Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
THE BIG ADVENTURE ISN’T ALWAYS BEST
The more I ride monster adventure bikes, the more I prefer mid-range ones.
I mean, beasts like the BMW R1250 GS, Ducati Multistrada and Triumph Tiger 1200 are great, but they’ve got more power and speed than you’ll ever need in the real world, and they’re so heavy that, like Range Rovers, the closest most of them ever get to off-road is parking on the pavement.
Which brings me to the KTM 790 Adventure R that I was just about to leap aboard. It’s mostly the same as the Adventure, but with longer travel suspension, a shorter screen, a single seat and Rally mode for true off-road hooligans.
The engine is nicked from KTM’S 790 Duke, which with 105bhp at 9,000rpm is the most powerful parallel twin around. In this guise it’s retuned to produce 94bhp at 8,000rpm with more torque at lower revs, which is much more useful for a bike biased towards serious off-road use where mid-range grunt is more important than top-end lunacy.
As you’d expect, it pulls like a starving greyhound chasing a fat rabbit all the way from 3,000rpm to 8,000rpm.
Like all KTMS, it’s more gnarly than the Africa Twin, BMW F850 GS and Triumph 800 or 900, but that’s why
KTM owners buy them, for the raw excitement rather than a smooth ride from A to B. At 209kg it’s also lighter than all of its rivals, which adds to the lusty progress both away from the lights and for overtaking.
That relatively light weight makes cornering a happy marriage of precision in and power out, accompanied by a glorious snarl.
Braking, with big twin front discs and a four-pot caliper, is as brutal but controlled as the acceleration, while lean-sensitive traction control and cornering ABS will sort you out even if you come into a corner hot and get a bit ham-fisted on the anchors.
As on the 390, the seat’s a bit on the firm side, meaning a break after an hour is much needed. Note to KTM: bottoms are people too.
The 20-litre tank will give a useful range of 200 to 250 miles, depending on how hard you ride, by which stage even those with buns of steel will be needing a break anyway.
So if you’re a serious off-road junkie this is the tool for you, and if like me you’re a road rider who likes maximum fun out of mid-range bikes, go for the standard Adventure.
KTM 790 Adventure R
Price: £11,299
Engine: 799cc parallel twin
Power: 94bhp @ 8,000rpm
Torque: 66 lb ft @ 6,600rpm
Colours: Orange, white