The KTM 390 Adventure R should be a more capable bike off the tarmac
KTM has been caught road-testing the 390 Adventure R, a more hardcore variant of its competent single-cylinder adventure motorcycle.
The development mule of the 390 Adventure R is very much stripped back and the flat blue-coloured seat does catch one’s attention immediately, so do those rudimentary parts and welds.
Equally attention-grabbing are the wire-spoked wheels (the front rim is 21 inches for this model) that are wrapped with tyres that belong on the rough stuff instead of smooth tarmac.
While KTM has not altered the 390 Adventure’s frame for the ‘R’, Team Orange has decided to swap the regular model’s swingarm for a brand-new and different piece.
It looks pretty close to the new type of swingarm that the Austrian firm was testing on its heavily reworked Duke 125, 200 and 390 as early as April last year. What’s more, the engine (373cc unit making 43 BHP and 37 Nm) also has a much more thicker bash plate.
Since the development mule does not have much bodywork, one cannot really speculate how the final design of the motorcycle will be, but it should not deviate too much from the current model in the styling department.
What’s obvious is that KTM has changed the low front fender to a high-set unit. Other components of the bike should remain the same, but suspension geometry will be tweaked for this particular model.
