P134
COMPARISON I LIGHTWEIGHT ADVENTURE BIKES
bike, but they reportedly have been
updated with a running change.
This should clean up some off-idle
hesitation and subsequent down-
shift fueling hiccups.
KTM has thrown the tech book
at this little weapon, including
a 3-D internal measurement
unit (IMU) that brings rider-aid
intelligence up to the lean-angle-
sensitive level, which is a big
step in the electronics game, and
if that's important to you, there's
more good news. The KTM
390 Adventure R has three ride
modes (Road, Off-road and Rain),
each with unique lean-angle-sen
-
sitive TC and ABS programming
as well as a specific off-road
ABS setting. The front wheel ABS
is always on, but its program
-
44 horsepower and a bit of
increased torque from the
previous generation, thanks to a
longer stroke, this bike is mas-
sively utilitarian, easy to ride,
unintimidating and fun. It fits
the performance window in this
comparison well. It just sort of
outperforms its own specs and
encourages mischief.
Power from the LC4c single
isn't immediate; it takes time to
get to the fun, at about 7000 rpm.
But once it's there, the bike comes
alive, and the chassis responds.
Some EFI mapping gremlins
existed in our first tests of the
Even though the 390-series
of bikes is and always has been
manufactured in India by KTM's
very close partner Bajaj, it still
feels very Austrian in its soul.
As it should, it's managed by
an Austrian development team
and proven here in the USA via
KTM's North American-based
durability and testing crew.
You will find some emerging
market refinement issues in
things like passenger footpeg
retainment (they kind of flop
around) and a bulbous side-
stand that your foot can hit, but
at heart, this bike wants to be a
dirt-loving race bike just like all
the other KTMs in the past.
It is, of course, not a race
bike. With the same claimed
The obvious off-road choice is
the KTM 390 Adventure R. It holds
its own on-road, too, but the bias
is toward everything dirt.
