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2014 KTM 1190 Adventure


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Like my CBR1000RR review this will be pretty biased as I love this bike too but there you go. I bought this at the end of 2018 for about £7500 and rode it through the duff weather until I got fed up with nearly getting wiped out on the A34 in the dark and rain. Started riding it again early doors 2019 and rode it loads for commuting, weekends and practicing for my IAM assessment. Passes the assessment at the end of last year and put the bike away for the winter again. I've no doubt it can handle winter riding but I'm not interested in doing it any more.


Starting with the bits that could be better...


I think that the throttle can be a bit snatchy. There are three maps from memory, rain, normal and sports. Sports is pretty sensitive but a lot of fun and can be snatchy in town, normal is ok in town but the best one for filtering through a lot of traffic is rain which is really smooth. Once you're happy changing maps it's not a problem switching between them or you can be more patient with your clutch than I am. It is a big engine with a lot of power, something has to be a compromise.


It's bloody heavy. I know many bikes are but I dropped this one on my leg and it bloody hurt.


The only time the handling was a bit weird was on an IAM low speed handling course where flicking from full lean on one side to the other side can make the front wheel hop/skip a bit which makes you jump the first time it happens. Nothing untoward happens, it's just a bit weird.


The instruments light up orange and for some reason I struggle to focus clearly on orange stuff. It's not the end of the world but I'd prefer it just to be white.


The range display is idiotic. I think it can do about 200 miles but it'll tell you it can do 400 and it never ever learns. Weird.


Bits are expensive... well, the radiator I bought for £450 was expensive I thought.


Sounds like a tractor until you wind it up and then it sounds a bit better. Heard them with an akra fitted and it sounded like a loud tractor so won't be doing that.


All the good bits...


Very very very comfortable. You could ride for miles and miles on this thing in pretty good comfort. The suspension height is adjustable depending on load and the suspension can be adjusted from soft(ish) to hard. You can do this all on the go if you want. The heated grips are ace. Instrumentation is all good except for the orange illumination and there's room behind the screen for a tomtom satnat. The tyre pressure sensors are very very neat indeed. There's even a little cubby hole for your earplugs.


Very fast for a big bike. I think it makes about 150bhp and the torque is immense. It just goes like a mad thing. It very cool and I got a finger wagging from a nice policeman after only 1 day.


The handling is awesome. It does feel a bit weird coming from a sportsbike to be so high up an leaning the thing so far but it just does the job. The soft suspension can feel a bit weird leant over but that just because of what I'm used to. You can lean on the thing and it will look after you.


The brakes are phenomenal. I did a low speed and braking course with the IAM at RAF Odiham and at the end of the day the exercise was to accelerate as hard as you could and then hit the brakes at the cones as hard as you could. I was braking as hard as I could from 75mph. A couple of the instructors came over at the end of the day and said that the KTM was outbraking everything else by some margin and there was all sorts there. You could mash the brakes on and trigger the ABS if you liked and that would work or you could aggressively squeeze the brakes just staying away from the ABS triggering and the front wheel would just embed itself in the floor and stop very very quickly. It's extremely confidence inspiring. I have accidentally triggered the rear abs a few times... either the abs is sensitive at the back or the rear brake is much better than the one on the blade... I suspect the latter.


The cornering ABS looks very cool. Search for videos on youtube but I haven't triggered it on purpose as I'm no where near brave enough. The traction control seems to work very well. Can't wheelie so can't tell you what it's like at that.


ktm1.jpg


It's got proper engine bars instead of those silver winglet things now as I smashed them when I dropped the bike. Also got orange hand guards now as I broke the black ones on the same day.


Headlight is epic and screen works fine.


Can't thing of anything else. It's a bit like a GS1150 but it's reliable and it's fast. Love this bike and will keep it as long as it keeps working, would get another if anything happened to it.


Regards,


Mark

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