Hiya

[jb.junior]

My name is JB, and I'm new to the forum. I'm under the same moniker (jb.junior) on the Triumph675.net forum and have a lot of "cred" on there. I race in the CMRA and am located in Houston, Texas.

I raced D675's for the past few years and won a novice HWT title. After a bad wreck in the 2017 season, I've decided to come back and give lightweight bikes a shot for 2018. I really don't like Japanese bikes and have always loved the KTM styling in general and thought that the RC 390 was the bike to have for lightweight racing. I'm thinking about buying a new one right now, and if it goes well, getting another as a back up shortly after.

I'm here to learn about the bike and see what peoples' experiences have been like. I've heard that these things can be fickle / unreliable mechanically, but I'm willing to put up with some crap by having a second bike as a back up. I'm willing to sacrafice reliability, or whatever, to not ride a Japanese bike. I should have the budget to have top end work done, or whatever else is necessary on a regular basis to keep these things punching consistently.

Oh, the plan is to get 390 Cups. I like the idea of it being turnkey. But I'm exploring if the stuff that it comes with is good enough or if I should build one from scratch (non Cup).

Hopefully I'll get good feedback and "join the family."

- JB

 

[m3hl]

I have a 675 too that I used as a track bike. I am switching to the RC full time this year and selling my 675 . It's still the best bike ive ever owned.

It is ALWAYS cheaper to buy things built and the used market for cup bikes is really good. I have seen them for $4500-$6500. I sort of wish I would have done that. I built mine (bought one uses), and I am into it about $6500 and the suspension isnt nearly as good as a cup bike. Of course the risk with that is that you will likely be buying without a warranty and not knowing full history.

 

[littlehat]

I'm also on a 675R now and am planning on licking up a 390 to slowly build up or buy a old stock 15 cup bike. Going for about 7k new here in socal. New throttle stop, a slipper if you want and then mil the head and tune richer to help head gasket problems. All in for less than 9k for a new bike that is done with seems like a pretty goid deal.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[green_bread]

The Cup bikes are ok, but a bike built from a street version would be better, I think. The WP suspension on the Cup bikes is better than the stock suspension on the street bikes, but I think the Andreani/JRi combo is better than the WP setup, personally. I also prefer a higher mounted exhaust like the Yoshi I have on my bike due to lots of people having issues dragging the lower mounted exhausts. A slipper clutch is nice, but its not necessary unless you're gonna be on kart tracks going back down in to 1st, or tracks where you have VERY heavy braking (think of the bus stop at Hallett, thats where I usually have the rear end dancing around.. and thats most likely due to the fact that its downhill).

With the availability of the used bikes out there, youre going to be doing yourself a disservice by buying a street bike and converting it over. You will then have to take care of all of the things for racing reliability like the head gasket, the bearing for the clutch basket that likes to lock up due to insufficient oiling, the clutch basket nut that likes to back itself off, etc. Basically, I think itd be wasting money to buy a bike to convert, buy all of the parts, etc.

 

[cjwell]

Buy a street model and build it with better parts suited to you for less $