Martin Alva
Just when we thought KTM’s bikes could not get any more insane, it drops another nuke. At the EICMA this year, the Austrian manufacturer garnered jaw-dropping reactions after it decided to pull back its supermoto offering from the grave. The new 690 SMC R is primarily derived from the company’s new Enduro 690 long with a couple of tweaks make it a worthy candidate to go against the recently unveiled Ducati Hypermotard.
KTM’s creations have always kept us boiling on that throttle and this new iteration will be no less. The 690-cc single-cylinder engine featuring on the 690 SMC delivers 72bhp of power and 73.5Nm of torque. The SMC weighs roughly a kilogram heavier than its dirt-bike twin scaling at 156kg when topped with fuel.
Apart from its mind-boggling mechanics and an insane stance, the bike comes with a palette of electronics including an IMU assists the cornering ABS (which includes a “Supermoto Mode”) and traction control systems; there are two different riding modes (Street and Sport); and KTM has even thrown in its up/down quick-shifter for good measure.
While the SMC might be a slightly tweaked iteration of the Enduro, both the bike varies drastically in the suspensions. The SMC gets a fully adjustable WP APEX 48, which have springs in each fork tube, but separate out the damping duties (rebound on the right, compression on the left).
Braking duties of the bike are handled by a Brembo apparatus with a radially mounted four-piston calliper on the front wheel, complemented with a 320mm disc.
KTM shone at this year’s EICMA with some of its much-awaited models including the jaw-dropping 790 Adventure R. Apart from the fact that the bike is KTM’s first ever parallel-twin engine, it has a much bigger story behind.
KTM has put utmost efforts to inch the mass production bike closest to be a bespoken one. You wonder how? Well, over the years, the bike was being developed and prototyped in the sheds of the company, KTM went around popular rallies and races and solicited its enthusiasts about their whims and fancies about an ideal ADV. The result is an insane 799cc chapter of vice that will keep you ridiculously pulsating while boiling on the throttle.
Powering the midsize ADV is a 799cc parallel-twin that makes 93hp. Incidentally, this is KTM’s first parallel-twin engine featuring a 270-degree firing interval. The 790 Adventure R gets 240mm of suspension travel on both ends and sits 263mm above the ground.
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