2021 KTM 390 Adventure: Pro-XP Adventure Day Riding School Review

The Idea

The Adventure part of KTM Pro-XP is split into three board experiences. There’s the Trails, which we attended a couple of months back. Then you have this - the Adventure Day. And finally, there is the Adventure Tour.

For a 250 or 390 Adventure owner, the Trails experience is an eye-opener. It not only proves that their bikes can go off-road, but, it also shows that they themselves need to upgrade their riding skills to keep up with the motorcycle. Add to it the Adventure Tours which have a healthy mix of off-road fun built into it - be it gravel, sand, or slush - and suddenly knowing how to ride a bike off-road correctly becomes even more important. 

The Adventure Day

As a concept, Adventure Day is an off-road riding training school. One that is designed to instill more confidence in Adventure owners when they venture off-road. To do that, the program focuses on three things - vision, motorcycle control, and body balance. 

Vision is crucial because you go where you look. Also knowing where you are headed helps fine-tune the inputs one gives to the motorcycle - clutch, brake, and throttle control. And finally, one must find balance. In simple terms, it is how the rider moves his or her weight around on the bike to find and keep a good balance point of the motorcycle.

The Drills

The day starts with registration, followed by breakfast, and a quick introduction by our KTM expert for the day - my dear friend, Varad More. Varad quickly runs us through the plan for the day, and soon thereafter, I find myself at the first drill of the day. Now, this is the Silver level of Adventure Day that I am attending. So, I will be building on what I had learnt during the Bronze level. The basics don’t change; only the level of difficulty does. 

We start with the Maze Turns. It’s a tight sequence of turns that only gets tighter with every passing turn. Three things are crucial here. Yes, you guessed them right - vision, motorcycle control, and body balance. To say, it is difficult to complete the course without crossing over the white line, will be a huge understatement.

It is impossible at my skill level to do it. I try and try and try some more. And though it is getting better with every run, I never manage to nail it. Nonetheless, it is a good reminder of the skills I need to build on. 

We continue to build on vision, control, and balance, with the brake-and-slide drill. It’s a simple exercise but one that needs all three things to come together to execute it properly. It goes something like this - get to the cone, lock the rear, slide it till you are pointing towards the exit, hold it till you come to standstill, give it a second, and then power out again. This one is going well.

The next one, too, comes easy. The idea here is to find the balance point of the motorcycle. So, I first go around the motorcycle holding it only at one point at a time while it stands only on its two wheels and not much else. And now, I am walking the bike up a slope playing with both the balance point of the 390 Adventure and understanding and appreciating clutch control so that the bike moves at my walking pace but without me having to push it. It must roll on its engine power alone to cut out the fatigue.

Stepping It Up

We are at the next drill, and it looks daunting.

This is Hill Hack, a drill we also did in the Bronze level. However, instead of a smooth, hard-packed, not-so-steep curated slope, we are now staring at a more intimidating challenge. The slope is steeper. The surface, more slippery. And the margin of error, a lot lesser. 

I ride up the slippery slope, stall the bike, and I must now use the clutch judiciously in order to prevent the bike from rolling downhill. I get off the bike, roll it down the hill backwards, all the while looking for a spot to turn the bike around. I find one, turn it around, and after a sigh of relief, ride it back down. 

Then it was time for The Coffee Grinder. It involves riding standing up with one hand on the throttle and the other holding the handle of the pseudo coffee grinder (in this case, a pipe) while attempting to trace circles along the grinder’s periphery.

Seems simple, yes, but it isn’t.

I start by tracing circles in the anti-clockwise direction with my right hand on the throttle and the left arm in the air fully extended in a hope to catch the handle. After about eight circles, I manage to grab the handle, but, I still can’t complete a full circle while holding it. I have motorcycle control and body balance, but my vision is letting me down. I try it a few more times, but this, like the Maze Turn eludes me till the end.

The Final Frontier

There’s more learning in store post lunch. We must now take on a short and tight course with everything from old tyres to metal barrels to a gravel pit, wood planks, and even rocks trying to impede our progress. Worthy nemesis, no doubt. 

Speed is not the goal here; keeping the 390’s belly from scraping is. A difficult proposition when that’s exactly what the course is designed to do.The thought is - with vision, the right throttle control, and moving one’s weight correctly and timely; belly scrapes, even on this course can be avoided. Knowing when to get on the throttle to raise the suspension, and then leaning back to make the front light so that it rolls over the obstacle easily, is the goal here. 

Now, I jump speed-breakers on the 390 all the time. And that requires a good balance between throttle opening and shifting the weight on the bike. This shouldn’t be too hard. And it isn’t but only for the first two obstacles. 

Then I hit the barrel. I open the throttle too early, and land belly first on the barrel. There’s a loud noise that more than announces my failure. And then the same thing happens at the mud mount. But at least this one is a quiet affair; thank god for soft mud. 

I do clear the rock garden, the slush, the gravel pit, and the wood planks, without hitting the 390 anywhere - lean back and open gas; works wonders here. I go around the course a few more times, stopping only when I finally manage one lap without hitting the bike anywhere. It wasn’t easy.  

It’s almost evening now, and we are on our final challenge of the day - a slippery trail that leads to a formidable water crossing.

After some slipping and sliding, some stalling, and some near falls, I am staring at a crossing that’s at least 50m long with knee-deep water. Plus, I can’t see what’s under the water. Varad has a few volunteers marking the line we must take. If we veer off, we could very well watch our bikes drown. 

Two brave souls take on the crossing before I do. And they make it through. They do it sitting down. I enter standing up. But within seconds, I am back in the seat because the surface under the water is so uneven, so unpredictable, I decide to choose comfort over technique. I struggle, but I eventually make it across. 

I think I managed it because of two crucial things. I kept looking at where I wanted to end up on the other side, no matter what direction the bike got bumped to. And two, I kept the throttle open throughout, which helped me ride over whatever was underneath. If I had rolled off at any point, I am sure, both the bike and I would have gotten a thorough and annoying soaking.

Conclusion

So, is the Adventure Day worth your Sunday and Rs 2,000? Now, if you want to do more than just ride on the road; if you want to wholly enjoy one of the KTM Adventure Tours; if you want to build on your skills, and with it the confidence to actually ride and exploit your 250 or 390 Adventure like its maker intended; then yes, it is totally worth it.

I also realised it’s a great thing for those who already ride off-road. It’s like a refresher course. Over time, we end up getting back to our poor riding habits because they come easily to us. A school, once in a while, helps bring us back on track. And if you own a KTM Adventure; it’s also one of the cheapest ADV schools you can attend.

Photography by Kapil Angane