MATCHING STRIDES

Taking on an off-road trail, how does the KTM 390 Adventure-SW measure up to the purpose-built SX150

- Keshav Teiva Poumai

Off-roading has everything to do with 'off the beaten path' allowing for exploration of the undiscovered bylanes of nature. Decades of innovation have gone into creating versatile machines to traverse these challenging terrains, and KTM is no stranger to the process. With a rich history of creating extremely capable off-roading instruments, and close to two decades of back-to-back Dakar wins under its belt, it showed a sliver of promise when it launched the 390 Adventure back in 2020.

Sure, back then the lack of wire-spoked wheels was quite a hot topic for discussion, and a lot of enthusiasts made it clear that it would have been a fitting inclusion, along with a few other things. Come 2023, KTM launches the much-awaited 390 AdventureSW, featuring wire-spoked wheels, adjustable suspension and dedicated off-road modes and settings. With wire spokes, the rims are designed to bend, flex and handle impacts to a certain degree, letting the rider tackle rough terrains with ease. Spoked wheels are also easily repairable, as replacing individual parts is simple and inexpensive.

Coming to the adjustable suspension, the setup allows the rider to tweak the compression, rebound and preload characteristics of the suspension depending on the surface conditions. This means that the rider gets to customise exactly how the motorcycle reacts to the surface being ridden on, with consideration of the rider's weight, reactivity comfort and so on. The upside-down front forks get 30 settings for both compression and rebound, while the rear mono-shock gets 20 rebound settings and 10 preload settings.