KTM 1190 Adventure Suspension Information and Upgrades

KTM had some issues with the 1190 Adventure's rear. The dyno shows lumps and bumps where there shouldn't be. Not to worry though, we finished it off for them. Comparable to suspension 'kits" that cost as much as five thousand Australian dollars.

Both the 1090R and 1190R benefit from some setup. While the 1090 is more dirt orientated out of the box, it can be further refined while keeping the 220mm travel front and rear. Its quality over quantity, the bikes are tall enough, we scrutinise every mm of travel on the dyno and it works!

The KTM 1190 Adventure got a name early on for the rear guard being broken by the tyre. The KTM fix was a revision kit, R15019-00, with a stiffer 180N spring and a longer bumper. This made some people happy but not all. Rider feedback was a soft feel, especially in the rear while some riders called it harsh.

Well, they are both right. We think it's largely under damped, which is causing the soft feel as well as the harshness.

We have been working with 1190 and 1090 for a few years, testing the suspension with Chris Birch and checking lots of settings on the dyno. We've honed in on the weak points and we now offer a complete answer for the 1090/1190R, front and rear. This is comparable in performance to the Touratech rear shock and fork cartridge kit, but significantly cheaper.

We do not change the stock fork springs and shock springs for most applications - the stock 5.6N fork springs and 180N shock spring are suitable for a 80-100Kg rider. The stock suspension is under damped in our opinion, and it's this that's causing the problems, not the springs. Every fork and shock is tested on our suspension dyno to ensure it meets our standards. We don't do guesses around here, everything is measured to make sure it is working the way it should.

KTM 1090 / 1190R Adventure Forks


The forks are the WP 48mm SPLIT as found on the KTM 690 from 2012 on. Chris Birch has ridden on one of our settings and offered comments, with only the rebound on the fork needing more work. He was very happy with every other aspect. Another 6 valving changes later we have a new setting to test. We are always testing to find new standards in suspension performance.

Above is a screenshot of 1190R fork dyno testing. The yellow is the stock fork setting, red is rebound on 6 clicks out, blue is that setting at 12 out on rebound, and olive green is the new setting. Note what happens to low speed rebound when the adjuster is moved softer, a lot of low speed rebound is lost. Chris needed to reduce high speed rebound only, but the clicker does both.

The Adventure R can use either Teknik 43.8-465 Series Fork Springs, or HiCalibre 19-168 Series Fork Springs.

KTM 1090 / 1190R Adventure Shock


This is the "updated" bumper to help stop the rear wheel hitting the guard. Leaves the WP shock with just 28mm of travel before hitting the bumper, then 54mm of travel in the bumper. So do we use the bumper as a ride height control? No. We finish the R&D the factory skipped.

Pressure balance the PDS shock, hit some real world dampening targets and let 1190 riders have fun with confidence, with no chance of breaking your rear guard.

The stock rear shock absorber does not have a secondary piston, like a conventional PDS. It's more like a KTM 85 in both bore and shaft size. Yes, you read that correctly. Our shock modifications give major changes. The rebound curve comes in for a rework, the two main issues circled. Stock in green, our setting in blue. As you can see from the dyno graph, the stock shock gets a huge kick when anything other than the tiniest bump gets the rubber bumpstop doing most of the damping. With our valving though, you get a stable, linear and predictable setup.