2023 KTM 790 Adventure and 890 Adventure bikes unveiled

KTM has revealed its 2023MY middle-weight ADV bikes - the 890 Adventure and the 790 Adventure. While the Austrian manufacturer previously had just the 790 Duke on the menu in India, it remains to be seen if either or both bikes will make their way to your corner of the world. But we're quite hopeful that the 790 ADV makes its way to here, and there's good reason for that.

To begin with, both the KTM 790 and 890 Adventure bikes feature the same updated bodywork, and the only major difference is the badging on its fairing. So you're treated to reworked front end that draws inspiration from the Dakar-winning 450 Rally. This includes the new face, the larger windscreen, side panels and aluminium bashplate. The bike also gets a massive 20-litre tank that's said to take the range close to 450km on a tank-up. The 890 Adventure now gets fully adjustable WP suspension at both ends while the 790 Adventure gets 43mm WP Apex unit up front with a preload-adjustable monoshock, to keep cost in check. The KTM 790 Adventure gets a new Power Assist Slipper Clutch, 6-axis inertial control unit which supports lean sensitive traction control, and cornering ABS. There are three riding modes, Rain, Street and Off-Road, with the ABS mode also integrated into each riding mode.

2023MY KTM 790 Adventure

The 790cc parallel-twin engine puts out 95PS at 8,000rpm and 88Nm at 6,500rpm, and some of the alterations to this unit include a new throttle body, new injectors, a new exhaust system and a there's even a knock sensor to work better with low octane fuel.

2023MY KTM 890 Adventure

2023 KTM 890 Adventure features a liquid-cooled 889cc, 105PS-producing LC8 parallel-twin, a 6-speed gearbox, the PASC slip/assist clutch, throttle-by-wire, and like with the smaller 790 Adventure, the throttle bodies come with an integrated knock sensor for handling varying fuel quality while you're off in search of adventure. The KTM 890 Adventure comes with ride modes that include Street, Offroad, Rain, and there's even an optional Rally mode to adjust engine and traction control character, and a Demo setting which allows the rider the chance to try the full hoard of optional rider aids (like cruise control, rally mode, quickshift, etc) for the 1,500km before deciding whether you want to purchase and keep the features on permanently.

The middleweight adventure bikes have a 5-inch TFT dash controlling all electronic rider aids, which can also be paired to your smartphone for navigation and other notification alerts. KTM has also shifted the production of its 790 Adventure to China, where the bike will be built by CFMoto but labelled and sold as a KTM. Confusing, yes. But this could be a move to have a lowered priced twin-cyl ADV bike out in some markets (like ours hopefully).

The 2023MY KTM 890 Adventure in action

KTM India will be at the 2022 India Bike Week and the company is expected to unveil a couple of new bikes, and we're told that there will be a special surprise thrown in. fingers crossed that it's the 2023 KTM 790 Adventure.  Whatever it is, we're about to find out real soon.