Bajaj Auto has started testing the KTM 690 Duke in India. A BikeWale reader had recently spotted one being tested, along with a few Duke 390’s, in the Leh region of Ladakh a few days ago, but was unable to take pictures as the test riders on the motorcycle requested him to refrain from taking photos.
We already know that Bajaj is in the process of fine tuning their Duke 390 based Pulsar equivalent. Rajiv Bajaj, CEO of Bajaj Auto had confirmed of launching bigger capacities KTM and Pulsar in 2014-2015 for the Indian market and this sighting clearly indicates Bajaj’s plan to launch this single cylinder machine in the country. Since the existing version was launched few months back, it might also mean that this motorcycle could end up being locally manufactured.
The KTM 690 Duke is powered by a single-cylinder 690cc liquid-cooled engine that churns out 68PS at 7500rpm and 70.5Nm of torque at 5500rpm which is its biggest USP. The engine is mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox and the motorcycle has a kerb weight of just 145.5 kg giving it what we would call a ‘ mind blowing’ power to weight ratio of 454 bhp per tonne.
We feel that Bajaj has been giving its Indian consumers some real value for money products. With the introduction of KTM 690 Duke, the value proposition to its customers will increase drastically. Expect the 690 Duke to be launched in India between Rs 4 lakh and Rs 4.5 lakh as the company wouldn’t want the sales of the Kawasaki Ninja 300 to be affected in this regard.
