Triumph, although adjusting the
screen to help wind deflection is
a pain.
When we cross over to the
dirt roads, where we hope most
Rally Pro owners will venture,
the Triumph begins to show its
shortcomings compared to the
KTM. In isolation, the Triumph is
all the adventure bike you'll need
and will handle rough terrain
easily—within reason. Get a little
over-enthusiastic with your rock
hopping or trail bashing, and
you'll quickly find the limits of the
suspension. The Showa's will hit
the bottom of the stroke faster
than either Jesse or I would have
liked, making the ride not as
composed as on the KTM.
But it's not just the quality of
the suspension components that
hurt the Triumph; it's the overall
architecture.
KTM's development of the
fuel tank straddling either side of
the frame, in front of the rider's
knees, has completely changed
the game in terms of how stable
a big adventure bike can be over
questionable terrain. The fact of
having the weight so low, com-
pared to the Triumph's traditional
gas tank layout, improves every-
thing from how well the chassis
rides over bumps to the stability it
COMPARISON I KTM 890 ADVENTURE R VS. TRIUMPH TIGER 900 RALLY PRO
P80
I
've had a lot of time on both of
these ADV platforms. I took a
pre-pandemic jaunt to Morocco to
saddle up on the Triumph a year ago,
and I've bombarded KTM 790/890's
across the American West for a cou-
ple years now. They are both attractive
options but being honest about where
and how I enjoy riding the most, I'm
always going to lean to the off-road
winner. That's the KTM here. It just
has more intent built-in for how I like
(imaginary or not) to ride.
An added benefit to KTM's dirt
focus is that it has created a nimble,
ground-hugging street machine that
carves and flicks its way around the
tarmac in canyons and in town. It's
born from a Duke, after all, and has
a technical bias towards the street as
well as dirt.
The Triumph is close. A fork valv-
ing update would help its manners
tremendously in the dirt, and its
power delivery is excellent for mixed
terrain. It also looks and sounds
fantastic. But ergonomically, it will
never match KTM's focus for the
most active riding. Its bar position
and seat location are street biased
for touring comfort. And you can
Here, you can see
how Jesse and Rennie
both picked the
Triumph if the majority
of the riding done is
on the street.
JESSE'S
VERY
JESSE-LIKE
OPINION
