2023 ADV GUIDE P61
W
hen we arrived in
Óbidos, Portugal,
for the international
press intro of the "somewhat
new" 2023 KTM 890 Adventure,
the underlying message from the
KTM staffers was they wanted
us, and the riding public, to take
their base model 890 more seri-
ously. KTM had already intro-
duced the also "somewhat new"
R version of the 890 a couple
of months earlier in Idaho at
the KTM Adventure Rally,
but they didn't make that
big of a deal of it—even
though that bike re-
ceived the same basic
updates as the base model, they
flew us halfway around the world
to ride. Why? Well, the fact is,
the R will sell and they know it.
The 890 R has pretty much
been the reference machine
in the middleweight ADV mar-
ket (700 to 900cc) since KTM
reinvented the class with the
introduction of the 790 back in
2019. Since then, if you stop by
your local KTM dealer to look
at the 890 R, you'll be lucky if
they have one since they're usu-
ally sold before they reach the
showroom floor. But don't worry.
They'll likely have a base model
in stock, probably more than
WE TRAVELED TO PORTUGAL
TO SEE JUST HOW CAPABLE
THE NON-R 890 ADVENTURE
IS OFF-ROAD
BY KEITH DOWDLE
