2010 390 Tight Woods Ride Review

Hey All


I will keep this brief as I plan to write a full report once I have more hours on the bike across a wider verity of terrian.

The bike was dead stock, not even hand guards.

Hours on the bike before this ride? ZERO.

Rider stats; Expert level rider that is coming off 6 KTM 2 strokes in a row.

Terrain for this report:

Trials club property in the Pacific North West. 160 Acres of steep hills, rock faces, roots and tight and I mean tight trees.
All the trails here have been cut by guys on trials bikes.


My Pre Ride Concerns.

WIEGHT the bike feels real heavy when moving it around and loading compared to my 2008 250XC.
I decided to get the worst first impression, so I filled the tank right to the top to max out the weight of the bike and get the bad news quick.

First impression.

Bike starts great and idles perfectly.
Sound levels are real quiet.
There seems to be a lot of free play in the throttle and off idle is very smooth.

First real hill

100ft of elevation change over 150- 200 yrds. So pretty steep with the top 10 ft going almost vertical with roots and rocks on the face.

I attack the hill and 10 seconds later I am at the top going. WoW. The motor is unbelievable, simply amazing, it manufactures traction like nothing and I mean nothing I have ever been on.

This sensation is repeated time and again as I continue to attack one steep section after another. The motor is such a stand out I can’t even put into words how good it is.

May big concern about the weight disappears within 10 minutes, you don’t feel the weight as long as you’re riding and the motor keeps you moving everywhere. You do notice it on the super steep descents as the bike pick up speeds quickly but other then that the hype is true, this bike hides it weight very well.

Chassis and suspension feel planted and I did not have any nasty KTM like deflections in the rocks.

I am going to play hooky on Friday afternoon and get some real seat time in, but so far I could not be happier.


Looki

johny said:

dude i have the 09 450 and every time i ride this bike it impresses the hell out of me
it'll climb some real awkward climbs and is just fantastic to ride
i look forward to your next article/report

Click to expand...

Hey Johny

I rode a 09 450 prior to buying the 390 and I am really glad I went with the 390 as the motor feels completly differant as far as tractablity is concerned.

Cheers

Looki

Sorry forgot to post the follow up review here when I wrote it last year.. Enjoy Looki

I have owned many new model bikes over the years and never have I seen a bike create this much interest. It is like a large ******ed woman on blue wheels.

First off I will give you a detailed description of the rider and the terrain that I ride in, as I believe that this is critical to how you interpret this report.

The Rider.

I am 42, 6ft tall and 205 after a good dump in the morning.
I am in decent shape with good strength.

I ride in the expert class at the local enduro’s and ride in the senior expert class in the PNWMA Hare scramble series here in BC. I usually manage to find my way into the top five in most speed type races.

Basically I ride in the class, for the formally fast.

I have yet to ride the bike in a hare scramble, but I just finished a two day enduro that involved 6-8 hours of riding per day on every type of terrain.

I also have 5 or 6, good 4 hour + trail rides on the bike, through all types of local terrain.

The Terrain

My local terrain is west coast rain forest. This means tight conditions, as tight as anything I have seen anywhere. We also have rocks and I don’t mean Moab type rock, I mean boulders with lots of loose stuff.

Elevation changes here are from sea level to 3000ft and on most rides you go from top to bottom numerous times.
We have lots of technical climbing here, real steep climbing through stands of tightly spaced trees with stepped rocks and lots of roots.

Open here is a quick squirt up a logging road with deactivation ditches every ½ click.

Previous Bikes

My previous 3 bikes have been, 2008 250 XC , 2006 200 XC, 2005 200 XC-W.

I have always gone for light weight bikes, because that has always been the least tiring.
All my pervious bikes have had rekluse pro clutches, re-valved suspensions and lots of trick parts.

So as you can see from the above, I am not a four stroke guy.
In fact I have been a hard core two stroke hold out.
I have rode KTM and Honda 4 strokes over the past few years and have never been impressed or thought there was any advantage with one.

The Berg


The new bike is completely stock other then a Scotts damper and bar risers. I added these simple because I had them, not because i felt I needed them.

Chassis, Handling and Ergo`s

The bike turns well in the tight stuff. It is at least as good as my 250 xc. The turning radius in the bars is great. Far better then the 250. I rarely find myself having to multi point turn around a tight switch back or around a tight trail turn.

Many people say this bike has a tight cockpit compared to others. Honestly I found it to be very comfortable and comparable to my 250 XC for someone my size.

People also say it feels really tall. In fact, a buddy who just went out and bought a 390 after riding mine, was really struggling with his seat height. So we compared it to his 2008 200 xc and found it to be exactly the same. I have found no difference in seat height from my 250xc and have been surprised at all the comments regarding seat height.

The bike feels a little wider between the legs compared to my 250 XC which feels wider then my previous 200’s . That said the bike is real easy to squeeze, far easier then the 250 XC.

Mass Centralization.

Not much more I can say about this. The bike feels like a pig when rolling it around the parking lot, but once in motion it feels at least as light as my 250xc.
I don't even think about weight once I start riding. I am a good technical rider who rarely drops his bike. If you are some one who does, you are going to have to be strong, to be picking it up all day long.

During the last day of the above mentioned enduro, I found myself going flat out for about 4 hours straight , I can honestly say it did not wear me out as much as my 250xc.


Suspension.

The biggest problem I have had with all my previous WP stuff on the KTM`s has been deflection.

Straight out of the box this is the best off road suspension I have ever ridden.

Much better then any of my high dollar, revalved , WP stuff in the past.

The front end feels really light and at the same time very planted. This is a great feature with the only down side being that front end can get out of the preferred line and you will not notice. The rear shock seems to track straight and true and hooks up every where.

I am going to go one step stiffer on the front springs and adjust the sag on the rear.

Overall I would say the suspension is one of the bikes best features.

The Motor

Mass centralization is invisible because it works so well.
The suspension just gives you confidence to charge into the gnarly stuff with out thinking about it.
Both of these features work so good they don't get the credit they deserve.

The motor on the other hand is there every time you twist the throttle and every time you do, that sound brings a smile to your mug.

It is the best engine I have ever ridden, far more fun then any 200,250 or 300 I have ever put a leg over.

Simple put it has the best characteristics of all 3 motors.

It has the zappy feel of a 200, the smooth mid range of a 250 and the gear high, luggablity of a 300.

This is all achieved through the EFI and the map switch. The map switches gives you the ability to choose what bike you want to ride on that day.

Over all power it is probably slightly better then a 300.

My favourite EFI map is the stock position, which is some what soft down low. This is good in the tight stuff, but once things open up the thing still flat rips.

The controllable, smooth low end makes it a tough hill climbing specialist. It is easily as good on the steep stuff as 250 XC. It seems to manufacture traction and unlike many heavy 4 strokes if you get stopped on a steep bit, you can get it to re hook and continue on.

Really tight single track is easy to ride if you use first gear and let the bike rev a little.

Open sections are few and far between in my area , however when it does open up the bike easy pulls the front tire up at speed and has a top speed some where around 80 mph.


The complete package.

This bike is the complete reinvention of the 4 stroke. Maybe soon we will see this efi, mass centralization technology make its way onto a 2 stroke.

Until then the only negative I can say about the bike is the weight and even that is a small factor.

I was really concerned as a hard core 2 stroke guy laying down 10k on this bike, but all I can say now is the blue Koolaid tastes GRRREAAT.

Looki