The 2022 KTM 390 Duke - an Owner's Review

Initial Thoughts

I didn’t enter into KTM ownership with high expectations. At the time, all I really knew about the brand was that many considered them “unreliable” and that they really liked the colour Orange. That last point was enough - I wanted a lightweight motorcycle that my son could ride, potentially unsupervised, while limiting his ability to make Young Squid decisions. Being a notable fan of the colour orange, I walked into my local KTM dealer and, after some paperwork and a call to my insurance company, rode out on a new-old stock 2022 390 Duke.

I’ve now owned it for 3 years and change and have ridden it in essentially all conditions that aren’t hard enduro or the track - I’ve got other tools for that. I feel qualified at this point to say what I think about this bike, good and bad.

Isn’t KTM constantly trying to go Bankrupt?

Anyone who follows the motorcycle industry even a little probably already knows that KTM rode itself into a serious financial mess late last year (2024) and only recently emerged with fresh investment. For the time being, at least, Bajaj (already their largest shareholder) seems to have infused enough cash into KTM to get them back on their feet - production has restarted in Austria, and they’re once again pumping out fresh Orange machinery.

I’m no businesssquid, but it seems to me that KTM’s financial issues had more to do with some questionable business moves than with their core motorcycle business. Their forays into building weird cars (the X-Bow), fancy limited run bikes (Brabus), and buying Italian prestige brands (MV Agusta) all seem rather ill-fated to me.

KTM has an excellent reputation in the offroad world - their motocross, enduro and rally bikes seem to be constantly winning things. They’ve also got a growing fanbase for their street motorcycles - which always seem to be just a little different, rarely having direct comparables from the big Japanese or other euro brands. If they focus on doing these things well, I believe their future is bright.

That said, back to the 390.

The Bad

No KTM review would be truly complete without at least passing mention of the problems experienced with ownership. None of this will be revelatory for anyone who pays attention to the motorcycle industry at all. I’ve had a couple of minor mechanical quibbles which in no way dampened my enthusiasm for owning or riding the bike, and parts weren’t always as quick to arrive as I’d like.

Right away, with 2kms on the Odometer, the bike stopped and refused to start. Trailered back to dealership and they stripped the bike, found a cracked spark plug housing. The OEM spark plug is manufactured by Bosch - not exactly known for poor quality control, this was just a bit of bad luck. Dealer sorted it out in a couple of hours under warranty, went on my way.

The mirror mount system is just a “screw the whole assemble into a threaded hole in the bars” type. I once had one come loose in traffic. While I’d prefer a better design (the mounts on my CBR600RR come to mind), a little threadlocker and a wrench solved it.

It’s lean from the factory and flames out occasionally. This is a known shortcoming of KTM’s 373cc thumper engine, but really, just blame Europe. I installed a FuelX Lite - which essentially tricks the ECU into better fueling - in year 2, and this greatly reduced the frequency of flameouts. It usually happens when decelerating at stop lights, when shifting down from third to second. Not a huge deal, but it’s a thing.

The rear signal lights are designed to be flexible, but are kind of fragile. The spot where plastic meets plastic to connect them took an impact on one side when I dropped the bike on an advanced handling course in year 1 and has been electrical taped since. Not really the bike’s fault, but not an easy design to fix either. Since most riders hate the whale tail enough to replace these anyway, I don’t think it’s a big deal.

Lastly, it leaks oil near the front sprocket. It’s not much, but there are plenty of little dark stains on my garage floor from the kickstand. This can be fixed by replacing seals, I just haven’t got around to it (so it can’t be bothering me that much)

The Good

There’s a lot of good to talk about here. Typical for the class, the bike is lightweight and incredibly agile - it’s my bike of choice for exploring any kind of urban area, because it laughs at tight quarters in awkwardly shaped parking lots and is trivial to manoeuvre through traffic. It’s equally at home as a countryside explorer - its light weight and available-but-not-too-spicy power curve make it an ideal “low-stakes” ride. If you’re about riding to enjoy the locale, rather than just to go fast, you’ll enjoy the 390.

The 390 (well, 373 actually) cc engine is really quite underrated. It’s got enough power to basically do whatever you like without wondering if you’re quick enough, though passing traffic that’s moving at more than 120km/h requires some planning. The speedometer is dead on from the factory (at least, according to all those judgmental neighbourhood signs and the police officer who pulled me over back in may) and tells me that the 390 can JUST break 145km/h on a flat highway - for reference, I’m about 220 pounds and not exactly aerodynamic. The bike is pleasingly revvy and accelerating away from stop lights is fun without putting you into prison-bound speeds.

Being a naked, it’s pretty easy to work on. The service manual is quite good compared to both my Japanese bikes’ (and can be easily ordered direct from KTM in PDF form, online). The oil change process isn’t nearly as arduous as a sportbike, though it does use a screen design and an oil filter that isn’t the easiest to remove.

Closing Thoughts

I’d buy it again, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend one to either a new rider or an experienced one looking for a lightweight naked. I’ve ridden some of the competitors, and the KTM does seem to have a “fun factor” advantage vs the objectively higher quality Japanese equivalents. This really is KTM’s business model - if you do your homework before purchase, you KNOW you’re buying something that’s more prone to headaches than a Japanese bike. However, the payoff is in the riding experience - and I have nothing but good things to say about that part of KTM ownership.