KTM: How 2025 is shaping up

Alan Dowds provides the round-up…

KTM 390 Adventure

The trend for ever-bigger adventure bikes has us scratching our heads sometimes. Okay, if you’re going on a month-long jaunt across Europe two-up with luggage for four strapped on, a 150-200bhp, 250kg tourer-on-stilts makes a lot of sense. But if you actually want to do any off-road antics, smaller and lighter is almost always the way to go. Hence the success of frankly tiny machinery like the Honda CRF300 Rally or Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 – both very slow, but much easier to handle in mud or sand than the 1200cc giants.

KTM’s been in on this action, too, though it took a while to catch on. Its 390 Adventure first appeared in 2020 and was a big hit, with solid performance, up towards the limits of the A2 licence limits with 43bhp and 158kg dry. Nimble handling, decent equipment levels and sharp styling lifted it above less-accomplished competition, and it’s carved out a neat little niche for itself in the market.

Five years on then, the Austrian firm has expanded and updated the 390 Adventure offering, with two models in the range: a more dirt-focused Adventure R, and a cheaper, more basic road-biased Adventure X. 

The X has cast aluminium wheels, with a 19-inch front and 17-inch rear rim, and either Apollo Tramplr XR or MRF Meteor road-focused tyres. The WP APEX suspension has less travel, with unadjustable 43mm USD front forks and a preload-only adjustable rear shock. Add in a fixed front brake disc instead of a floating unit, and that’s the main chassis differences between the X and R. 

The R, as you’d expect, gets proper wire-spoked rims with a 21-inch front and 18-inch rear and dirt-capable Mitas Enduro Trail E07+ rubber, plus longer travel suspension. The WP APEX kit has solid spec: a 43mm open cartridge USD forks with 230mm of travel, adjustable for compression and rebound in 30 click steps, and a Separate Piston rear shock, also with 230mm of travel plus both preload and rebound adjustment. The front disc is a floating design and uses the same twin-piston floating caliper as the X model.

The two variants use the same engine: a mildly tweaked version of the excellent 399cc DOHC 4v l/c LC4c unit, now Euro 5+ emissions compliant. The cylinder head has been redesigned, with revised cooling system and a thermostat housed directly into the head, while intake and exhaust mods, plus a new double catalyst, clean things up while keeping power about the same as last year: 44bhp claimed. All-up weight is 165kg, without fuel, but otherwise ready to ride, so a little heavier than the old bike.

The other main difference between the X and R is the dash: the R has a fancy colour LCD TFT, the X gets a cheaper mono display. Both work with new switchgear to operate the respective rider aids package, and again the R has fancier kit, with an IMU-assisted ECU for cornering traction control and ABS functions. Both bikes have rider power modes: Off-road, Street and Rain, and the traction control can be turned off completely for use on the dirt. There’s new LED lighting all round, Bluetooth phone link for calls, music, messaging and navigation, and there’re also options for cruise control, and an up/down quickshifter unit.

The new 2025 KTM 390 Adventure range will arrive in showrooms throughout the year – the R variant hitting dealers in late March, with the X variant following in the autumn. UK pricing is £5,399 for the X and £6,699 for the R.

• KTM’s also released a brace of more serious 390 machinery using the same LC4c engine as the Adventure. The 390 SMC R is a full-on supermoto with 17-inch wheels, sticky rubber, and a 320mm front brake disc, priced at £5699. And the 390 Enduro R gives a serious enduro option with 21-inch front wheel, minimalist dirtbike kit and the same £5699 rrp.

KTM 125s

Down in the smaller eighth-litre class, KTM’s been hard at work with two new hardcore learner-legal variants. The 125 SMC R and Enduro R are similar to the 390 models, with the same basic set up: 17-inch rims, sticky tyres and stronger brakes on the supermoto SMC, and serious dirt wheels and rubber for the Enduro. They also share the 125cc version of the LC4c engine, making the maximum 15bhp/11kW allowed, which has similar Euro5+ updates as the 390 motor for this year. Both models cost £4899 and are on sale now.

KTM 790 Duke

Finally – the orange brand has given the 790 Duke a bit of a spruce-up for 2025. The mental middleweight hoonigan machine gets a new five-inch TFT dashboard with access to KTM’s Demo Mode, a telemetry screen and six-setting Anti-wheelie Mode. There’s also all-new backlit switchgear, and the firm’s added a four-year manufacturer’s warranty. It will cost £7999 and is in the shops now.

KTM finance story

The situation at KTM and parent firm Pierer Mobility is a fast-changing one, and by the time you read this things may look very different. As we went to press, though, there was some solid news, which seemed positive on the face of it for the future of the orange brand. The CEO, Stefan Pierer, left the firm in late January, seen as part of the necessary changes to restructure massive debts. At the same time, it was announced that the previous owners of MV Agusta, the Sardarov family, had taken back control, and now owns the 50.1 per cent shareholding which Pierer Mobility bought just last May. The Russian family now owns the entire Varese brand once again, through its Art of Mobility company.