FAMILY JEWELS

Is the KTM 200 Duke ready to step out of big brother’s shadow?

- Kartik Ware

As much as we love motorcycles, they are merciless towards one another. Whether it’s the sales charts or lap times, there is always going to be a definite winner or loser. And, as it goes with every pair of siblings ever, this violence is all the more earnest when it shares a gene pool. The 200 Duke was the first KTM in India, launched in 2012, and the 390 Duke followed in 2013. These are the machines that cemented KTM’s reputation as the maker of some of the most vigorous motorcycles India has ever seen. And while the 200 Duke is still the largest-selling KTM in India, its popularity never helped when it came to showing big brother up on tarmac. Now, with the BSVI 200 and 390 Dukes, has that margin reduced? Long story short, nope.

Yes, the 200 Duke now gets the emperor’s old clothes, leaving only the 125 Duke wearing the original small-Duke outfit. And you might even wonder where that leaves the 250 Duke, now that the new 200 duplicates its likeness at a lesser cost, but that’s why I began this story the way I did. In any case, this seems to be a part of KTM’s strategy, periodically launching and alternatingly updating models to keep them relevant. In any case, this leaves us with a 200 Duke that now looks like the 250 and more like the 390, and as you can tell that’s no bad thing at all. That’s because, on the showroom floor, anyone can repeatedly hear the line, ‘It looks the same, so why spend more money?’