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Why our upper crash bars so different – KTM 1090 and 1190 Adventure

It’s not a “clickbait” post. Seriously, we’ve got something different here for the KTM 1090R/1190R models that – as far as I’m concerned – nobody has ever produced. 


Note: What you’re about to see below is merely just a prototype and as such it’ll have to be tested properly on and off-road. 

I do not like “floating” upper crash bars. They almost defeat the purpose of calling them crash bars. That’s how easily they collapse under the weight of 480lbs/230kg adventure bikes. They may resist a bit more if there are proper aftermarket handguards installed but that’s still a gamble. 

So what happened is that we began looking for solutions. See, we had to find a mounting point to add a proper bracket to. Something that is not just a tacky, flimsy extension of the frame, such as the cluster mount. 

We found something. The question was – and it was a big question – whether a mounting bracket would interfere with the steering at all. 

So far, it’s a definite no! To 100% confirm this, I’ll be covering all sorts of off-road scenarios etc this week and next. 

I’m going to return with more details, videos etc. shortly. Until then, check out the photos below of our upper crash bars development on the in-house KTM 1090R Adventure and please let us know your thoughts! Email: info@outbackmotortek.com

The front end of the upper bars are taking up shape.

Look from the rear.

Final shape and look of the Outback Motortek KTM 1090 Adventure upper crash bars.

It’s not the traditional “floating” design. There’s a great, on-of-a-kind support system. Wait for it…

There it is! It’s yet to be tested but so far it’s rock solid!

We’ve used the same 22mm diameter tubing as the factory KTM one. Why did we not choose larger diameter? Because that’s not what makes the difference during a crash. It’s the mounting tabs and mounting points!

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