2018 KTM 790 DUKE PROTOTYPE
FIRST RIDE
P72
But that's all changed with
the debut of the 790 Duke at
the EICMA Milan Show last
week. It's powered by an-all
new 800cc parallel-twin mo-
tor designated the LC8c—as in
"compact." KTM engineers led
by Philipp Habsburg, the compa-
ny's Vice President of R&D, have
been working on this for the
past three years, and while it will
initially power two distinct vari-
ants, the Duke streetrod and the
multi-purpose 790 Adventure,
expect a range of different mod-
els using the same engine which
will, in time, together represent
KTM's best-selling on-road seg-
ment. That's the expectation of
KTM AG board member Gerald
Kiska, whose Salzburg-based
Kiska Design company has been
responsible for designing every
single KTM model since 1992,
when KTM's current president
Stefan Pierer took over the com-
pany. That includes the unpaint-
ed black 790 Duke prototype I
found awaiting me at the KTM
Technologies building across the
road from Kiska Design, when
I was summoned to Salzburg
for an exclusive first look at this
significant new model in KTM's
history—including a brief getting-
to-know-you debut ride on this
well-used development bike.
"We think we have a good
offering in the entry-level and
