KTM has gone bonkers with the design of its upcoming 1290 Super Adventure. A couple of spy shots the test mule have surfaced and its front half looks like a giant grasshopper! Don’t you think?
The headlight unit of this bike is humongous. KTM Super Adventure series has never been aesthetically sound but until now their design was digestible. However, it seems that moving forward things are going to get even worse. We understand that the central cutout in the headlight has something to do with the placement of the ‘Mid-Range Radar’ (MRR) to work properly, but why increase the dimensions of the headlight?
Anyway, talking about radar, the Bosch MRR is designed to work for up to distances of around 160 meters and appears to be identical to the radars used in dozens of modern cars. However, in the case of motorcycles, the software has to be updated to account for the lean angles and whatnot. This radar-based technology would give the 2020 KTM 1290 Super Adventure adaptive cruise control and various other safety features.
Other key changes in the new model would include electronically adaptable WP suspension, new aluminium seat subframe, redesigned swingarm, low-mounted fuel tank design like the 790 Adventure’s, etc. And how can we not spot the gigantic exhaust? This specific unit is like giving competition to the stock pipe of the latest Suzuki GSX-R1000R. This tells us that the new KTM will be Euro 5 compliant and therefore, would see some internal changes in the 1301cc LC8 V-twin engine.
The test mule spotted had alloy wheels. This means that it was the road-oriented S model. There would be an R variant as well with spoke wheels for pure hardcore fanatics.
