KTM to roll out new Duke 790 in India by April 2019

Michelle L.

March 14, 2019

The KTM Duke 790, notoriously known as the ‘Scalpel’ will be making its way to India through the CKD route. Certain parts of the Duke 790 will be procured locally, such as the indicators, headlights and wiring which will be sourced locally from Minda. Other components such as the engine, chassis and suspension will be directly imported. The Duke 790 features a 799cc LC8c parallel-twin engine in which the ‘c’ refers to ‘compact’, and is mated to a 6-speed gearbox. It is capable of delivering 105hp and 87 Nm of maximum torque.  The transmission is aided by a two-way quick-shifter and the engine is nestled inside a chrome-molybdenum steel frame. The rear sub-frame is made of aluminium. The front forks are separate function as one of them will handle the compression while the other will handle the rebound to allow better shock absorption. The Bosch IMU engine management system comes with four riding modes on the 790, namely Sport, Street, Rain and a fully-customisable Track mode. It also features ABS, wheelie control and an electronically assisted motor slip regulation. The first hundred units of the Duke 790 is already at the Bajaj plant for the purposes of research and development alongside tooling. Operations are speculated to begin in mid-April and its launch will be followed soon after.