The BS3 KTM 390 DUKE was truly a bike that made me a better rider, opened a new world for me… Trackdays, commute, touring- it did it all with aplomb.
JSaarinen of BHP recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Living with my KTM 390 DUKE for 11 years and over one lakh kilometers and bidding adieu
Excitement peaked in July 2013 when I booked the KTM 390 Duke. My prior riding experience/ownership was on a 2003 Bajaj Pulsar 150 (which clocked a tad over 1 lakh kilometers) and a 2008 Royal Enfield Bullet STD 350 (cast iron model, short lived, sold it before moving away to do my masters). The test ride on Bangalore’s outer ring road blew me away as a light twist of the throttle snapped my head back and 100kmph came up faster than I was accustomed to. The bike was delivered in early October (on road price in Bangalore was Rs. 2,13,000/- in 2013). I called my KTM 390 Duke “The Kraken”.
The bike ran flawlessly from the start, the service of first batch KTM those days (especially Mr Ravi from Kasturba road branch) was top-notch. Only gremlin I faced in the first few months was a faulty oil pressure sensor which was replaced under warranty.
A shock came during a late night return from a ride, when unsighted, I ran over some rumbles and potholes at speed. The rear axle nut flew away as there was no cotter pin to hold it in place. Limped home somehow making sure the chain and wheel didn’t come loose. By 2014 we had a good number of KTM owners forming a group named Kriegers. Weekend rides, fun and friendship followed.
What KTM did admirably was to start the KTM trackdays initially free of cost for customers and even in 2018, they just charged a nominal fee of Rs 800 for two days of track riding and lessons.
These trackdays were eye opening as I always thought I was great in corners and got humbled at the track. This led me to learn, correct old habits and improve. All along I couldn’t have thought of a better companion on road and track than the KTM 390 Duke. Raw power, nimble, light and flickable, it was incredible fun on track.
With the older W-rated Metezelers, grip was profound and it was fun scraping pegs on the long righthander at the backend of Kari Motor Speedway (Anaconda corner or the bowl as it was called).
I had toured extensively on the 390 too, riding to my hometown of Trivandrum from Bangalore (730kms) which was a breeze on the 390.
Got a Viaterra Velox saddlebag which fitted the 390 like a glove.
All the riding meant, the odo went past 50k kms mark in 2015 and I started noticing that the oil level kept going down, eventually figuring out that she was consuming oil and started noticing light puffs of smoke.
Time came for the engine overhaul, odo was around 60,000 kms. KTM Kasturba (Ravi had left by then) screwed up the job. The repair costed 29k with new piston, head, crank & cylinder kit. Post overhaul she ran terribly, low on power, valves rattling… Dejected, I shot mails & multiple calls to KTM India asking to fix this, which they did to an extent, but not satisfactorily. I took help from Mr Raymond (Rays Garage, Koramangala) and Autoservice Banashankari to get it back in good shape and then she was flying again.
In 2017, I met with an accident near Indiranagar 100 feet road and was injured… the bike’s forks bend, lever & pegs broke off, otherwise the OE crash bars and the fork and swingarm protectors (from Motofusion) I had installed did a good job. Again Autoservice Banashankari did a great job on the accident repair. I also started noticing the speedo used to go to zero intermittently while riding, RR unit was replaced for a battery charging issue, coolant leak seen on LH side of engine and rectified, oil leak from around the gear shaft seen & rectified were the only other issues faced. The bike was vibey, no two ways about it and probably due to these vibrations I’ve had my crash guard and rear wheel hugger break off.
Fast forward to 2022 and at around 97k kms on the odo, I again started seeing oil level reduction and valve noise. Autoservice suggested to replace the cylinder kit which now costed 25k, else the cheaper option of using the Dominar one. I crossed the 1 lakh kms and trudged on, topping up oil and eventually planned to take it to Autoservice in 2023 for the overhaul.
To my dismay, they had shut shop and they were the only ones proven reliable for me. Thoughts started about looking out for a new bike and that’s when the Aprilia RS457 caught my fancy. Booked it and with a heavy heart bid goodbye to my “Kraken”. The BS3 KTM 390 DUKE was truly a bike that made me a better rider, opened a new world for me… Trackdays, commute, touring- it did it all with aplomb. It had also proven to be more reliable than I ever expected it to be and never left me stranded. I chose the Aprilia in white and red combo so that it would remind me of the Kraken. With immense gratitude, I would say thanks to KTM/Bajaj for launching this gem of a machine at such an affordable price (1.8L ex showroom in 2013). KTM 390 DUKE I believe changed the landscape of Indian motorcycling forever!!
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