Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Anyone own a KTM Duke 390

kwg

The 690 has been a [bleep] ton of fun, great torque, light and the sharp turn in compared to my Ninja's is now appreciated. I changed front and rear pads to EBC HH, replaced the brake fluid with DOT 4.5, oil and filter and a manual cam chain tensioner but it's a great ride totally stock.

I am not as comfortable in the curves as my ZX14 but that has more to do with seat time and trusting the tires.

It pulls easily to 115 and possible more but I am going to drop a tooth on the drive sprocket for more low end.

I plan to ditch the bread box and add a PC-V and fuel dongle but keep the stock can.

We were just at COTA for two days. Come do a track day and you'll be a changed man.

Never doubt 'flave.

No I've held on to it.

I've pretty much decided that it's too cool to sell. Any time somebody else rides it they go on and on about how cool they are. If I had long commutes I probably wouldn't like it as much but I'm never more than 20 minutes from where I take it and I think they're flat unbeatable for that.

I will go to my first track day Monday, Cresson 1.7 but on my ZX

Cresson was fun although I was nervous compared to riding the streets, even all over Houston where riders crash and die almost weekly.

The ZX was great but a little heavy through Rattlesnake but so far beyond my abilities even on the street/touring Roadsmart III's all I thought about on the way home was a dedicated 600 for the track. I was overly concerned with laying down and having to repair the ZX that I thought a 600 would be the ticket but found nothing but junk for upwards of 5K. Over the last month I realized what I wanted, a full electronics package was really a liter bike feature so I continued to read and research, S1000RR, R1 and CBR1000RR.

We went to HMRC a week ago and after one ride at Cresson I had a much better understanding of what to expect and conceptually what I needed to do different, mainly power out of the corners and get ahead of the riders behind me since I was holding up the riders at Cresson. I was really focused on following the race line and not speed to be predictable to other riders. Other than the first ride on the wet track slip sliding constantly when the track dried I did just that, I put crashing and other riders behind me out of my head and rode as hard as I could and it was epic, hooked and hopefully will be able to do this for a long time.

I picked up a nail in my near new RS III a few days before the ride so ordered a new Battlax RS 11 and used my buddies almost new front tire and really liked the feel. I also removed the Apex 4" risers and went back to the factory bars with 3/4" risers and the position was so much better.








After HMRC I went shopping and flipped the Duke 690 for a '17 R1 for a 90% track bike, 10% street bike. A few days later we trailered multiple bikes to a tuner in Austin who set up my suspension and then I rode to and through Houston to visit friends and family and back to College Station, 325 miles and through that freak storm that rolled through Texas on the 28th. I was a bit sore but not bad considering the riding position is far tighter than the ZX.

We are booking a spot at MSRH in June and COTA sometime between August and November.

Youngest kid took the utility trailer and brung a Duke 390 home about 6 weeks ago. Only seen him occasionally since...

I believe it!

Starting 10/19

Ninja 400 ~7,500 miles
Ninja 1000 - ~7,500 miles
KLR 650 ~ 1,000 miles
ZX-14R ~5,200 mile
Duke 690 ~ 1,000 miles

21,200 miles in 18 months

huh ?

Good stuff RDW.

Thanks

As a kid out of high-school I had a a bike I could do seemingly endless wheelies on.
I did about a half miler once and had to set it down for lack of realestate.

I suck at clutch up wheelies so I don't even try but the ZX14R front wheel will hover a good stretch in a power wheelie, I expect the R1 will do the same.

I had a 1996 Duke 620cc the yellow and black year. Funnest bike I ever had . They were really the first super moto, Im sure KTM has only gotten better since.

My bike

650 ABS

Nice RAS

Nice work!