Spied! 2017 KTM 1190 Adventure Spy Shots

Fresh photos just in today from a sneaky photog in Europe, showing to the world for the first time an updated version of KTM's venerable 1190 Adventure model. At first, the differences are obvious. A massive new headlight setup is the most prominent addition, possibly incorporating KTM's lean-angle technology into a light that looks through corners. The shape and panels of bodywork surrounding the fuel tank being changed, too. The windscreen appears similarly angular and adjustable—we'll just hope KTM has refined the system, because the current one causes a lot of quarters to drop into our swear jar.

Aside from the obvious aesthetic changes there are only a few other clues of changes that have been made, or are being experimented with. One image showed a bike on cast wheels, which would be a departure for the Adventure series of machines, which typically use spoke rims (the Euro-spec 1050 Adventure, is an exception to the spoke rule). There are also clearly different updates happening to the various machines. For instance, what appears to be an 1190 Adventure R clearly has a smaller windscreen and standard crash bars (as do the current models), meaning slightly different updates to the bodywork.

Although the cases, sump, and exhaust look largely the same as the current bikes, we expect some amount of tinkering to be going on inside the engine. Either for emissions standards and better efficiency, or to improve the powerplant in general. The possibility still remains that KTM will consolidate its lineup of Adventure models by eliminating the standard 1190, keeping the 1050 (mostly for Europe, surely), 1190 Adventure R, and 1290 Super Adventure. That would keep three engines but eliminate a model from the line, while maintaining the spread of product. Expect these new Austrian ADVs to debut later this year as 2017 models.