Insta and Email for clarification regarding the NikAsil and non-forged changes, lets see if I get acknowledged and get a bump from them.

not sure how you are able to tell from the pic that the new piston isn't forged.. my eyes say the new one looks just as good as the old model, that's just from the pic you have posted. i haven't seen them side by side in real to compare.
and always take the 'info' given by these svc chaps with a grain of salt .. there are older engines that gave up at 35k km too (am talking about well maintained ones).. so i wouldn't pay much attention to this theory. they blurt out so much bs that it becomes difficult to ascertain which info is true which is just an old wives' tale.
as for if the old block kit was an import vs now made in india.. i have no idea.. that might be one reason for reduction in prices. maybe like you said the block isn't nikasil coated along with a cast piston. good that you've written to ktm.. let's see if they can give a straight answer

Have anybody heard the name R&D, every new product have go through deep testing, even before launching D400 bajaj has tested it for years (both in lab and real world), that's why such an amazing response came after its launch (I was in shock that how bajaj can made it happen). That's why Bajaj decided to name different than Pulsar to create good image of the product.
​​​​​​Indian Manufacturer making great engine parts which exported internationally for performance cars and bike brands(even Kolhapur foundry is making them from ages).

Only because of looking different or made in India or some ITI technician or some 12th pass svc advisor (except few honorable) said something, You guy's started to throw durt.
Initially manufacturer where making engines of cast iron now making of Aluminum does not mean ask manufacturer what is this. always wait and watch and then comments (only for offensive people).

I'm all in for Vocal for local and supporting Made in Indian things and Indian R&D, for the fact I'm running "Ceat X1" tyres on all my bikers over "Foreign made" fancy Metz, Pirelli, Michelin, Timsun etc etc.

The thing we are throwing dirt over is "KTM marketed the bike as true feat of engineering", back in 2013 KTM website was loaded with fancy texts superior, forged, NikAsil special coating etc etc and even all Youtubers repeated the same fancy words over and over in all their review videos. Including my favourite, Sarge.

From the 2013 press release:
"The DOHC four-valve engine with forged pistons and Nikasil coated cylinder conjures a lively 44 horses from the 375 cc engine capacity"

But their current website does not even mention a single word close to these wordings, someone walking into showrooms to buy the bike in 2021 would expect it to be a upgrade to 2013 bike internals, but he would gutted to know it infact now runs a inferior manufacturing process internals compared to older bikes while the bikes are getting expensive as ever, without any official press release or change in marketing material is what we are throwing dirt over.
"Over silent under the table changes and revisions".

I've held both parts in my hand, and irrespective of who said what and keeping his education qualifications aside, I'm independently capable to see and make out the difference and I've posted info and pics what I could get hold of unbiased and initial observations on the open forum.

If you do get hold of anything technical document or get to see the parts closer or new service manual, please post the same and correct us if we are wrong and we'd happy to be proved wrong and learn if we did claim anything wrong.

It's disappointing to know that the new pistons are not forged. However, I don't know if that means that it will necessarily be worse. I suppose time will tell. Although i am reminded of this quote:

Hey, i happen to have an 3 year old barely used rear shock that i have no use for, since i got a Nitron shock from UK right after i bought the bike. If you are in Delhi and want it just PM me, i can give it away for lot less than new..

Ah well, these one-liners and quotes, there's saying for every conundrum there is ain't it! Cheap doesn't mean it's always worse, probably this might have worked out efficiently and comparatively cost effectively from a manufacturer's standpoint. But, as Murphy's Law states, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong and this perfectly sums up the KTM and the Dominar too, on an extended note. Cheaper parts are definitely a proposition for a buyer when it comes to purchasing decisions.

Customers are extremely savvy these days, everything they wanted to get an insight of, is only a touch of their screen away, and this helps them narrow, scrutinize and finalize. This is in Bajaj's genes. Make a kick-ass product accessible and then turn the loyal folks to a brand fatigued one, which is exactly the scenario that's unfolding these days.

Pretty sad eh!

Cheers!
VJ

The KTM RC390 quality argument is a strange one, because on the one hand it's clear that corners have been cut in the plastics some of the nuts & bolts etc. but in my 3 year 42k km experience the only things that have failed because of quality issues are the airbox which cracks every 8-10k km of riding, the radiator fan that failed after 1.5 years, water pump seal and in my case a sensor failure on the throttle body which was replaced for free under warranty. All except one of the aforementioned issues are well known, anybody reading this forum would be aware of them. But there's so much other stuff on the bike that hasn't given me any problems (at least not yet) and i have had two R15 engines (supposed to be the epitome of quality according to many) smoking after just 22-24k km of use!
Of course i would never say go to Ladakh on my RC390 that's too much risk! :-P (ino touring for me, only sport riding in the city ;-))

My Rant: Off-topic

Indians always get taken for joyride, cursed for life to pay infinite taxes all having confusing names if not convincing names.

Import duty, Basic Excise duty(BED), AIDC, SAED(Special Additional Excise Duty), Road tax, Cess on Road tax, Income Tax, Health and Education Cess on Income tax, GST, CGST, IGST, SGST, Surcharges.

We Tech and Auto enthusiasts get burnt and always get the pointy end of the stick. Manufactures are being forced to go out their roots to circumvent through these taxes to keep their bread and butter cooking. Be it with Bikes, Cars, Phones, Gadgets.

Electronics and Semiconductor parts, CKD engine parts, Specialized Tyres all have a country or origin which is not India and there is a reason for that.
They've billons and billons of dollars been spent in setting up the fabs, foundries, factories, supply chain management, streamlining production over the years from decades to get to where they are right now.

It's like that "Mission Mangal", $74 million budget allotted for ISRO compared to $651 million of NASA's Mars mission. You get what you pay. To acquire Human Resource, SMW's and expertise alone takes decades.

Rome was not built in a day and without setting up proper manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure first, government places ridiculous meaning less taxes overnight and everybody gets taken off-guard, like pulled the rug out from under their feet. It'll take years to get to that level of quality, streamlining, ROI to make it feasible to Make in India.

End result, throw away the CKD imported forged pistons to one in made without the forged infrastructure available anywhere in India to replace that with, so end up using cast ones.
Use MRF's over Metzelers.
What next? Ban engine oils or tax them 200% for non-Made in India oils? Do we even have infrastructure to extract the synthetic oil in India to match the levels of Shell, BP, Exxon, Castrol, Motul who have more than half-centuries worth knowledge?

Sigh! I'm done.