ACCESSIBLE ADVENTURER KTM 390 Adventure prototype
Since production began back in 2011, no less than 515,000 KTMs have been built at its Bajaj partner’s factory in India. According to company President/ CEO Stefan Pierer, volume has gradually built until last year alone, over 100,000 such bikes left the Pune production lines.
None of those Indian-built KTMs, however, were directly descended from the kind of dual purpose on-/ off-road bikes that have made the Austrian manufacturer so successful in the marketplace since introducing its first 620 Adventure multi-purpose single back in 1996. That’s an absence widely attributed to Bajaj boss Rajiv Bajaj’s lack of conviction that any real demand existed for such machines in his company’s massive home market – the largest in the world for combustion-engined motorcycles. One can only conject that the advent in the past two years of the 411cc Royal Enfield Himalayan and Indian-built BMW G310 GS may have helped change his mind – that, and Stefan Pierer’s talents for persuasion…
For that absence is all about to change, with the launch at this year’s EICMA Milan Show of the first small-capacity KTM go-anywhere bike, the 390
