KTM Adventure Comparison - 1090R vs 790R (vs 990)

ScottRNelson

Mr. Dual Sport Rider
I have a few more things to report regarding the 790R. I took it in for its first service at 618 miles. They left it outside overnight with temperatures in the low 20's and they had to jump start it when I came to pick it up. They wanted me to leave it for a few more hours to check the electrical system, but since the dealer is approximately 20 miles from my house and there had been no battery issues at all, I just took it. I figure that since it has a voltage reading I would be able to see if there was a charging issue. I left it on a Battery Tender overnight and it's been fine since. My 990 Adv had battery issues and I don't want to go through that again, but I think the dealer did something that they don't want to admit to, so I don't consider it an issue.

I took the bike on some interesting dirt trails to the top of a mountain (5300 feet, not super high) and for most of that trip I enjoyed the 790R more than any other bike I've owned, including my XR650L. Only on the steep rocky section did I think that maybe the XR would have been better. I'm quite happy with how the 790R behaves on rough dirt roads. I'm thinking of raising the handlebars a bit more, though. I'll probably do that to both the XR and 790R so that I'm in a better position when standing. This has been an issue for me with all off road riding and I've never bothered raising the bars in the past.

I also took it on a long highway ride earlier this week to Hells Canyon. Over 300 miles round trip. On higher speed highways and on the freeway I'm missing the better wind protection of the 1090R. Still better than the 990 in that regard, though. Heading down into the canyon, there are miles and miles of great twisties. The 790R feels really good on those roads. I liked the 990 on twisty roads and the 1090R was even better, but the 790R is better still. You can make course corrections mid-turn or hit the brakes in a turn and nothing upsets the bike. The handling gives me a lot of confidence. The tires may have something to do with it, because they work well on the street. The Karoo 3 probably has softer rubber, because it doesn't look like I'll even make it to 3200 miles like the TKC-80 on the 1090R.

One concern I've had is how my backside would feel after riding all day. I need to get off of the bike after two or more hours of riding, but overall my knees and butt felt as good as on either of the other KTMs. I seem to be able to move around a bit more forward and back on the 790R than on the other two, which helps a bit.

There have been a number of complaints online about not enough torque from those who like to stay in 6th gear when making passes. I don't mind shifting to 4th for that, and the bike has more than enough power if you do that. I'm happy with the powerband and rarely take it above 6000 rpms. I remember that on the 990 on twisty roads I would be one or two gear higher than I would have used with a Ducati, because the vibration made me want to shift to where it was smoother. The 1090R is smoother than a 990 and the 790R is smoother than either, but I still find myself in higher gears. It has enough power that I don't feel the need to be running at 7000 rpms in the twisty sections.

I mentioned earlier that I couldn't really tell that the 790R wasn't a V-twin, but now I'm thinking it doesn't quite feel like a V-twin after all. It might just be the smaller displacement.

After more than 1200 miles, the bike has averaged over 50 mpg. There is an ongoing discussion on AdvRider (they're all ongoing there) about fuel mileage of the 790. Some claim that the fuel consumption reading is way optimistic. I've kept track for multiple tanks of gas now, and it seems to be off by about 2 mpg around 50. In other words, if it says I got 53 mpg, if I compute it independently it will be 51. That's still good enough. I got about 225 miles per tank on the last two tanks of gas.

The miles to empty reading is not as useful as on the 1090R. First off, it doesn't provide a number until there is less than half a tank of gas. Then it will read something like 60 miles to empty, then ten miles later it will start flashing and say 25. I'll just stick with the trip odometer on this bike.

I've never regretted for a minute buying the 790R. It's exactly the bike that I need for the kind of riding that I like to do.

That's it for now. If I think of anything else, I'll post it here.
 

GreenHornet

Well-known member
Nice write ups. I sat on a 790R this weekend, and lamented how much better a 790 would be for my upcoming Continental Divide Ride. The seat height was lower than I expected, considering how tall the 690 enduro, and 500EXC are. It seemed lower than the GS but I can't be sure due to my Russell seat. I can't remember how the stock height felt. But the 790R seat is def lower than my current seat.

I actually considered getting one or in line to get one, but the 1250GS won that bid. I'm a bit pensive about the sheer size of it, for my trip, but I'm determined to at least make a go of it.
RE: High 40s to 50mpg on the 1090R wow. I must have a lead forearm. I average 36mpg on my GS.
 

bmwbob51

BMWBOB
I rode a friends 790R the other day and very impressed. Power at lower speeds was very impressive and it felt very stable. The only thing I didn't get a chance to try is torque in high gear at highway speeds. I love my 2014 GS along with the torque in high gear at highway speeds. I may have to give up that aspect because lighter weight is my goal now!
 

ScottRNelson

Mr. Dual Sport Rider
One more data point:

I found out what it takes to pick up the 790R when it gets dumped in the rocks. Coming back up this section I managed to get in an awkward situation. "Rats! I'm stuck! No, don't lean to the left! DON'T FALL! Nooooooooo! Aw crap!"

Couldn't manage to pick it up the first couple of tries by putting my back into it. Took off my helmet, jacket and gloves then tried it facing the bike. Got it up, then spent about 15 minutes catching my breath and getting my heart rate down. Those handles that KTM puts at the back of the seat are super valuable for getting the bike back up.

The 1090 would have been more difficult to get up. Can't really say about the 990, because the only time it was ever down I was not worn out, had an adrenaline rush, and just grabbed the bars and picked it up. But that was on pavement.

I thought I took a photo of it while down, but somehow all it shows is the front wheel. This is on the way down, near the place where it got dumped. It has its first battle scar now. Didn't break anything or even do any serious damage.

SXhl8Qi.jpg
 

ScottRNelson

Mr. Dual Sport Rider
A little more feedback on the 790R.

It gets ridden a lot more than my XR650L these days and I'm doing a lot of exploring up in the hills. The two bikes handle about the same once in the dirt, but the 790R is obviously way better on pavement. Some rides, like the one yesterday, involve an hour of paved road to get to the dirt.

So I've been thinking, while riding the 790R, about whether or not I would rather be on my XR at any point along the ride. Other than the one time I dumped the KTM in that rocky section in my previous post, I haven't felt a desire to be on the lighter bike that also has more suspension travel. And the only reason I would have preferred the XR to the KTM on the rocky part is that I could have stopped it from falling over due to it being nearly 100 pounds lighter. I had difficulty in the same spot when I tried it again on the XR, had an awkward moment, but was able to save it while the KTM got away from me with the extra weight.

Yesterday's ride involved quite a bit of rutted uphill sections, some of which required crossing from one side of the rut to the other to make it through. I just stood up and worked the bike through it with about the same amount of effort as the XR would have required. The same section would have been much more difficult on the 1090R due to its top heavy nature and additional weight.

I'm at 3184 miles as of today. I thought the Karoo 3 wasn't going to make it this far (e.g., past the 3200 miles that I got on the TKC-80 on the 1090R), but it still has a few hundred miles left in it and works reasonably well off road. The last couple of rides I didn't even bother to air down and traction was decent. If I'm riding on gravel roads with a lot of loose stuff I have to drop the pressure to about 25 psi to get it to behave, but on everything else the tires still work at the higher pressures.

One last note - I'm getting over 50 mpg no matter what kind of riding that I do. I can crawl along for many miles in the hills in 2nd or 3rd gear and it still stays over 50. Riding slowly not too fast on the highway produces over 60 mpg. The only thing that really drops the mileage is long distances at 80 mph - which is the speed limit on much of the freeway here. So it will easily go 250 miles on a tank of fuel, which is reassuring when I'm 20 miles from civilization.

In a month or two I'll put a set of Bridgestone AX41 tires on it and expect that it will behave even better off road.
 

ScottRNelson

Mr. Dual Sport Rider
A little more feedback on the 790R.
Okay, I've owned the 790R for a year now. Picked it up a year ago today. It has 5500 miles on it and has only gone about five miles in the past month. Mainly because the temperature has been under 40 degrees around here this whole time and it's snowy/icy out. And I put a few thousand miles a year on the XR650L too, so it's not like I'm not riding much. I sold the 1090R after a year and a half with 5250 miles on it.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, the AX41 tires are great on it. Better in every way than the Karoo 3, other than being noisy around 38 mph. They're the best adventure bike tire I've ever used and I expect to stick with them in the future, after wearing out this set.

I still think the KTM 790 Adventure R is the very best bike available for the type of riding that I like to do. It could use better wind protection, but it's not enough of an issue for me to actually do anything about it. I love the handling in the dirt. I've manage to drop it three times so far with no detectable damage to anything. Always on the left side, of course. :x

This post is as close as I"ll come to having a birthday party for it. :laughing
 

augustiron

2fast 2live 2young 2die
Thanks for all the comparisons.
I'm sorry to inform you, but now you're going to have to get an 890 adv to compare as well.
Tell the SO BARF demands it.
 
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