Zedling Rally Suspension on KTM 390 ADV - A Long Term Review

Here’s the the one mod that fixed the achilles heel on the 2025 KTM 390 Adventure S – The Zedling Rally Suspension

So in my previous blog on the long term review of the 2025 KTM 390 Adventure S, I mentioned one of the biggest issue I was facing on my motorcycle, the stock suspension.

The tank slapper accident I had was when I decided enough is enough. Either I needed to sell this bike or find some solution to it. I had the benchmark experience of YSS suspension in mind on my Himalayan 411 before.

So naturally I searched for it but sadly, till date (July 2026) YSS hasn’t come up with a setup for the new 390 adventure. Second option was to get the Xplor Pro suspension from KTM. But sourcing it from Europe was costing close to 2 lakhs INR.

Those of you who have read my review on the YSS suspension would know that I had the Zedling suspension on my Himalayan for a short period of time for a reason. So I started searching a solution from them and found out that they have a rally kit for the new KTM 390 Adventure and I decided to try it out.

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Features of Zedling Rally Suspension

The suspension travel of both the front and rear is 250mm as opposed to the 200mm on the stock. The front is both rebound and compression adjustable with 20 clicks on each while the rear is preload adjustable with a threaded adjuster for maximum precision.

The rebound on the rear and preload on the front is factory adjusted. You’ll need to fill up a form when placing the order to adjust these according to your liking. They’ll ask your body weight, your gear weight, luggage weight and pillion weight along with their gear, if you ride with a pillion.

They’ll also ask your riding style, intention of usage, percentage of off road and on road riding, issues with the current setup, your expectation of behaviour of the rally setup and so on. It’s a big form which you’ll have to take your time and fill it up.

Once I placed the order, it took almost 2 months for them to prepare and dispatch the suspension. They have their authorised service centres in almost all major cities in India. You can select one nearest to your location while placing the order.

They’ll dispatch it to your address or to the service centre of your choice. I recommend having them send it to the service centre so that you can go drop your bike once it’s reached the service centre and have it installed.

It usually takes only a day for them to install and give it to you based on their schedule and availability. Once it’s fixed, ride it in the factory setting for at least a 1000km so that the suspension can properly set in before you make adjustments on it.

Few things not mentioned in the spec sheet is that they use linear springs instead of stock progressive ones on the front which is fantastic and I’ll tell you the reason why in a while. They also use a custom grade fork oil. And the seat height goes up by half an inch.

Once you place the order, they’ll assign a serial number to you, make a whatsapp group and all further communications in terms of requirements, installation and adjustments will be dealt with in that group.

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Now I’ve been using this suspension for over 8 months now. I’ve covered 8kms with it which included a north east trip, many trail rides, monthly dirt track practice sessions and one amateur off road enduro race. Now here are the pros and cons I’ve noticed.

This is not a sponsored blog. I bought the suspension with my own money and Zedling didn’t pay me a rupee or give me anything free of cost to make me say what I’m going to say next.

Pros of Zedling Rally Suspension

1. Superior Dampening of Zedling Rally Suspension

The first thing I loved about the Zedling rally suspension is the overall dampening of the front and rear. Once the suspension set in and I adjusted the forks to my liking, the bike started behaving completely opposite of the stock.

All that unsteady, jittery, uncontrollable wavering of the front stock suspension completely went away in slow speeds and almost completely went away on the high speeds.

On the dirt track, over the rocky sections, I have maxed out on the rebound dampening, ie slowest setting and put the fastest setting on the compression. So now the suspension is quick to compress and slow to rebound while going over the rocks.

Even though theoretically this can lead to suspension stacking, I’ve never had even one instance when the forks have bottomed out. The 250mm of travel completely soaks up the impact without throwing you off the handlebar while giving you adequate feedback.

It’s not like the Showa on the Himalayan 450 which dampens the impact but gives you very poor feedback. That feeling sucks while going off road as you’ll not be able to make judgment on the terrain to pick up pace without adequate feedback.

This suspension on the other hand still gives you the perfect amount of feedback or feel of the terrain for you to navigate the terrain while adequately dampening the suspension action to give you that planted feel and control.

2. Predictability

The second thing I loved about the suspension is the predictability. This is where the linear springs shines over the stock progressive ones. I first got to experience this on the YSS suspension on the Himalayan and ever since then I hate progressive springs.

The progressive springs are suitable for the majority of the population who value comfort over control in a suspension. The variable spring rate soaks up all small undulations on the road and absorbs the major impacts and thus gives an overall plush feeling.

But this becomes a bane when you want to push your bike and enjoy going faster on off road terrain. The dual nature of the suspension suddenly starts to behave differently at different speeds over different terrain. It became very difficult for me to judge how the suspension is going to react before hitting the terrain.

This made going to the track or a trail and trying to go faster a matter of concern and not a matter of enjoyment anymore. I was left at the mercy of the stock suspension to get me across a rough terrain than let me have fun riding over it.

Enter the linear springs. They have only one constant rate of compression so they behave the same way over all kinds of terrain. Even though this makes riding over small undulation less plush than the other suspensions, it gives a lot of predictability on how it’s going to behave when the bike runs over one.

This predictable nature of the suspension reaction makes it very easy to learn how it performs and gives a lot of confidence to tackle off road terrain faster. It greatly helped me in picking up pace on the track as I could judge the terrain and predict how the suspension would behave and make adjustments on my speed and technique to get better at riding.

This once again made riding off road fun for me. It stopped being concerning and started being exciting. I started challenging myself to skill up more and more to ride better and faster on off road terrain as the suspension was giving me plenty of room to skill up and improve myself.

3. Control

The overall increase in the planted feel due to the superior dampening and the predictability of the suspension led to an overall increase in the control of the bike.

The rear monoshock perfectly complements the characteristics of the front suspension. This makes the bike behave like a single unit rather than two different entities joined together by a chassis.

In stock, I didn’t have much issue with the rear shock but the front used to behave erratically. As a result, the bike used to behave very differently at the front and rear. So over an undulation, it was taking a toll on me to anticipate and try to control the bike as the front and rear behaved differently in a matter of split seconds.

With Zedling, the bike compresses and rebounds like a single unit. This makes riding over off road terrain at high speeds much easier to learn, predict and control. This feeling of control over the machine has greatly improved my confidence in picking up pace over uneven terrain.

Overall I’m having way more fun riding off road. Finally I can make use of the amazingly lightweight, well balanced and precisely sharp chassis of the 390 Adventure to do things I could’ve only imagined.

And when I’m riding fast on highways, I crank up the compression dampening to prevent the suspension from bouncing around. This gives a lot of control, stability and a planted feeling at high speeds and during cornering that was otherwise lacking with the stock setup.

4. 250mm Travel

Now all these improvements comes along with the increase in travel. This has given me the confidence to cross bigger obstacles without fearing bashing the bike against it. You get so much of ground clearance without much increase in the seat height. I’ve never managed to bottom out 250mm of travel.

5. Customer Service

Folks from Zedling are very quick to answer all your queries. The WhatsApp group they create with your serial number is always open to your doubts.

They have detailed videos which show how to adjust the preload. They’ll give you recommendation for compression and rebound settings based on your feedback and expectation of the behaviour of the suspension.

If you run into any trouble, they’ll guide you ways to fix and if necessary, they’ll make arrangements or appointments with the service centre you’ve chosen for installation to get it fixed by them. Their after sales support solves a big headache of aftermarket mods and their maintenance.

Cons of Zedling Rally Suspension

1. Lack of Adjustability of Zedling Rally Suspension

This ain’t a big deal as the factory setup which is tailor made to your weight and settings works perfect out of the box. But if you’re a long time follower of the blog, you’ll know how much I like to tinker, experiment and fine tune things.

In that aspect I wish they had given preload adjustability in the front and rebound in the rear.

2. Fork Bends

This is one major issue I noticed with the forks but it’s not particular to the Zedling rally suspension. Let me explain.

Whenever I go for dirt track practice or on trails, after one or two falls, the forks get bend. When you pick up the bike and sit on it, you realise the front wheel points in different direction to the handle bar. This gets super annoying.

It’s easy to fix it. The most efficient way is to loosen up the triple clamp bolts and pump the fork few times and then you’re good to go. But it’s not feasible to do it everytime it happens on the track. So the easiest temporary way to fix this is by locking the handlebar and kicking the wheel to the opposite side till the forks become straight.

Initially I thought it has to do something with the Zedling suspension. But later one of the rally racers in the dirt school told me that it’s a very common issue with long travel rally suspensions. He told me that they too kick the wheel back to shape whenever it happens to them during a race.

Since the forks are very long to accommodate this travel, a slight bend becomes a big deviation in the angle between the wheel and the handlebar. It’s just the nature of it and can’t be prevented by any means. It only happens when you fall down and hit the handle on the ground. Here the handle is forced to bend under the weight of the bike while the wheel is locked.

Only twice in the last 8k kms that I’ve used the suspension, a simple kick didn’t solve the issue completely. So I had to give it the mechanic for a fork alignment. It doesn’t cost much time or money but you’ll have to get it done once in 6 months. That too only if you’re actively using the bike on dirt track or on trails.

3. Cannot be serviced by 3rd party

if you run into any major issues with the suspension, KTM service centre or your local mechanics won’t work in the suspension as it’s a bit of a complicated setup.

But not to worry as throughout the country, Zedling offers pickup of your defunct shock or spring, repairs and delivers it. In case if you run into any trouble, all you have to do is just inform them, drop your bike to their authorised service centre. They’ll remove the suspension and Zedling will arrange the pickup.

Zedling is based in Pune so they’ll service it in Pune and send it back to the service center from where you can get it installed. And usually they do it within a week. I’ve never had any issues with the suspension so far. But I’ve enquired about it just in case and that’s how I know how they tackle it and that’s reassuring.

Here’s one more thing you need to keep in mind. When you’re selling your bike, you’ll need to tell the new owner to contact Zedling. They’ll be asked to fill up the form and send the shock to them to have it re calibrated.

4. Top Heavy

This is not a con of the suspension. Since the bike sits taller than the stock, it feels more top heavy than the stock especially with a full fuel tank.

This makes slow tight turns on trails a bit difficult. But it’s something you can skill up and get used to. It isn’t as bad as the Himalayan 450.

And once you install the rally suspension, the stock side stand also becomes useless as it leans a lot like the H450. So get the side stand of the Adventure R from any KTM service centre and swap it with the stock. It costs around 990 INR.

Cost of Zedling Rally Suspension

The front and the rear suspension costs around 36k which includes shipping and installation will cost around 1.5k INR.

Value for money?

An absolute 100% yes. For a fraction of the price of premium suspensions like YSS or the Xplor Pro, you’re getting more than 90% of the functionality of those suspensions. The Enduro R’s WP Apex suspension costs around 34k. Compared to that, the Zedling is miles apart in terms of all the advantages I talked about.

Who is the Zedling Rally Suspension for?

If you’re an off road enthusiast who wants to enjoy and have fun riding off road terrain and wants to skill up and push yourself more to going faster and safer off road, then this suspension is for you.

The Zedling rally suspension makes use of the incredibly sharp chassis of the 390 adventure and makes the bike feel under your control while going over undulations.

But if you’re someone who uses the bike primarily for touring on highways and is not particular to skill up or ride fast and have fun but just wants to get from point A to point B, then this suspension is overkill for you. In fact you can get put off by it because it’s not very plush at slow speeds.

Zedling rally suspension is purpose build and it serves that one particular purpose very well. And about the seat height, I’ve already shared my opinion in the previous blog.

WP Apex Enduro R or Zedling Rally Suspension?

I have tried that suspension on an Adventure S model and that’s how I got inspired to put the Zedling.

The enduro R suspension is much better in terms of dampening especially on the front when compared to the stock adventure S or X. But in every other aspect, it behaves slightly better than the stock. So in my opinion, everyone who has the S or X variant should consider upgrading their suspension because the stock sucks on both these variants.

But who should go for the enduro R? If you’re primarily into touring and mild off roading then enduro R suspension is the best. It’s a straight swap and KTM service centres will take care of the service. It’s more plush and provides more comfort than control. So for the majority of you, it’ll be more suitable for your use case scenario.

But if you want to get more into off roading, trail riding or want to push yourself and have fun riding bad roads while touring, then Zedling rally is the perfect choice!

Product Links – Zedling Rally Monoshock, Zedling Rally Fork Kit

Zedling Rally Suspension on KTM 390 ADV – A Long Term Review