2025 KTM 390 Adventure Review - The Best Indian Adventure Bike, Bar None

What is an adventure bike? Despite what most people believe, an adventure bike isn’t a dedicated or a hardcore off-roader. And while adventure bikes do exist on a spectrum - from more road biased to off-road biased. But basically, an adventure motorcycle is primarily meant for travel, and the idea is to travel anywhere despite the terrain. And travelling anywhere means riding through crowded cities, long open highways, or on trails where no real roads exist. It’s not supposed to be the best machine for any one of these applications, but something that provides the best qualities of all worlds. The last gen 390 Adventure, as capable as a bike it was, fell short on many of these aspects - it was just a limitation of a platform that was originally designed with the Duke in mind. This new 390 Adventure though, it’s built on a much more flexible platform that promises all these abilities. So does it complete the holy trinity for a true blue adventure bike?

How does the new KTM Adventure handle city riding?

What does a good city bike need to do? A good city bike needs to be easy to manage at slow speeds, it needs to be nimble through stop and go traffic, and it has to make you feel relaxed on your commutes. The new 390 Adventure’s posture is upright, and you’re sitting high enough to give you a commanding view of the road. And even though the seat height is 835mm, it’s actually very easy to flat foot the bike, even if you’re a bit shorter. The bike is really narrow, but the footpegs might get in the way of your legs a bit if you’re trying to flat foot the bike. But even with my height of 5’9”, I can flat foot the bike even if I keep my feet outside the pegs. This is a bike that a lot of people will be able to hop on and immediately feel comfortable

Yes, the seat is a bit narrow and a bit firm, and a little more padding would’ve made it absolutely perfect for city commutes. But even so, I didn’t have any aches or pains even after spending a couple of hours going through Goa traffic.

Despite the 182kg kerb weight, which is 5kg more than the spoke wheel model of the earlier 390 Adventure, this one feels much lighter when you get on it, and it’s super easy to manage, whether you’re moving the bike with your feet or crawling through traffic. And despite the large 21-inch front wheel, at speeds of 40-50kmph, it feels extremely agile and easy to steer.

How does the 2025 KTM 390 Adventure perform in the city?

The 2025 KTM 390 Adventure has the same 399cc liquid-cooled, single-cylinder engine as the new 390 Duke with same power and torque figures - 46PS @ 8500rpm and 39Nm @ 6500rpm respectively. As we observed on the new Duke, this newer 399cc motor is much more tractable than the old 373cc one. And on the Advenure, the rear sprocket is three teeth larger than the Duke’s as well (46 teeth vs 43 teeth). So you have a much better bottom end response, which made riding through the narrow and crowded Goa streets an absolute breeze.

The best part is that this same engine which feels manic on the Duke, feels much more chilled out here. It’s not the most tractable engine out there, but you can still ride at speeds of 30kmph in 4th gear without much trouble. And you have a low-rpm crawl function as well, which means you can just leave the clutch and the bike will maintain 1800-2200rpm in the first 3 gears. So you can move comfortably at slower speeds without requiring any clutch input, or fear of stalling the bike. 

Is the KTM 390 Adventure comfortable in the city?

Now I weigh about 80kg, and about 90kg with full riding gear. For my weight, the suspension felt great on slow speed bumps and bad roads. Of course, it’s not like the Himalayan 450’s suspension which literally feels like a magic carpet ride. And it might feel a little stiffer if you’re lighter, but you have a lot of adjustability to play with - Compression and Rebound at the front, and Rebound and Preload at the rear. So it can be tuned for your weight with a bit of trial and error. And even on sharper bumps, while you can definitely feel them, the bike never feels unsettled.

How is the 2025 KTM 390 Adventure to ride off-road?

What does an off-road bike need to do? It should be able to handle gravel trails, bumps, ruts, and even some jumps with ease. But most importantly, I feel a good off-road adventure bike should have more ability than your own, which means that most people, who aren’t off-road experts, can actually enjoy it off the road without having a constant fear of being chucked off for making a small mistake.

It all starts with a good off-road posture, which this new 390 Adventure absolutely has. It’s easy to grip the tank when you’re standing up and the handlebar is tall enough for my height of 5’9” to give me a good off-road attack posture. But if you’re taller, you might need handlebar risers to feel more comfortable. Honestly, I have no real complaints, but my only wish was that the footpeg rubbers were easily removable without the need of any tools.

But when it comes to actually riding off-road, this new Adventure checks all the right boxes. With 200mm of front wheel travel and 210mm of rear wheel travel, it has 30mm and 28mm more travel at the front and rear respectively, compared to the last-gen bike. Plus its 237mm ground clearance is 37mm more than the last gen bike as well. So in terms of sheer off-road ability, this new 390 Adventure is just on another level.

But more importantly, this motor feels just so great off the road. It's got that bottom end grunt that the last-gen bike was really missing, which means crawling up difficult trails is actually a lot easier even for off-road newbies like myself. And then, of course you have the crawl function which not only helps in the city, but massively helps while off-roading as well. Because if you're on some again tricky trail at slow speeds, the bike will not stall easily and leave you in a pickle. 

Some people might say that the underbelly exhaust is a bad idea for an off-road bike. But the bike comes with an aluminium bash plate as standard. And KTM has tested this bike in 400mm of water reading without any problems.

But when you're off-roading what helps the most is just how compact this bike feels compared to the last-gen bike, and a lot narrower too, which makes it easier to hold with your legs. And it's got a tight turning radius as well which means if you want to go around on some tricky trails, it’s just so much better on this motorcycle. Plus even though it's heavier, it actually feels much easier to manage than the previous gen bike. On top of that, the seat height is low enough so even if you have a little stumble while off-roading, you can get a foot on the ground very easily to hold yourself in place.

Does the 2025 KTM 390 Adventure come with tubeless tyres?

Now the last thing you want on a trail ride is a puncture. The last gen 390 ADV with spoke wheels came with tubed tyres, which made dealing with punctures a royal pain in your backside. The 2025 Adventure gets tubeless spokes, even though they don’t look like them. These use a patented KTM design which has multiple layers in a special recess inside the rim to seal the air inside, and prevent the spokes from puncturing this seal. We’ve been told that these are better than side laced rims, because these can be narrow, and help you fit a narrow front tyre - 90 section in this case, which helps the tyre dig into the dirt more easily and give you better grip when off-road. And having narrower rims while off-roading also helps avoid rocks from damaging the side of the rim.

Is the 2025 KTM 390 Adventure good for touring?

What does a good touring bike have to do well? It needs to sit at highway speeds easily, it needs to feel stable through both low and high speed corners, and it needs to feel comfortable for long hours in the saddle. To test all this, we not only rode it on the highways in Goa, but also rode it from Goa to Pune - a total journey of 500km.

How does the 390 Adventure perform on the highway?

As chilled out as this engine can feel in the city, when you really open the throttle on the highway, it’s super quick too. KTM claims 0-100kmph in just 6.2 seconds, and a top speed of a little over 150kmph. In our tests, it managed 0-100 in 6.17 seconds and on the speedo, we saw speeds of over 160kmph on the highway. Out on the highway, 100kmph in 6th gear (with the tacho hovering at around 5,000rpm) is an absolute breeze. But get above 6000rpm, and you start feeling a bit of a buzz in the footpegs. But the tank and handlebar stay completely vibe-free. And these mild vibes you do experience at higher speeds are not a deal breaker at all. it’s a large(ish) single-cylinder bike after all.

What you’ll really appreciate though, while riding hard, is the improved quickshifter. It is bi-directional, and super slick and smooth. In our opinion, this is the smoothest quickshifter on any Indian made bike…PERIOD!

But the best feature that this new 390 Adventure has for touring is Cruise control. It’s the only Indian Adventure bike to get this. It’s really simple to use as well, and uses the toggle buttons on the left switch cube to control the set speed.

How does the new KTM Adventure ride on the highway?

The high speed ride quality on this new adventure is just amazing. Whether you’re riding on bad wavy tarmac, or terrible rumble strips, once you’re at speed, the bike just flattens them out. But again, i’m talking about the stock settings working for my weight. If you’re lighter or heavier, you’ll need to tweak the suspension to work for you.

When you’re riding on the highway at faster speeds, the large 21 inch front wheel of course means that you need more input on the handlebar to turn the bike. But still, the amount of effort required to change direction is surprisingly little.

Speaking of changing directions, on our ride back from Goa to Pune, the new 390 Adventure was an absolute blast on the winding roads of Anuskura ghat. The Adventure just flowed from corner to corner with the ease of a street bike. And the longer wheelbase and Apollo Tramplr tyres made it feel really stable when leaned over. These are really great tyres that give you plenty of grip, whether you’re riding off-road, or on it.

Now this 390 Adventure is running an axial front brake instead of the radial brake from the new 390 Duke. While this might seem like a downgrade, it’s actually not. These brakes are powerful enough to stop the adventure quite quickly when required. But they’re not as sharp as the Duke’s brakes. And that’s a good thing, because the last thing you want when riding off-road is a super sharp front brake.

Speaking about actually riding long distances, the seat which can feel a bit firm in the city, is a life saver on the highway. I Completed the 500km journey from South Goa to Pune in 8 hours, with no aches and pains anywhere.

What features does the new 390 Adventure get?

This new 390 Adventure is as feature packed as it gets. You have a 5-inch colour TFT screen with smartphone connectivity, for call and music control, as well as turn-by-turn navigation. As mentioned earlier, you also get cruise control, and you also have cornering traction control as well as cornering ABS. You get three riding modes - off-road, street and rain, which change throttle response and power delivery, with the off-road mode being the most aggressive.

Is the 390 Adventure a good looking bike?

Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder. So while I wouldn’t call this new 390 Adventure conventionally pretty, it is striking nonetheless. Unlike the last gen adventure, which looked like a hopped up street bike, this new one looks really purposeful. With the mass forward design and a slim tail, it looks like a Dakar-winning rally machine. And that, in my book, makes it beautiful.

Should you buy the 2025 KTM 390 Adventure?

This new 390 Adventure really does bring together the best of all worlds with very few compromises. At Rs 3.67lakh (ex-showroom), it’s just about Rs 6,000 more expensive than the last gen 390 Adventure with spoke wheels. Hand on heart, I honestly believe that this is the best adventure bike that’s made in India for India. And don’t just take my word for it. This time I’m putting my money where my mouth is, and I’m actually buying one of these really soon. Or rather, as soon as I am able to save up some money for the downpayment on my gareeb journalist salary. And if you have any interest in adventure riding, you really should too.