KTM 390 Adventure launch confirmed for 2019

KTM has confirmed the launch of the 390 Adventure bike in 2019. It will be based on the new gen KTM Duke 390 that will be revealed very soon at the 2016 EICMA show in Milan next month. The Austrian bike maker recently revealed the new generation versions of the 1090 Adventure and 1290 Adventure at the Intermot 2016. The 390 Adventure is likely to have similar styling cues.

Along with the new Duke 390, KTM will unwrap the new SuperDuke as well at the 2016 EICMA in Milan next month. We might also see the new versions of the Duke 125 and Duke 200 at the EICMA show. Coming back to the KTM 390 Adventure, the bike maker couldn’t find the ideal seating position for the prototype based on the current Duke 390 chassis.

The Duke frame has a long travel suspension and it is relatively easy to spawn the RC or the naked version on that frame but developing the Adventure version would require some alterations to the chassis. With this unaltered frame, the seat height is getting very tall whereas the ground clearance isn’t significantly higher than the Duke.

Changes in the steering geometry is what they require for separating RC and Duke models but the Adventure version requires drastic changes to the frame. The chassis needs to be tweaked towards the engine compartment in order to get a suitable seat heigh along with a high enough ground clearance that suits the bike’s character.

KTM calls this category of 390 Adventure as Travel Enduro which is meant for moderate off-road capability but not a full fledged dirt bike category. This is because the current Adventure lineup is made from scratch with an Enduro biased platform whereas the 390 Adventure will be based on a road-biased frame. We expect KTM to launch the 390 Adventure in India soon after its global debut in 2019.