See also
KTM 890 Adventure R review

In a line:
Small orange road bike confusingly called ‘Adventure’

Quick stats:
• Power: 44hp
• Wet weight 169kg (our bikes: ~173kg)
• Seat: 855mm / 33.5″ (claimed)
• Tank: 14L (claimed)
• Verified consumption / range: 25–29kpl / 360-420km; (71-83mpg / 225-260 miles)

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What they say
Gone are the days when going from A to B [missing word]. The 2024 KTM 390 ADVENTURE rewrites the rulebook on what the daily commute needs to be. Merging all-road versatility and proven reliability with real-world performance, not to mention adventure-ready spoked wheels, a proven 373 cc powerplant, and a class-leading chassis, the KTM 390 ADVENTURE not only seeks out new adventures – it leaves no path unexplored.
This motorcycle is designed and developed in Austria, and assembled in India.

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What I think:

• Light
• Nice gear change (Quickshifter+)
• Great range from 25kpl up
• Adjustable WP APEX suspension
• A 390 Adventure X (right) came out in 2025

• Grabby front brake
• Tubed tyres
• Very pessimistic fuel warning (loads left)
• Small display figures illegible on the move
• Engine rougher than a 310GS
• Seat is hard – and wide at the front
• Bars way too low for sustained standing
• No USB port, but there is a 1980s-style 12-v cig plug
• Negligible wind protection for an ‘Adventure’ styled bike
• Not a look I warm too

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Review
I’ve led a few tour groups riding KTM 390 Advs late 2024/early 2025 and tried one for a couple of hours on the open road. I didn’t expect to get on with it. On paper it never added up to any kind of bike that suits my riding, and coming off my CFMoto 450MT twin just enhanced that impression. My twin’s creamy, low-down torque which makes it so easy to ride is entirely absent from the KTM, as you’d expect. A 400 single can be torquey, but only a 410 Himalayan takes that route, losing out on higher speeds.
First impressions: the seat is hard and wide at the front, splaying the legs uncomfortably when still (and I’m 183cm). It is wide and spacious at the back where it needs to be, but after a short while the butt gets sore. Standing up an hour in for some posterior relief, I found the bars way too low: just wide bars clamped to a stock Duke chassis/headstock. A 50mm rise (more than the stock cables have to give) is a minimum needed. All the riders large and small complained about this.

It’s really a quick-shifting road bike and feels like a supermoto or a scrambler, but without a latter’s cool retro looks. While the 170-mm of WP APEX suspension travel is firm, adjustable and well damped (one good thing about all KTMs off the shelf), the stance is all wrong for off-roading, despite the wide bars. The same can be said for the six-year-old BMW 310GSs which these bikes replaced at the Marrakech rental agency, and we got used to those too. The returning group I was guiding rode 310s last time, and one rider was given a 60,000-km example when his unridden, zero-mileage 390 developed a front brake problem leaving the garage.

Part of the reason is the 390’s grabby front brake would need careful operation on the dirt, or just mean you have to take it easy. I didn’t feel inspired to try a 390 on the trails; it would be too tiresome managing the stock Conti TKC70 tyres, touchy brake and stance. Actually I did for a few hundred metres and thought something was bent. We did navigate some sandy and rough tracks in the Anti Atlas and everyone got through with a few fall overs. There, and on easier trails I did notice myself pulling ahead on my 450MT. I suspect the group couldn’t relax and flow on the stock tyred 390s like I could on my grunty CFMoto, even with a 25-kilo penalty. Most in the group who’d been before recall preferring the 310GS.

There’s leaning ABS and traction control, though I didn’t sense activating either; maybe they worked seamlessly as I suspect they on on my MT. I always leave ABS on and the TC helps keep the rear tyre in line leaving loose bends with barely any annoying intervention. A 390 hasn’t go the controllable, low-down grunt to do that, and anyway ‘Off Road’ mode disables the TC a bit. But some riders found using Off Road stopped the ABS stalling the engine – if that’s possible. Road or trail, good luck trying to see how well the cornering ABS works.
It’s hard to see any benefit of this ‘Adventure’ 390 SW over a road bike. I don’t even know what ‘Adventure’ signifies any more, but for travelling I’d happily take the extra 2 kilos of the cheaper, tubeless, cast wheel version, even if the good suspension might inspire some to hammer the wheels harder. That apart, both these 2024 models seem identical, but Triumph’s Scrambler X looks like much more fun to own, once you raise suspension to KTM levels.

With some amazement, we all decided KTM’s Quickshifter+ was fitted and working, though annoyingly I kept using the clutch out of habit. I know that on bigger KTMs quickshifting (and other added features) cut off 1000km from new after which you to have to pay to unlock it. Presumably Quickshifter+ is supplied free and permanently on these Moroccan-sourced 390s as it’s hard to see the rental place paying extra for it. Anyway, clutchless changing helps keep the engine in the sweet spot and when standing off-road, makes up for the awkward stance. I wish my CFMoto changed gears like that.

My eyes aren’t great but the tiny text on white screen is impossible to read on the move. It’s not great on my 450MT either, but white text on a black b/g works better. You wonder why they bother with the waist high screen which merely funnels the wind blast into your face at adjustable angles.

You can get used to anything, including the Chinese 125 mules every local tools about on in southern Morocco. But if you like exploring gravel tracks there are better small travel bikes out there – and more on the way, including KTM’s 2025 390 Adventure R (left) you’ll have read about and priced at just £5700.
About time they did that; hopefully Triumph will follow now they’re back into MX. That’s what any bike calling itself an ‘Adventure’ should have been all along, instead of just lamely pandering to the buzzword de jour. I recall I didn’t take to the 890R first time but then I did. If I ended up riding a 390SW again, I might come round to it, but I doubt it. These 390 SWs are just not suited to the sorts of tours I like to run in Morocco.