KTM has updated its highly-rated 390 Adventure for 2025, turning it from an A2 commuter and occasional off-roader to what looks like the best lightweight ADV ever.
Already an accomplished all-rounder, the changes made to the next-gen 390 Adventure are vast. They begin with updated styling that ties in with the other bikes in the large-capacity adventure and naked KTM ranges.
Gone is the single, traditional headlight, which is replaced with an LED beam projector-type headlight hemmed in by small LED DRLs in an off-axis pentagon shape. Along with the new front end, pretty much every panel of the new machine seems to have been tweaked and updated, with a new rally-style tower headlining the cockpit.
The bike has also been updated on a technical level, with the biggest change being a new frame and swingarm. It’s a design that looks to be the same as the set-up which is found on the new 390 Enduro R and 390 SMC-R, and features a traditional tubular main and sub-frame, which is mounted to a new cast aluminium banana-shaped swingarm.
Further chassis developments arrive for the model with the inclusion of long-travel WP Apex Pro suspension which is fully adjustable at the front and the rear of the bike. The R model of the new 390 Adventure also comes with full-on off-road wheels, as spoked 21-inch front and 18-inch rear wheels are shown.
While the only version of the 390 shown at EICMA was the ‘R’ spec bike, we’d imagine that a slightly lower spec, less off-road biased machine would also emerge. What that bike looks like remains to be seen, but we’d anticipate the same visual makeover, lower spec, shorter stroke suspension and quite possibly cast wheels in more road-biased sizes.
Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
