KTM has announced a safety recall – or, in its words, a “proactive safety measure” – affecting four different models.
All of the models are part of the troubled brand’s 390 platform: the 390 Adventure R, 390 Adventure X, 390 Enduro R, and 390 SMC R. All of the models affected are from the 2025-2026 model year.
The issue, according to KTM, has to do with the side stand spring. Apparently vibration can cause it to snap. What rotten luck for KTM, eh? Putting a vibration-sensitive component on a platform built around a single-cylinder engine. You know, an engine configuration that’s famous for vibration.
Thank goodness KTM doesn’t have a history of building bikes full of gremlins, be they mechanical or electronic. Oh… wait.
KTM has said owners of said bikes should get in touch with one of the its dwindling number of dealerships, where the side stand spring will be replaced and a “rubber protection will be fitted.”
KTM also offers this advice: “To support customers riding safely to the dealer, KTM recommends securing the side stand with a rubber band or a similar solution.”
A rubber band.
More recall notices should come with jerryrig fixes like that:
“To ensure rider protection, Honda advises that customers just hit the part really hard with a stick.”
“As part of its commitment to uncompromising quality, Triumph encourages customers to cover the item in Vaseline and hope for the best.”
Meanwhile, KTM says that certain models will also be equipped with a new side stand sensor retaining plate.
“This measure reinforces KTM’s dedication to quality, rider safety and sustained customer trust,” says a media release. “Through prompt and decisive action, KTM ensures its motorcycles maintain the highest standards of performance and dependability.”
Except, I’m not sure that’s the feeling that riders will get. Sure, on the surface this is a simple recall of a simple and not incredibly important part of the bike. I mean, hey, s*** happens and every manufacturer has to issue recalls now and again.
But it contributes to the sense that KTM is a brand to be avoided. Certainly that’s what I’ve been feeling over the last year or so – ever since the financial meltdown that ultimately led to it becoming a subsidiary of Bajaj late last year.
If you missed this bit of news, Indian mega-company Bajaj Auto has a relationship with KTM that extends back to 2007. In May 2025, it bailed the Austrian brand out of its financial mess and, in the process, took on a 75-percent stake.
It is now the boss of KTM and very much acting like it, having changed the name of KTM’s parent entity from Pierer Mobility AG to Bajaj Mobility AG. Raviv Bajaj, the CEO of Bajaj Auto, has gone on record as saying that he believes KTM offers too many products, that it has far too many executives, and that it needs to abandon manufacturing in Austria.
“To put it very simply and bluntly, European manufacturing is dead,” he told India’s CNBC TV18 back in September.
On the plus side, Bajaj says he and his company are committed to turning things around for KTM.
“The quality metrics are more important here,” he told CNBC TV18. “We’ve obviously been grappling with this issue… we have to restore the brand.”
So, it’s entirely possible that I will be singing a very different tune in a few years. Remember when I used to be critical of Suzuki all the time? And now I’m all, “Well, actually, they make very good motorcycles.” I’m sure that sort of turnaround is possible with KTM.
But, as I say, right now it’s a brand I wouldn’t touch. I’m not the only one. I was speaking to someone at a long-established dealership recently who said that his team no longer accepts KTMs as part-exchange/trade-in. The bikes have too many issues, he said, and the dealership – which offers warranties on its secondhand motorcycles – doesn’t want to get stuck fixing them.
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