ADV Win!

After years of waiting, it’s finally here! Well, almost

- Alan Cathcart

Since production of KTM’s 125/200 Dukes began back in 2011, followed soon after by the 390 Duke, and then by their various RC siblings, no less than 515,000 KTMs have been built at its Bajaj partner’s factory in India. None of those Indian-built KTMs, however, were directly descended from the kind of dual-purpose on/off-road bikes that have made the Austrian manufacturer so successful in the marketplace since introducing it's first 620 Adventure multi-purpose single back in 1996. That’s an absence widely attributed to Bajaj boss Rajiv Bajaj’s lack of conviction that any real demand existed for such machines in his company’s massive home market — the largest in the world for combustion-engined motorcycles.

That’s despite the challenging road surfaces found throughout India, which a street enduro’s longer-travel suspension would ideally cope with, and the traffic-clogged cities through which a taller seat height is beneficial in helping plot a course — let alone the glorious adventure riding possibilities throughout the subcontinent. One can only conjecture that the advent in the past two years of the 411cc Royal Enfield Himalayan and Indian-built BMW G310 GS may have helped change his mind — that, and Stefan Pierer’s talents for persuasion!

For that absence is now being addressed, with the launch at this year’s EICMA Milan Show of the first small-capacity KTM go-anywhere bike, the 390 Adventure which while primarily developed in KTM’s R&D Centre at its Mattighofen HQ, will be entirely manufactured in India. While using the 390 Duke as a platform, its distinctive design is also derived from the company’s dominant KTM Rally bikes, which have won the iconic Dakar race for the past 18 years in a row.