KTM 790 Duke to be launched in India soon

The Austrian motorcycle maker KTM will be launching the street-naked KTM 790 Duke in India next couple of months and one can expect the KTM 790 Duke to get a premium price tag in the north of INR 8 lakhs. Also, the folks at Mattighofen (KTM HQ) will be upgrading the bike to meet the upcoming Euro 5 emission norms in European motorcycles. The latter is expected to carry the brand name KTM 890 Duke and an increased engine displacement.

Called as the scalpel, the KTM 790 Duke will be brought to India via the CKD (Completely Knocked Down) route. The bike will be assembled at Bajaj’s Chakan facility, along with the rest of the smaller-capacity KTM family. However, several media sites have reported that the KTM 790 Duke will be limited to just 100 units in India.

Powering the KTM 790 Duke is a 799 cc parallel-twin, liquid-cooled LC8c engine. Coupled to a 6-speed gearbox, the engine can squeeze out 105 PS of power and 86 Nm of torque. Competing against Suzuki GSX-S750 and Triumph Street Triple, KTM 790 Duke gets 4 riding modes (Sport, Street, Rain and Track). Besides that, the motorcycle gets features like traction control, cornering ABS, motorcycle slip regulation and ride by wire technology.

Other than that, KTM 790 Duke is fitted with an LED headlamp, wheelie control and a slipper clutch. The all-colour TFT instrumentation is offered with smartphone integration as the one seen in KTM Duke 390.

Almost all major manufacturers are gearing up to upgrade the engine displacement of their performance motorcycles to meet the upcoming stricter Euro 5 norms. There is no official confirmation yet, but the upgraded KTM 890 Duke may get Variable Valve Timing, a technology seen in the new 2010 BMW S1000RR.

Euro 5 emission norms will also include a limit on non-methane hydrocarbons which have not been controlled previously. Without delving deep into the technical jargon, the tough part of this Euro 5 jump will be to beat the non-methane hydrocarbons emissions which form the bulk of an engine’s emission gases.

India, will be shifting to Bharat Stage-VI (BS-VI) emission norms from April 1, 2020 after skipping the BS-V stage.