It’s been a while since we heard about the KTM 390 Adventure, the Austrian company’s third installment to its built-in-India small-displacement motorcycle lineup.
Based off the KTM 390 Duke, the Adventure model has been a long-time coming, ever since KTM CEO Stefan Pierer lit it slip that the dual-sport would be coming, two and a half years ago.
It seems now that KTM is getting closer to production, as the folks at CarTrade are reporting that two test models of the KTM 390 Adventure (codenamed KT22) have been sent to India for R&D, presumably as a prelude to Bajaj beginning production on the budget-friednly machines.
At 300 lbs dry, the KTM 390 Duke platform would make for an enticing lightweight ADV bike, something the adventure market has been asking for, in response to the 500+ lbs trend of most adventure-tourers.
Such a bike would also be a very unique offering to ADV riders, which are currently bombarded by a variety of models that would supplant the dominant BMW R1200GS.
Of course, the news also means that we are still a considerable amount of time away from seeing a production KTM 390 Adventure — at the earliest, it could be a 2016 model.
It would be hard to imagine KTM not bringing the KTM 390 Adventure to the USA, one of the largest markets for ADV bikes, though with the way KTM USA operates, it would be 2017 at the earliest that we would see the small ADV bike.
By that point in time, the American market may lose interest in what KTM has to offer — something we’ve seen over and over again with KTM USA’s tardy offerings.
Source: CarTrade
Comments