Has the RC390 improved over time?

One hung low

New Member
Hi Everyone,
New to this forum but have to ask the question. My daughter has just got her learners and is riding her mothers Sym 300 scooter which is ok but not real cool, at all. As well acknowledged the Ninja is cool and has been for ages. But I'm a long time ktm dirt bike man decided to check out the alternatives, namely R3, 300 Ninja and RC390. CBR 300 maybe but a little under done.
Theres a 2014 bike for sale in my town, bit sun bleached, with a crap, super loud pipe. Chain flogged and smells a bit like citrus(lemon). Doesn't seem to get up and go conpared to my 350 excf.
i have looked at a couple of 390 forums and I know bad news travels quicker than good news but there's a lot of sad tales associated with these curry flavoured kato's. Are 2016 any better than earlier editions?
cheers OneHungLow
 

Rcdan

New Member
Welcome to the forum. I think in reality any of us can only speak to our own experience concerning reliability. I for one would love to see some numbers about head gasket failure rates etc.. If it was a basic design problem I would be shocked if it wasn't discovered in testing by the factory prior to being given the green light for production. More likely it is machining error by inexperienced labor in India.
It is never going to be as refined and smooth as a CBR for example. But my 2016 has been free of problems so far ( about 4K miles ). And you do not hear of nearly as many catastrophic failures on these other small bikes. My feeling is the basic design is sound but it does suffer from poor assembly and QC.
Having said all this it is still a cool and fun little bike. I have no buyers remorse.
 

One hung low

New Member
Thanks Rcdan,
it looks a little like luck of the draw. Been to the local dealer who has a demo '15 and a new '17. Price probably fair on 17 but more than I want to spend. Demo(2015) $500 more than than a '16 from interstate, yes rego included. Giving the roughy a miss. In Oz the bike have 24 months warranty. I'll let the local dealer know he doesn't have a deal I want and go from there. Bought heaps of bikes from them, rhinos, quads, mini bikes etc over the past 20 years.
 

One hung low

New Member
Ended up with a happy deal from the local shop and its now is approaching 1000km service. Apart from a flat tyre it's been perfect. I dropped the oil and replaced the filter at 500ks. All sorts of crap in the screens, silicone gasket, plenty of variously coloured paint chips but not a lot of metal. The 2017 being oh so slightly different to the previous models has posed challenges finding replacement exhausts, have a K&N hi flo airfilter coming. Probably go down the path of a Powertronics module to step up the performance a little. As per my other thread, exploring the merits of putting an earlier exhaust header pipe on so 2016 systems will fit and open up the choice.
any suggestions, pass them on. Cheers One
 

Chuditch

Member
How did you go mate with the exhaust and intake mods? I ended up getting an IXIL slip on for my 2017 RC. made for it and supplied by a local bloke I got him to knock off about $100 from his online price.
 
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