Apparently KTM are testing a 390 Adventure bike. While the current fashion seems to be for upsized adventure bikes I can recall an article in BIKE magazine in which three long distance riders discussed bikes and riding, one thing they agreed on was that no long distance rider ever complained his bike was too small.
They were serious long distance guys: one had done several circumnavigations of the planet, one had gone from the Southern tip of the Americas to the Arctic circle IIRC, and the other had spent years riding around South America.
The little KTM looks cool.
There is a grey blur, and a green blur. I try to stay on the grey one. - Joey Dunlop
Apparently KTM are testing a 390 Adventure bike. While the current fashion seems to be for upsized adventure bikes I can recall an article in BIKE magazine in which three long distance riders discussed bikes and riding, one thing they agreed on was that no long distance rider ever complained his bike was too small.
And the three long distance riders probably had never owned anything small enough to complain about lol... very loaded quote there
Yes a little bike would be cool and have its advantages, but your forgetting that most NZ adv rides involve quickly covering tarmac loaded up with gear before you get to the good stuff to play on.
This means dealing with headwinds and be able to have some stomp on our big uphill passing lanes so you don't get dicked by all the cages you just passed in the twisties.
Eg on Napier Taupo rd the mighty DR is working pretty hard to maintain 1 dollar ten up the big passing lanes loaded with gear and the gusty winds etc. Nothing worse than getting smoked up there by some twat in 4.0L sUV who then sits on the brakes all the rest of the way down the other side etc...
Govt gives you nothing because it creates nothing - Javier Milei
I think the reason many people are interested in the 390 Adv (more likely an 'enduro' version first IMHO) is that if you extrapolate from the existing 390's, you'd have a bike with about the same power but less weight than most 650 class machines on sale today. Plus being a KTM it would be better suspended.
The problem might be that it won't be much lighter than a 690, so why bother? But if they could make something with a lower seat & a few grand cheaper than the 690 i reckon it'd fill a niche.
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Originally Posted by cynna
....wherezz that track go 
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