The Ultimate Showdown: KTM's 390 Duke vs 390 Adventure with Spoked Wheels
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 มี.ค. 2023
- We all know and love KTM’s entry level adventure offering and have ridden and reviewed it extensively. This bike is aimed squarely at the lighter, younger rider new to the adventure riding fraternity yet capable of keeping an experienced rider quite entertained as well, (at the launch in early 2020 we, (us old, chunky journalists), ended up racing each other around Sun City’s mountain bike park and had a right royal hoot). So, with that in mind we got our two young, hip and lightweight crew members to give the 390 Adventure good work out over a week or so. Stefan, is twenty something, doesn’t weigh very much and was a newbie to adventure riding and big bikes when he joined us a few years ago, however, he has acquired some good skills and is a very competent off road rider these days. René is of similar age and build and is quite new to bigger bikes. She has been on a scooter for a number of years from school days and recently got herself a KTM 390 Duke, she has however never ridden any form of motorcycle anywhere closely resembling off road. So, both are the ideal candidates to give unjaded and unbiased feedback on their experiences with the 390 Adventure.
Thank You KTM South Africa for the loan of the demo unit.
Follow them on Facebook at / ktmsouthafrica - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
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Great video. Both of you are natural, not pushing, not trying to be someone else and the video just flows nicely. I also come from bigger adv bikes, but I would go on 390 Adventure to much tougher terrain than I would on e.g. Tiger 800. Tiger is maybe more capable, but I am not :) I just had a couple of hours of test ride on the 390 Adv, but to this day I remember how fun it was. Thanks for the video
Thank you for your kind words.
True, other bikes may be more powerful and more capable, but, as you allude to, the beginner rider may not be that capable and would be intimidated by bigger more capable machines and may even be frightened off by them. The KTM 390 Adventure is designed, we believe, as a great introduction into Adventure riding and a fantastic learning tool for them to hone their skills before progressing on to more powerful and focused machines. We reckon it is also a great tool to hone the skills of more advanced Adventure riders as well. It is also a great fuel saver commuter for that matter.
I really enjoyed this and your views :) I've just recently ordered a 2023 duke 390 in the new orange and blue gray colour. Super excited!
Thanks for the feedback.
Enjoy your Duke, it is a great bike
Was Searching for this video...nice job you guys...
Thank You
Thanks for the great video! I enjoyed watching it. It’s nice and refreshing, thank you!
Only a pleasure, thank you for the kind words
Just the video I need, Perfect..thanks to both of you
Just subscribed. Great review, awesome stuff! Both bikes look great, tempted by the 390 Adv for my daily hack to work. 👍
Thank you for subscribing and for the kind words Paul. That 390 Adv is a special bike...
i just picked up a 2022 390 adventure here in the states since they are hard to get but a really wanted the 2023 with the orange frame i think that looks much cooler. Good video !
Hey man, thanks for the compliments. Yeah, the orange frame does look cool, but we really like the addition of the spoked wheels. Either, it is a really great light weight adventure bike with a surprising amount of power, performance, handling and ability for such a budget friendly machine... even two up.
The Duke 390 has a very strong character from the start. The Adv too has its own pickled personality with the same engine displaying power on different genres.
Hi Gambhit, You are 100 percent correct. Even though these bikes share a lot of the same equipment, they are distinctly different in their purpose. And each perform brilliantly at their intended purpose.
We did review the 390 Duke in tandem with BMW's G310R recently. Check out the video here: th-cam.com/video/XVHfBcqjvjw/w-d-xo.html
Let us know what you think.
@@ridefast-dirtntrail-magazines will do. Thanks
hum sirf prabhjot paaji ke fan aap toh humari rajjo raani hai good job brother
Great review guys! I’ve tested both these bikes. Being almost 6 foot I believe I just love the adventure little more.
The duke seems to have better punch off the line but then again it’s slightly lighter but they have same power.
I think the duke is the better city bike but if you really serious about traveling distance don’t think twice take the adventure but the duke will also do distance if you love wind 😅
At the moment they retailing R104k for duke and R125k or so for adventure and personally it’s becoming a little expensive owning machines 🤦🏾♂️
With pricing in mind I reckon they priced perfect and well specced👏🏾
I agree with you, thanks for your support and comments..
Great review! KTM seems to own the 400 cc category for now and these bikes compete with many 500's
Is adventure a lot of higher than duke? I am 158cm tall, and had duke before but thinking to buy adventure now
I'm a bit curious about some subjects.
You mention the ADV is smoother than the Duke, in what way ? They seam to have the same engine platform. All the 390's (and other single cylinder engines) are a bit jerky on the throttle in the lower rpm because they run lean for emissions. That's quite easy to solve with a decent piggy back ecu like Rapid Bike or similar.
And I was wondering, for the adv and the duke, did you bother to fiddle with the spring preload of the rear shock ? It changes the ride height and with that the geometry of the bike. It can really make a big difference how it's setup in means of easy stearing and stability. It should be setup right for your specific weight so it matches the geometry as it was designed. Most people don't bother to check this and try changes on road bikes. I have a motocross background and suspension ride height (sag) is one of the first things to check when you get a new bike ;)
Hi Werner,
You raise some very good and valid points and questions.
Let's see if we can answer them satisfactorily for you.
Two things need to be taken into account with our bike reviews.
Firstly, we do not own any of the bikes, and they are all demo bikes from the various importer/distributors here in SA, so we don't tamper with them in any way.
We review them as honestly as we can as they are presented to us.
We only fiddle with such niceties that do not require any form of tool or spanner, so really just the quick adjusters on the shocks if they are available and electronics packages via the onboard menu and etc, also only if they are available.
We have had instances where we have been handed bikes to review that were fiddled with by non-professionlas, and we had to scrap the whole review as it was rendered useless by a basically unrideable machine set up to the specidic preferences of on indvidual.
So, as a professional courtesy, both to our fellow reviewers as well as to the owners of the bikes, we do not mess with the standard bike at all.
Also, this gives the potential buyer a better expectation of what they will be purchasing.
So, we think that answers your second question first - no, we didn't fiddle with the suspension set up and rode them as they came.
Then, secondly, we try to give the assignment of each bike review to a reviewer/s that are more representative of each bikes porential market.
In this case, the 390's, we felt were aimed at the younger, new to biking market - essentailly the 20-something year old beginner riders. That way, we can get a more market focused review of the bike.
Yes, we could have stuck one of our professional stunt riders or extreme hard enduro riders or one of our superbike racers on the bike and they could have done wheelies and stoppies all day between flying over jumps or scraping through corners on a track, but that would have not appealed to the intended buyers. Yes it would have looked cool, but the pro riders would have found flaw with the bikes from a professional and competition point of view and mentioned a myriad of necessary upgrades, leading potential buyers to believe the bikes are sub standard and not worth the money asked for them.
With that being said, our reviewers, in this case, were our early 20-something photographers who gave an honest review of what they felt.
The young lady actually owns the 390 Duke, having recently moved up from a scooter/moped - the exact type of buyer we feel KTM is marketing these bikes to.
Referring to the 'the ADV feeling smoother', with the longer travel suspension and the softer throttle response in some modes of the ADV, it does give the sensation of being a smoother ride than the DUKE's firmer road suspension and slightly more aggressive throttle response.
We do hope this gives you better insight into what we do and how we review motorcycles.
Thank for visiting our channel and for your interaction with us. We look forward to more chats with you.
@@ridefast-dirtntrail-magazines
Thanks, very clear answer ! Regarding question one, I suspected it to be something like ride modi, aka different mapping. My Duke (2018) doesn't have this option but it might have been added indeed. I understand the smoothness in suspension, the Duke is has quite stiff suspension.
For the second question. My suggestion was not meant to influence the test itself, it was meant helpfull for the Duke owning lady. The Duke hasn't got much options for changing the suspension but setting up the preload of the rear suspension really can change a lot in steering/stability.
Suggestion to dealers selling bikes : it would be smart of the dealer or distributor that loans you the bike to help setup the basics properly. In my opinion they should do that when selling a new/used bike as well. For basic suspension (sag) settings it is max 15 minutes work and can make the bike feel a lot better and drive safer.
FYI, after seeing this video, I actually became very interested in the ADV, I already liked the Duke 390 package because I do like light, simple pure motorcycles. But I do like offroad riding as well, this bike might be a brilliant combination of a commuter / travel bike for me.
While KTM is marketing this for newcomers I actually think bikes like these are really brilliant for a lot of people. I have a fairly long life behind me owning supersport 600's, 750 superbikes and in the latest years a few nakeds like street triple 675RX, Duke 790... And I got hooked on a Duke 390 that was left here after a divorce.
@Werner Reuser
Thank you for the feedback, Werner.
And you are correct. We have found that the older we get, the more we appreciate lighter more manoeuvrable bikes, especially dual or multipurpose machines.
When we first rode the 390 Adventure (with alloy wheels), at the media launch of March 2020... just before the world got crazy, we were absolutely amazed at its agility, power, and overall ability. We have subsequently ridden it many times in multi bike reviews from the same class. Even with our older, heavier riders riding two up, that motor performs so much more like a 500cc than a 300cc class bike. It really does punch way above its weight class... and it is so well specced as well with many more features than just about every other bike in its class.
We do agree with you about bike setup at the sale, which should be part of the PDI for the customer, or at least do it at the first service for them.
One of our crew used to manage bike dealerships back in the day, and that was part of the sales package, as was a riding lesson or a track school to get the client properly familiarised with their new purchase.
Thank you for your comment about our video influencing you into possibly changing your Duke for a 390 Adventure. The adventure is definitely more versatile in day to day use and weekend touring, yet still has enough sportiness to it that you can still go scratcing through your favourite twisty roads occasionally. 😀
Go test ride one for yourself, we would love to hear what your impressions of the bike are.
How's it do in sand? Looking for my first bike to tour around Australia loaded with camping gear,etc,etc and one of the places I want to go to is the Simpson Desert.
Hi Rob,
We haven't had the opportunity to take it through serious sand heavy laden over long distances.
We have done a couple of dry river beds and the like on the standard tyres, and it handled that okay.
That being said, we also didn't have it laden with much weight either. Our heaviest rider tips the scales at around 115kg and is also around 2m tall, and he did okay in the sand.
Depending on the weight you would be carrying, you might want to have some suspension work done to suit your application. Obviously, more aggressive tyres goes without saying.
Other than that, it is our humble opinion that the 390 Adventure is definitely up to the task.
It easily cruises down the freeways at 120kmh to 150kmh with ease, and we also did a couple of hard enduro loops on them and they handled it all with ease.
As a first adventure bike to go exploring on... it is a really good option.
God idk how to deicide between KTM 390 and bmw gs 310
Спасибо!
Tôi Thích kiểu dáng duke 390. Good...
Thank You
How tall is the lady ?
She is around 1.65m or so
Is ADV 390 comes in tubeless tyres?
Hi Robin, if memory serves correctly, the 390 Adventure runs a tubeless tyre set-up on the cast rims. However, we will have to confirm that for the spoked rims. We will let you know for sure shortly.
@@ridefast-dirtntrail-magazines Thanks a lot for the information. Most of the bikes comes under alloy wheels and very few of them are spokes.
You can also get the adv 390 with alloy rims
@@wernerxldata Yes in India, ADV 390 with alloy rim is available.
@@robinonroad You would almost buy a set of used Duke wheels with road tyres for normal road usage and use the spoked wheels for the more adventure stuff. Used parts aren't expensive and changing them is easy. Think it will even ride nicer on the road with normal 17" rims and road tyres.
What's her IG handle?
getting an opinion of someone that never have riden an adventure bike isnt so please
Well! That all depends.
This bike, as well as this video review, is squarely aimed directly at the first timer into the adventure bike market, which would be 90% plus of the sales of the KTM 390 Adventure.
Stop driving on the wrong side of the road, don't get hurt.
Thanks Jeff.
We always do it with safety in mind and always control the conditions for max safety and to get the best possible footage