Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1186100
K TM 390 ADVENTURE PROTOT YPE R I D E R E V I E W P80 The same dash found in the previous generation Super Duke is fitted to the 390 Adventure. Solid crash bars are a welcome addition to the 390. TESTING THE PROTOTYPE KTM 390 ADVENTURE tarmac proved it to be a true dual-purpose model, that's both stable in fast, sweeping turns despite the skinny 100/90-19-inch front tire, yet agile and eager to change direction almost before you'd thought of doing so in swooping from side to side through a series of curves. I hadn't ridden the Korean-made Continental tires before, but they gave heaps of confidence thanks to the way their smoothly graduated profiles delivered a sense of predictability when chang- ing direction at any speed, while in tighter turns I became increasingly more impressed with the level of grip at both ends. So I could trail brake into the apex of successive hillside hairpins without the ABS cutting in too obviously, then power out of them in a way that was quite unexpected for a 44 bhp motorcycle. That's because the lean-angle -sensitive TC's chosen setting and the surprising amount of grip from the chunky block-tread rear tire let me get hard on the throttle while still leaned over in a way I'd have been impressed with on a supermoto road racer. Improbable, or what?! It seemed the harder I rode in pursuit of Herr Sauer the stickier the tire became and the better the grip I had, without any trace of the tire squirming. And arguably even more surprisingly, there was little hint of the tires drumming when running along My chance to find out how well it performed in real-world riding came by following two-time Eu- ropean Enduro Champion and ISDE Vase winner Joachim Sauer on a 75-mile tour of the glorious Upper Austrian countryside in KTM's back yard, including a good stretch of gravel road and just a dash of genuine off-roading. I'm 5'10" and the bike felt uber-comfortable once I'd stood on the left footrest to hoist myself aboard, to find that taper- section handlebar had been pulled back ideally for a super-controllable stance. The seat narrows nicely where it meets the fuel tank to help make you feel at one with the bike, as well as put a leg down at rest, and although its padding is pretty firm, for my short ride on tarmac I had no com- plaints from my posterior. But the most immediately noticeable thing was that the 390 Adventure is a proper full size motorcycle, arguably even more so than its 390 Duke sister bike. It feels substantial and spacious, thanks also to the lower-mounted foot pegs, which aren't however low enough to become an issue in terms of ground clearance. Yet paradoxically it also feels light-steering and easy to ride off-road, es- pecially on the high-speed gravel tracks Joachim led me along, where switching to the Offroad ABS helped give a sense of real control. This bike is more than merely safe to ride in the dirt for the less experienced—it's also fun! But transferring to