An all-new KTM 990 Adventure has been spied and it is much more than just an engine swap, scoring a new chassis and more…
When KTM took the wraps off its 2024 990 Duke it was only a matter of time before an Adventure model emerged with the same engine but we didn’t expect a clean-sheet design.
Rather than a mere engine swap, the 990 Adventure gets its own dedicated chassis and a completely rethought arrangement for the bodywork and even the fuel tanks.
It’s hard to argue with the all-round ability of the existing 890 Adventure, but the styling of those bikes is divisive. The low-mounted twin fuel tanks flanking the engine have huge benefits in terms of weight distribution and eliminating bulk, but they also contribute to unfamiliar and ungainly proportions.
For the 990 Adventure, the engine is the 947cc twin used in the 990 Duke. Despite the same ‘LC8c’ name as its predecessor it’s essentially a completely new design with more power, a bigger bore and longer stroke, as well as different castings for every major component. It’s bolted to a new chassis in the 2025 990 Adventure, which from these pictures appears to be made of oval-section steel tubing rather than the usual round-section. The fork is WP, the brakes appear to be taken from the current 890 Adventure, while the swingarm is borrowed from the 990 Duke, but fitted with a new rising rate shock linkage.
It still avoids the single-tank set-up of its rivals but the two side-mounted tanks are higher, increasing the bulk in the traditional ‘tank’ area but making the bike look better-proportioned. Since the tanks still flank the engine, it remains more compact than a single-tank solution. Like the KTM 450 Rally Replica, the 990 Adventure may have a third under-seat fuel tank. There’s a translucent-looking white plastic box above the rear shock absorber. Its underside is sculpted to leave room for the suspension to compress, which means it can’t be intended for a regular-shaped component like the battery but would be perfect for liquid.
The front fairing is unfinished at this stage, but it’s clear that the finished light will need to be smaller and neater than the current 890 Adventure’s split-lamp set-up to fit inside the gap in the fairing.
Behind that screen sits one of the largest instrument panels we’ve seen yet on a bike, a portrait-oriented, iPad-style design that should be ideal for on-screen maps. The upcoming 1390 Super Adventure is also expected to have a similar display, as does the soon-to-be-launched CFMoto 800MT-X, which is based on the previous KTM Adventure engine and chassis.
WORDS: BEN PURVIS