Re: 2017 Duke 390 Owners Reviews and Experiences

Hello Friends,
Few more things I need your help with:
1. How was the initial gear changes? I get a loud 'clunk' sound while shifting from 1st to 2nd.
2. How were the vibrations? I feel strong vibrations on down on the rear break lever and left footpeg. Any particular reason for this?
3. Today I got stuck in traffic badly. Engine temperature warning flashed up on the TFT. What should one do in this case? Kill the engine and wait it out (not very practical) or keep running the bike in and let the radiator fans take care of it. Honestly, in traffic, both does not help. Any solutions?
4. Getting 20 km/liter average. Low fuel warning also flashed up while distance to empty was around 60km. How is this for your bike?

As always, appreciate all the help!

Re: 2017 Duke 390 Owners Reviews and Experiences

1. I hear the same noise too. Sometimes I hear it while shifting between higher gears too.
2. I feel the vibrations at lower RPMs. At RPMs above ~4500, the vibrations are less.
3&4. I have not faced this, may be because I have not taken the bike in very bad traffic.

Re: 2017 Duke 390 Owners Reviews and Experiences

1. Yes sometimes there is a clunk noise in higher gears as well. Gear shifting Does not feel that smooth. Will check post the 1st service.
2. the vibes are more around 4K RPM. Otherwise the bike is little viby in all the gears.
3. I am not sure but you can try not to idle the bike too much at traffic signals / stoppages & switch off wherever possible.
4. yes you would get around 20--21 kmpl in heavy B2B traffic. The low fuel will start flashing once distance to empty is around 60-70 and the low fuel warning pops up with two bar left in fuel indicator.

Re: 2017 Duke 390 Owners Reviews and Experiences

answers in BOLD

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again, answers in BOLD

Re: 2017 Duke 390 Owners Reviews and Experiences

This rahul will always put up girls to get views and likes and promotes himself doing same things always, that's why he has so many haters

Re: 2017 Duke 390 Owners Reviews and Experiences

My Bike Impressions:

Perfect piece of machine with bad software & thankfully that can be fixed!!

the shifts gave me a heartattack initially & the now I got used to it.. after the first service, the shifts were smoother for the first initial few KMs & then went back to normal knocks once in a while..

the rear brake - yeah it needs to be "broken-in".. 1000 KMs of hardwork & the stupid assistant cleaned the rear disc with the same cloth that he used to wipe off the oil stains from the rims!!!! good job, I'm now back to KMs, -2000!!!! NO BRAKES!!!! so the mechanic washed the rear brake disc with high pressure water & used high compression air to clean it, went for a trial & it's 80% back to normal.. hopefully it should improve in another 500 KMs...

I felt the bike became quieter after the 1st service.. or did I just became "ear blind" and got very used to the sound that I think it doesn't exist...!!!

changed the air filter, gosh it was dirty for a 1000 KMs run!!! it looked like it ran for some 4K or 5K Kms...!!!

anyways, overall good experience so far.. going to open up the engine fully this weekend mostly...

open question to all!!!

How many liters of engine oil did your mechanic pour into your bike during your first service????? OR any service....

My mechanic poured 1.5 liters of oil & said that's what he's trained by KTM to do.

Manual says 1.7 in the service page.

Manual says 1.8 is the capacity of the engine at the last page.

so the oil was visible when the engine was cold.. warmed up for 2 mins & cut off engine & checked again - no oil visible at all in that small window!!!!

just gathering info here as to what's correct... how are the mechanics doing at other places...

and my mechanic used Motul 7100 20W50 engine oil.. I wanted 10w50, but I guess it's ok for the first service, will move to 10w50 next service soon..

Re: 2017 Duke 390 Owners Reviews and Experiences

Owned a 2012 KTM Duke till recently. Loved it. After about 65K Kms, decided it was time to move onto something else A secondhand Z800 would've been nice, but for now the bank balance didn't seem to think so. Tried out the 2017 Duke 390, liked the improvements they made over the previous model, liked their finance options, liked their exchange offer for my old bike. Managed to pick it up the day-before-yesterday from KTM Indiranagar right before they closed (Thanks Naveen from KTM for staying later than usual). Wanted to do an intensive test of the bike. Decided to do a semi-motoman style run-in. Took it to my hometown (Mangalore), changed the oil and oil filter at around 400Kms, roamed around a bit and brought it back today morning for the first 1K service.


PS: The Madkeri to Mangalore road is still incredible. The Mangalore to Sakleshpur road is still terrible (Also a mini hurricane magically decided to descend on the ghat on the way out from Mangalore all the way till Sakleshpur, so screw you Shiradi!)


Bike Impressions (for some reason there are random comparisions with the old model):
Better Handling than the old model: The bike definitely feels better while turning into a corner. More planted. Some would say it feels less agile and, at lower speeds, I'd agree. At higher speeds they feel the mostly the same. The older model seemed to be a little too eager to turn into a corner at low speeds and the front would often feel uncomfortably light. I like the more stable feel of the new one. Suspension comfort is also much better than the crashy feeling of the old one. Good balance b/w handling and comfort.


Waaaaaaay better brakes: Takes less than a minute to realise this. ABS is always appreciated


Adjustable levers: Always appreciated


Weak Low End Power and Weak extreme Top end, strong Mid to High range: Doesn't like to be kept below 4K RPM in higher gears. Also looks like the new model makes its peak power at 9k compared to about 10k for the previous model. You kind of feel it in the higher gears when doing redline accelerations. The old one would pull strongly in 5th till 150, this one feels a bit out of breath. Could be that my bike is still kind of new and would get better going forward. I'm guessing that the old model would likely have a higher top speed than the new one. The engine still pulls really well when its supposed to.


Engine Feel: The engine feels more refined than the earlier one and the power delivery feels smoother through the rev range. Kind of miss the raw feeling of the earlier one though. The new exhaust apparently sounds better (so everyone says), but I prefer the sound of the older one. Not because I like the auto-rickshaw sound, but the screaming sound the bike makes when you're close to the redline (only the rider hears this, everyone else still hears a rickshaw). The new exhaust gives off a calmer sound that just doesn't sound that exciting. It almost sounds like the exhaust is stifling the flow of air. Had random thoughts of cutting off the exhaust. This stifling sound makes the bike sound less rev-happy than it actually is.


Clutch and Transmission: Gear shifts are pretty decent. The slipper clutch is nice to have. Everyone keeps asking for it, but don't really think its that essential though. Unless you spend a lot of time on the track, you wouldn't really be utilizing its capabilities. If you think you really need it, ask yourself when was the last time you downshifted so hard while braking with the front, that the rear actually locked? Not just for a half second on a wet road, but long enough to actually ruin your entry to a corner. For the 5% for whom this occurs on a regular basis, congrats your clutch related prayers have been answered! For the remaining 95% (me included), slightly lighter clutch feel yay!
Also at higher RPMs, you can feel the gear shift on the clutch lever when you downshift. Thought it was a problem with the clutch cable, turns out it's normal for a slipper clutch. Those *thinks* on every downshift feel nice.


Console: Looks cool. Very visible during all times, even during heavy rain. Brilliant! Prefer the night lighting version of the console, wish we could force it to stay that way during the day as well. Takes a couple of minutes to learn the interface. Quite usable even with gloves. Bluetooth pairing is convinient, though still has minor bugs. Trip meter now reads till 9999Kms and tracks stats (km/hr, avg fuel, trip time) until trip meter is reset (unlike old one which was set to auto reset stats if bike was switched off for more than an hour). Nice to have if you're going on a multi day trip.
Had another bug with the ODO though. Stopped off at Hassan Kamath for Fuel with odo reading 845Kms. Rode without switching off the bike till Bangalore, saw that the odo read 1030 kms, then the display randomly goes off and restarts. The ODO now read 845Kms. The ODO value actually reduced! Understandable if the trip meter was reset, but the ODO?! Informed the SVC who confirmed that I already had the latest version (5V39) of software where the bug should have been fixed. Said they'd have a look with diagnostics. Either way, not complaining. Showing 10K Kms on the ODO even though I've ridden 30K Kms can definitely help resale value after a couple years. Oh, dont judge me. You know that thought passed through your head as well while reading this.


Tyres: Metzeler M5s. Lower speed rating or not, I'd pick them any day over MRF Revz or Michellin Pilot Streets.


Lighting: Performs better, Looks way better,. Good visibility even in bad weather conditions. Low beams suffice in most situations.


Metal Tank: Yaay Magnetic tank bags. Boo curvy tank with very few flat spots making actual mounting difficult.


Seat: Bigger, yes and supposed to be more comfortable. Mine still isn't used to my butt (or vice versa), so kind of hurts after a few hours. Should feel better over time.


Mirrors: Same. Cheap people


Heating: High speed runs on highway are perfectly managed. Short bursts b/w 130 to 160 Kmph still see only 3 bars out of 8 (the usual position is 3 bars). In the city, the fan comes on pretty much all the time, no exaggeration. Not that bad if you're geared up. Will suck if you wear sandals.


Reliability: No issues at all other than the ODO bug. Feels very well made. Does vibrate at higher RPMs but nothing uncomfortable.


Overall, very satisfied with the bike. Took good and bad roads, low and high speeds, straight and windy routes, great and terrible weather very well. Waiting to get it back from the 1st service to explore that tempting top-end rev range in more detail.


PS: For all the well meaning individuals who would like to point out that I shouldn't be taking a brand new bike on long distance runs or push the engine to high RPMs, thank you for the intention. However, I do know what I'm doing and am well aware of the mechanical effects behind an engine run in. The route and the speeds done on them have not been random thoughts of madness. A similar process was followed for my earlier bike and even when given away, the engine was still nice as ever. If anyone is planning to do a hard run in of their bike and then junks the engine, please don't recall this post as your inspiration.


Here's some pics if you've made it this far. (Spoiler: They aren't very good)

Re: 2017 Duke 390 Owners Reviews and Experiences

the apt way to check oil level is to:
1. idle the bike for a minute or two.
2. shut off engine.. wait for a minute (if you check as soon as you shut off the engine, you wont see any oil in the oil window) and always check oil level with bike upright on a flat surface.. no side stand or paddock stand.

10w50, 15w50 and 20w50.. all are fine on the ktm's for our tropical climates. my only preference being the brand.. i.e. motul 7100. and as i told you, a little less oil is ok but too much oil and there is a possibility or excessive blow by on these ktm's especially if ridden hard.

Re: 2017 Duke 390 Owners Reviews and Experiences

ohh, i should write something (never mind this sentence, it is just to submit)

Re: 2017 Duke 390 Owners Reviews and Experiences

Pretty neat backrest. Looks good and seems functional. Nice Job!

I like going offroad as well. You from Bangalore? Know any good places around here for offroading?

Re: 2017 Duke 390 Owners Reviews and Experiences

Hi Ajay,

At the the SVC, just spoke to the service manager he has checked and confirmed 1.5 L, 1.7 when the engine is overhauled, and they are using 10W50 Motul

Re: 2017 Duke 390 Owners Reviews and Experiences

My first service after 926 Kms, total spend 1317, oil 1237, filter 74 and o ring 6, my TFT is working fine so dint let them do anything to it, they could not update the system as it was down on account of GST, no idea how they will update the service records afterwords, their is no service booklet in which you could ask them to stamp, no issues with the bike to now, everything working perfectly fine

Re: 2017 Duke 390 Owners Reviews and Experiences

But Bajaj makes different bikes (KTM) for export markets and domestic market. In one photo, in this very forum, I have seen a tag with "Domestic" or something like that under the petrol tank - during the initial launch time.

But it is definitely a good thing that in India, KTM's are cheaper than comparable Japanese bikes.

Re: 2017 Duke 390 Owners Reviews and Experiences

that is because export models have minor differences in some external bits and pieces, and not some 'quality' difference.
for example earlier US versions did not get led indicators, and us/eu versions already had the evap canister system in the previous models. on the 390 tires were pirelli's on the 390 in some markets.. whereas the 200's always had the mrf's. the rest of the bike, frame, engine parts are ditto. a friend of mine has seen a stripped down d390 engine in the uk and here in india.. no difference.. the casing has casting marks inside that say 'bajaj'.
so don't fall for this 'quality' (desi vs export/import) nonsense that some folks believe in.

Re: 2017 Duke 390 Owners Reviews and Experiences

F**K!
I paid almost 1.9K (Mekhri circle KTM)
Ohh, yes, they charged also for washing and polishing.
I will not polish anymore. It is f*** useless.

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I will share some places.
This is my favourite off-roading place, because i live in north Bangalore and it is close for me. There are a lot of dirt roads, stone and sand quarries, paths between farmers fields etc


This is screenshot from my map.


Actually, you can check all my motorcycling map > www.discovering.lv/india/bike/map
•••••••••••• dirt roads there are dotted
Map is not updated, there 3 last rides are not added.

If you have full day free, then go further north. This area is amazing, very scenic with a lot of dirt roads:


For those who lives in South Bangalore this place is closer:




West from B'lore:



East:



You can find a lot the same way I did.
Ride on the highway – see some small dirt road, go there!
90% of them goes somewhere and are connected with other roads. Only some are with dead end.

Good luck!