KTM Duke 390 deliveries to begin in India by September end

The KTM Duke 390 has managed to bag over 1,500 bookings in less than 2 months of its launch in India. The high performance motorcycle's waiting period stands at 90 days, and in line with this figure, Bajaj Auto expects to begin delivering the Duke 390 to customers from the end of September 2013. This said, the September-end time frame seems be the official time line given by Bajaj for all India deliveries of the Duke 390 as dealers in the bigger cities of the country have already begun receiving small numbers of Duke 390s for customer deliveries.

The motorcycle is produced at Chakan, and will be sold both in India as well as in markets abroad as Bajaj's Chakan factory is the global sourcing and export hub for small capacity motorcycles bearing the KTM Duke moniker. Bajaj Auto, which holds a near 50% stake in Austrian motorcycle maker KTM was, until recently, facing a labour strike at its Chakan factory. 

The 50 day old labour strike disrupted Pulsar production briefly before Bajaj Auto quickly moved to shift production of the Pulsar to its Waluj factory, off Aurangabad. Production of other motorcycles at Bajaj Auto's Chakan plant, such as the KTM Duke series, the Kawasaki Ninja 300/650, and the Bajaj Avenger, was not affected during this strike as the motorcycle maker kept production ticking with sections of non-striking workers.

Going forward, deliveries of the Duke 390 could be further hastened thanks to the labour strike being called off. The Duke 390 is priced at 1.8 lakh rupees  ex-showroom Delhi, which although introductory in nature might not be hiked in the next couple of months. The motorcycle will be sold and serviced through all 72 KTM (Previously ProBiking) stores across India. 

KTM also sells the lower priced sibling of the Duke 390 in India, in the form of the Duke 200. Equipped with shorter gearing, the Duke 200 is more suited to city traffic conditions than the longer geared Duke 390. The Duke 390, owing to its 43.5 PS-35 Nm power and torque outputs from the 373cc four stroke motor, comes with much better performance than its smaller engined sibling.

A sub-6 second 0-100 Kph sprint and a top speed in excess of 160 Kph are notable performance figures for the Duke 390. The motorcycle gets a 6 speed gearbox with a tall 6th gear for more-relaxed highway cruising manners. The Duke 390 is identical to the Duke 200 in terms of styling and features, save for ABS, which is only available on the bigger engined model. 

Source TheHinduBusinessLine