Somewhere in Austria, at least one kind person has been listening to my prayers (and probably those of others, since my conversational German is fairly limited). If anything, I’d have been happier to sacrifice a little power for a reduction in weight. But back in the day, I never found myself wishing for more power from my 990, or for rider aides, for that matter. Sure, the horsepower increased, and rider aides were introduced, they became more refined. With the introduction of the 1190 Adventure in 2013 the authentic rally look changed the weight crept up and seat heights remained, for some, dauntingly high. But for the less vertically enhanced, or for inexperienced riders, this combination often meant the difference between buying one of the marque’s bikes or not. This can be daunting even for taller and experienced riders. The problem with these multi-cylinder Adventure bikes is that they weighed 200-plus kilos and had towering seat heights of up to 915mm. They were oversized enduro bikes that could do road miles as well. They were angry, fast and relatively unrefined bikes with excellent off-road manners. That platform went all the way back to the turn of the century, to the Dakar-winning 950 of Fabrizio Meoni. If you hit the adventure forums online, you’ll find an abundance of die-hard fans who still consider the 950/990 Adventure the last of the truly rally-inspired, hardcore, adventure bikes that KTM made. If you long for less weight and a lower seat on your adventure bike, KTM has found the sweet spot with the 790
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