All this yada yada about forks and shocks makes me wonder who are the really good riders? The men and the boys? Is it the ones who can't do without the biggest stanchions, the longest travel, the most progressive springs, the 'dampingest' damping, the most adjustment settings? Who dismiss yesterday's greatest as today's rubbish? 
Or the ones who just ride.....?
I dont get this?
Are you saying suspension quality doesnt matter?
I had an 1190, struggled with bottoming out so upgraded the suspension. Now I have a 265mm travel 990, and one can definitely take much harder hits and go much faster in tough terrain than with a lesser suspension. There is no gritting your teeth anymore when you hit a washout, or jump a cattle grid, not its a grin.
Where I do agree with you is wrt this:
peteb "The suspension has been it's biggest drawback, give it some adjustability and it would have tempted me when it first came out.''
Did your wife test ride it and found the suspension not good enough?
Molten I regard suspension as the most important part of getting a bike set up. I fiddle with shims stacks (had a 950S and although it was pretty good out of the box I changed a bit and got it much better, and have always changed internals on the plastics) and my own home built vacuum bleeder for servicing. I put much more emphasis on suspension than I do, for example, getting more power out of a motor. So when KTM released the standard 790 I was pretty bummed, because there isn't much to adjust (only very poor shock preload) and you would have to be diving inside the whole time to try and tweak it, and once set up nothing you could change out on the road/trail. It was a cop out. And yes I know Mr Birch will ride the standard faster than anything I could even with factory suspension, but that's not the point.
This bike isn't solely for my wife, it's for me, and both of us. We took it on a test drive but that's it. I want something I can take alone through Lesotho, or otherwise we can both go out riding together. The 950S was a wonderful bike, but it was too tall when we were together. The standard 790 has a lower stance, a nice seat for her, a bit higher screen for touring, and other odds and ends which the 790R doesn't have. This isn't going to be my offroad bike, I have plastics for when I want to do that kind of riding. But the 'S' as it currently stands just doesn't have the capabilities I would want from a multi purpose bike.
That's why I was so keen on the Norden, would be a nice compromise between 'S' and "R', but unfortunately quite a while before we see that in SA (that is aside from a few misgivings I have about Husky backup in KZN).
Topic: KTM 890 Adventure R and Adventure R Rally (Read 1589 times)
