KTM had revealed all the specifications of its India bound Duke 200 at the ECIMA motorcycle show recently. Now the bike was spotted in Pune, where it was snapped very closely, showcasing even the minute of details of this value for money peformance rocket. The Indian version of the Duke 200 is largely the same as its international counterpart. Small changes like the addition of saree guard are apparent, while Bajaj Auto has also used a tyre hugger, similar to the one found on the Pulsar 135 and Yamaha R15 Version 2.0. Although this can be quite useful in preventing fellow riders from being splashed with dirt and mud, most owners will get rid of it as soon as they take delivery of their KTM Duke 200. The KTM Duke weighs just 137 kgs and produces 25.51 BHP of power and 20 Nm of torque. We expect the Duke 200 to be a rocket, giving buyers a much needed performance machine.
The pictures here are of a test mule, which is a pre-prodcution unit but at the final stage of testing before its commercial launch. India is a cost concious market and Bajaj Auto is very well aware about this. Hence, alot of local content has made its way into the KTM Duke 200 to keep costs at bay. Honda too has used high local content on the CBR250R but with Bajaj having an upper hand on procuring components at even cheaper rates, we believe the Duke 200 will easily undercut the baby CBR in terms of pricing. Furthermore Bajaj Auto has utlitzed the parts inventory of the Pulsar and used quite a few components from the Definitely Male motorcycle! The KTM Duke 200 features disc units from Bybre and tyres from MRF, which are India specific. If you look very closely, you will notice that the Indian version of the Duke 200 shares a large number of parts with the Pulsar, including the fuel tank cap, ignition key, switch gear, mirrors, etc. While this might not entirely be a good thing as buyers would want quality on a KTM bike, these measures point to an aggressive pricing, which will seal the deal for most.
