Cycle News

FIRST RIDE P60 2013 KTM 390 DUKE The Duke 390 offers up big-bike performance. ally at our Austrian factory, and 100,000 at the Bajaj plant - so basically 200,000 units in total, that's the five year target." The latest new product of this joint venture is a key step towards achieving this goal, for the KTM 390 Duke is a true world bike the first model in the Indian-made Duke family that will be sold globally, reaching Asian and Latin American customers later this year, and those in the U.S. and Canada beginning in October. As such, its arrival adds a further payoff for the shrewd gamble made by Pierer and his counterpart Rajiv Bajaj in developing a range of cool, affordable, singlecylinder streetbikes that are helping to attract the next generation of riders to choose motorcycling over other forms of leisure pursuit. "In my opinion, this the biggest single challenge for today's motorcycle manufacturers - how can we direct our future products towards a younger customer?" says Pierer. "The main thing is to get young people on motorcycles for the first time – then we can try to get them to keep on riding, preferably with KTM, as they progress through life and up the capacity scale." Hence the point of the new 390 Duke retailing in Austria for Euro 4990 ($6555) as a stepping stone between the 125 version at Euro 4150 ($5451) and the 200 at Euro 4400 ($5780) – all built in India at the Bajaj plant in Chakan and the Austrian-made but much higher-performance 690 Duke at Euro 9895 ($12,999). "The 390 will be our largest capacity Indian-made model," says Duke project leader Sebastian Sekira. "To build the 690 at Chakan would require completely redesigning the engine to allow for local component availability. But except for the chrome-bore cylinder and forged piston, all of the 390 engine and chassis is made by Bajaj to very high standards – just a lot more affordably than we could in Europe. The chassis and almost all the running gear is shared with the 125 and 200, but the engine has been redesigned to deliver three times more power and torque than the 125 Duke, without the restrictions imposed by the EU regulations, in a bike weighing just 10 kilos [22 pounds] more. I think maybe this makes it three times more fun – and for sure it's a more enjoyable way of getting about than a twin-cylinder maxiscooter like the Yamaha TMAX or BMW C650, costing twice as much money, but with a similar performance in terms of the power to weight ratio." Only one way to find out how true that sales pitch is, and that's to take the keys of one of the

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