Heavyweight adventure bikes are billed as go-anywhere, do-anything machines. They can tick off the miles on the motorway. They can tackle the trail. However, very few off-road riders would dare take their full-sized adventurers into the tight and technical terrain of single-track trails. Whether it's rock gardens or muddy conditions, single tracks give riders no other choice than to go over or through the obstacles.
While that may pose a problem for big-bore ADVs, many new middleweight rivals prove that they have what it takes to tackle hard adventure routes. Take Pol Tarres, for example, who rides a Yamaha Tenere 700 as if it were a cross between an enduro and a trials bike. We could say the same for fellow Spanish rider and five-time Enduro World Champion Iván Cervantes, who just claimed the 38th Baja España Aragón’s Trail class title aboard the Triumph Tiger 900 Rally Pro.
Yamaha and Triumph may keep their middleweight contenders in the spotlight, but KTM doesn’t need such marketing stunts to uphold the 890 Adventure R’s off-road pedigree. Based on Team Orange’s decorated Dakar Rally and Hard Enduro World Championship resumes, the Austrian entry remains at the top of the middleweight class. If you ever wonder why, YouTube creator Adam Riemann is more than happy to put the 890 Adventure’s merits on display.
Riemann, who runs Motology Films and the ARiemann1 YouTube channel, previously piloted the 890’s predecessor, the KTM 790 Adventure R, at the 2019 Naxos Rally and 2019 Bosnia KTM Adventure Rally. While enjoying the festivities at the Bosnian event, Riemann met a diehard KTM rider from Slovenia. That chance meeting led the YouTuber to the Balkan country, where he met a tight-knit group of his fans, who just happened to be Orange-blooded KTM customers.
Taking to the surrounding mountains, the three-day journey not only showcases the breathtaking beauty of Slovenia’s countryside but also illustrates the KTM 890 Adventure R’s wherewithal. Manufacturers may market heavyweight ADVs as go-anywhere, do-anything machines, but it looks like middleweight models are gunning for that title now.
