Austrian manufacturer KTM is already popular for producing one of the most engaging motorcycles. As the brand has years of experience in manufacturing dirt bikes and engines for off-roading bikes. The Austrian bike brand already has a twin-cylinder monster, a 1301cc engine that propels the beast by producing nearly 180bhp while 140Nm of torque.
The beast is the result of the uncompromising attitude of the manufacturers, as most street naked, or street fighters are based on fully-faired sports bikes. Whereas the Duke is made as a Streetfighter that can be taken to the track for a few spins. While many people were overwhelmed with the sheer displacement or a 1290cc streetfighter is not a reasonable choice to opt for.
Thus in 2017, the company brought in a mid-sized bike that can bridge the gap between the 390 and 1290 with a brand new Duke 790 dubbing it as the ‘Scalpel’. Though the bike was released in Europe in 2018, however, it seems like KTM was not satisfied with the 799cc engine’s performance, thus they decided to increase the displacement to 890cc and hence replaced the engine only a year after its introduction in the market.
The year 2021 is seeing a lot of new launches for automobiles, as 2020’s pandemic ruined many of the anticipated new entries of various new entities in the auto market. Recently the Duke 890 and Duke 890R were unveiled with new attractive color schemes. While the automakers also gave the hint of the Scalpel’s launch in India. As the Duke 790 was launched in India in late 2019 in BS-IV variant, and only after few months the emission norms kicked in and the BS-VI of 790 never produced. Thus making the bike available in India only for 5-6 months.
The 2021 Scalpel now comes with updated front and rear suspensions, basically the only thing that is different from the Duke 390 is the option of the bigger twin-cylinder engine. But the upgraded electronics package is similar to the smaller sibling already available in the country. While some features are directly borrowed from the Super Duke 1290R, like the improved cornering MTC functionality.
The new Scalpel gets a six directional lean angle sensor from its big brother. The sensor not only feeds info of Side to Side movement but also the Front to Back movement and finally the Rotation of the bike on a vertical axis. But before KTM announces the launch dates for India, we can squeeze all the fun we can get from the younger sibling Duke 390 because they look very similar.
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