During the 2014 Auto Expo held in New Delhi, Stefan Pierer, CEO of KTM, had told that the two-wheeler manufacturer is working on 500cc and 800cc parallel twin engines.
The Austrian firm, in which Bajaj Auto has a 47% stake, was also considering complex platforms such as 500 and 800 twins for India due to the high duty structure in the country.
Pierer's words lent credence to the news of a possible launch of the 800 naked motorcycle in India. As if affirming his statement, German motorcycle magazine Motorrad has caught the camouflaged pictures of the motorcycle while testing. The 800cc motorcycle cycle is yet to be named. However, the magazine has mentioned the motorcycle as Duke 800.
The spy pictures are exclusive to Motorrad. A rendering based on the spy shot available does give a lot information on how the final product would look like. The motorcycle is expected to be a naked street fighter. The design will be heavily borrowed from the current Duke 690. This means that a head lamp unit with a vertical design and WP suspension will make it to the Duke 800.
The design of the rear and split seats does resemble Duke 200 and 390 in many ways. The Duke 800 will also get dual front disc brakes and chunky exhaust pipes unlike the underbelly exhaust of the Duke 200 and 390.
As far as the engine is concerned, the Duke 800's parallel twin engine will bridge the gap between the single-cylinder engine equipped Duke 690 and the Super Duke 1290 R featuring the twin-cylinder unit. There is no information regarding the output from the engine. However, going by the trend of KTM motorcycles, the Duke 800 is expected to have a segment-leading power.
The Duke 800 is likely to debuted at 2015 EICMA, which will be held in Milan in November 2015.
