Rented a KTM 390 Adventure X on a weekend: Unamusing yet appealing

After riding it for a day, I felt I dwarfed my Yamaha FZ 25 or even a friend’s Suzuki V-Strom 250. This motorcycle is that good.

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As a follow-up to my previous query on being on the fence about upgrading from an FZ25 to the current 390 ADV, let me tell you my experience and answer your queries along with it from what I felt.

I rented the ADV 390X on a weekend in Bangalore and took it to Nandi Hills and back in full riding gear to simulate touring. It’s a 150kms circuit that contains crazy city traffic, some stretches of open highways, ghats and hairpins. So, it’s a great way to take a bike through all its paces. And then I returned the bike on a Monday morning in jam-packed traffic.

Let me start with the positives:

• Very good and comfortable seating posture. After riding it for a day, I felt I dwarfed my FZ25 or even a friend’s V-Strom 250. The 390 ADV is that good. I would like to believe it would be supremely comfortable (only from a seating POV, more on that later)
• Unmatched handling in ghats. Very composed body balance. The bike is so eager to lean in and exit fast from corners. It indeed feels like a slightly taller corner carving Duke.
• Very very powerful acceleration. The surge after 5k RPM is real. It’s almost superbike-like. It can overwhelm you, scare you and make you grin every time you whack open that throttle if you aren’t used to it.
• The tyres felt good on the X, in contrast to popular opinion. Didn’t feel it losing grip on hard acceleration. The bike was at 10k on the odo on stock tyres.
• Great highway presence. Looks like a fighter jet flying low. Attention seeking. A guy came up to me and said “Dude, you have a fancy ride” before noticing it was a rental. A kid came and asked me to do a wheelie. The bike was bright orange too.

Now the things I didn’t like much:

• The buzz is also real. It’s terribly buzzy throughout the rev range. Does get somewhat smooth at the top end, but if you are coming from a Japanese, I think it will take some time to get used to it. For comparisons, I had a VStrom along with me to the Nandi Hills run, and when I switched to that bike from the 390, it instantly felt like I was now a spectator to the road and the scenery and going ahead rather than riding something. Both were at speeds of around 100kmph. I do understand the ADV will be more fun to ride, but after a long day of touring, maybe it’s the VStrom you’d rather want to be on. Day-night difference easily. Stopping after 60kms for breakfast felt like stopping after 200kms on the ADV. The tingly feeling on the fingers and foot never left.
• The bike is not meant for the city traffic. Of course, you can ride it if it’s your only bike. But the bike itself is not comfortable. It gets terribly hot with bad heat management to the point you would need good denim to at least feel it less. No stalling issues whatsoever. I think that’s fixed fully now. But it’s very annoying to ride in stop-go traffic until you find the workaround, which is you actively start to look for gaps in traffic, and point and shoot this thing, keeping it in powerband. That way it’s very eager and enjoyable too. But sedately running it is out of the question (at least comfortably).
• The suspension is not that good. At least on the X. Have heard it's stiffer on the STD. The Rally version, which I test-rode once for 5kms is much much better. The rear is super stiffly sprung. The front is alright but can’t hold a candle to the new Himalayan.
• Very unforgiving w.r.t. gear changes. You can’t ride it in 1 higher gear without the front end rattling a little and asking you to shift down. (Yes, this bike has a downshift indicator in this way, haha). This in turn eats more fuel. Bottom line: keep it in the powerband.
• City mileage is abysmal. Over 200kms of all conditions, it ate through 8L of fuel. This is measured from Reserve-Reserve method. I filled in 8L when I took it. It was in reserve. A km before returning, it went to the reserve again. Highway mileage is good if ridden sanely. I could see the Fuel Range keeping on increasing as I was cruising around 90 – 100.
• The exhaust note. I didn’t like it at all. It makes a weird grrrrr sound when it starts pulling hard. At the low end, it sounds unrefined, which it is. The exhaust note is not what you would typically call sweet. Rather it’s something that might start annoying you after a long day. My FZ25 sound much better in comparison.

Things I couldn’t check:

• High-speed runs. There was a speed cap of 110 on the rental bike and had a penalty of Rs500/- every time its exceeded. So, didn’t push it.
• Accessorized ride. Crash guards etc. The rental was bone stock. And the ADV has a lot of NVH. So, I am assuming it will buzz more with aftermarket accessories.
• Extra features of the STD, like the Quick shifter, TC, Cornering-ABS, TFT display. Have heard the quick shifter is a little jittery and doesn’t work always as expected, Never felt the need for TC, but had a very short stint with the STD too, and felt the 390X accelerates better. But this needs more testing to conclude. Cornering ABS would be a good safety feature to have. The TFT display, is well, good of course, and gives a rich ownership feel but the one on the X was also alright with all info available at once.

Conclusion:

It’s a very dual-character bike. One side is very unamusing. Chugs along unhappily and angrily. The other side is very appealing. Always eager to run. But in both cases, it buzzes. It doesn’t make you a comfortable spectator of the road (I think it’s important from a touring POV), instead it seeks your attention and wants you to ride it hard. Every time I got off it and looked at it I felt happy, but am not sure if that compensates for the rough ride it has.

I wanted to upgrade to this and had very high hopes but killed most of it after riding it for 2 days. Now, I am not sure anymore about my use case of planning to use it as my only bike for everything. I will wait for the next-gen and see how it is. (Have ridden the Duke 390 gen 3 and the low-end is improved, still buzzy though) or I will try to convince myself to believe that the Honda NX500 is really worth it.

But for what it is, its tremendous value for money, and the X makes a better case as it's much cheaper than the STD, and you don’t miss out on much, get the best color scheme (the liquid metal-ish black) and is compatible with the Rally suspension to upgrade to later.

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