The internet is now pretty much flooded with pictures and speculations regarding the upcoming KTM 200 and 390 Duke, which are supposed to make their debut at the upcoming Milan motorcycle show or EICMA in November this year. A little while back, we saw spy pictures of the camouflage-clad new 125 Duke testing in Europe as well as a picture of the undisguised 390 Duke taken at the Bajaj plant in Chakan (where these bikes are manufactured). Recently, more pictures of the 200 Duke being tested in India as well as a walk-around video of a camouflaged 390 have come to light.
The 390 video has confirmed the fact that the bike will receive a completely revamped full-colour LCD instrument cluster much like that from the new 690 Duke. The four-way mode switches on the left handlebar also confirm the same. However, the more recent testing pictures of the 200 seem to show the same instrument cluster from the current bike. Now this could either be because the bike is a test mule, but we suspect that in order to differentiate between the models, it's only the 390 that'll get the fancy full-colour unit, while KTM will stick to the older instrument cluster for the 200. However, both the video and spy shots confirm that the key slot has been moved from the top of the triple clamp to the front of the new fuel tank.
Based on sources, we have it on good authority that both the 200 and the 390 Duke will be running the same engines which have been available on these bikes when they were first launched. That's not to say that there will be no changes whatsoever. For one, to make these bikes Euro-IV compliant, the underbelly exhaust has been scrapped in favour of a larger side-mounted unit. There are also some tuning changes expected to go along with the new ride-by-wire throttle for the whole emissions control shebang. But it's believed that power and torque figures will remain unchanged, even though power delivery will be made a lot smoother, especially on the 390. Thanks to the added weight, there's a small chance that the outright performance of these bikes might be very slightly slower as compared to their current versions.
Both the 200 and 390 Duke will get the new two-piece frame (with the bolt-on sub frame), but we believe that there's a chance that the 200 won't get separate function forks like it's more powerful sibling. From what we hear, the 390's new forks will have one side configured to handle compression damping while the other will handle rebound damping. Such forks are already in use on the company's latest dirt bikes. Apart from this though, both bikes will get the same new bodywork, new seats as well has the new headlights, which we suspect will come armed with LEDs for the main beams.
Most of this should get confirmed when the bikes are shown off next month at EICMA, and we're expecting them to hit Indian showrooms anywhere from early to mid next year.
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
