KTM 490 Adventure might be the perfect combination of weight and power

KTM has plans to bring more mid-sized Adventure bikes after it introduced the KTM 390 adventure. A leaked document report from the management presentation of KTM’s parent company Pierer Mobility group reveals future models from KTM. The company has been planning for the KTM 490 adventure. This is something that is planed with the 890 models which will replace the 790 lineups.

This bike will introduce a new 500cc platform which will be based on the parallel-twin layout. It will bridge the gap between the 390cc and the 790cc existing models. It will open avenues for other types of KTM vehicles.

This will first start into a street model and an RC model is not something it will skip. We also expect a few bikes from the international markets. 

The document that has been leaked document suggests that the 490 platforms will not replace the 390 platforms. It will be set higher and premium vehicle. Specifically, the Adventure with the R badging will get the 490 engine. This bike will get sport wire-spoked wheels. The 390 Adventure was shown with cast alloy wheels at EICMA 2019 and IBW 2019. 

KTM has been showing interest towards the mid-segment which is currently dominated by Kawasaki. With KTM in this segment, it will make this segment more competitive and interesting to choose from. India is hungry for an adventure segment and there are no serious vehicles in this segment. The Hero Xpulse and the Royal Enfield Himalayan are bikes which have not nailed the segment well. The adventure vehicles in the midsegment are big and bulky. This makes it difficult to handle due to the weight. KTM with its comparatively less weight will be able to strike a nice balance between this.

Globally the adventure riders prefer light bikes. This make it easier for the rider to manoeuvre in a tricky situation. It also makes for a good power to weight ratio. The 490 Adventure will be more affordable than the usual middleweight adventure segment. This is perfect for an emerging market like India. We expect the bike to be a go-to bike in the middleweight segment all over the world. 

We will also see a 250cc adventure vehicle which will be the most affordable but will lose out on the tech bits of the bigger 390 adventure. All these new vehicles from KTM will have BS6 compliant engine which will trickle down to the Duke and the RC version which are already in the market.

All these plans will be implemented in sync with the BS6 updates for the current bikes.

The bikes are already fuel injected and to make them BS6 compliant they will get a bigger catalytic converter. This means that we might see a drop in power. But this is not the only downside of the BS6 emissions norms. Now the bikes will also cost more money. We might see an increase of Rs 5000 – Rs 6000 on the existing price of the vehicle. Click the link below to know about the upcoming KTM Duke 200 BS6.

2020 KTM Duke 200 BS6, UPDATES and more