KTM upgrading Duke 390 again? New spy shots surface

Representative image

KTM's 390 Duke is probably not in much need of an upgrade, but if the company wants to give us one, who are we to stop them? First launched in 2012 with the second-gen 390 breaking ground in 2016, the naked bike has done quite well for itself, not only in the Indian markets, but internationally too.

While it is still in prototyping stage, auto publication RideApart has managed to get some pretty amazing spy shots of the bike. The images give us a peek into interesting features of the bike.

The most prominent of these is the redesigned trellis frame. It appears to have an additional lattice girder segment which could improve torsional rigidity. It also seems to be positioned slightly higher up in relation to the engine. The swingarm too looks beefier now with a nice bulge towards the edge of the tyre.

Another feature that seems to have changed is the rear monoshock. Sure, it still looks like the same old white one, but it looks offset to the right. The front forks are the same WP upside downs too, but there seems to be some amount of adjustability added to it. Now, whether this is for KTM's engineers to tune the suspension in the prototyping stage or whether it will come down to the production bike is yet to be seen.

Getting down to the mechanical bit, the engine will probably be the same 373.5cc single-cylinder too, but the RideApart article does mention modest upgrades to boost performance numbers, probably due to rivals like the Kawasaki Ninja 400. The exhaust too has been routed under the gearbox this time instead of over it.

There is one more thing that is worth mentioning here. The fuel tank, although completely raw, seems to be larger in size than the 13-litre tank we have now. Good news for people planning to tour on the 390 maybe? The headlamp setup still looks the same vertically stacked split unit along with the full-colour TFT dash too.

Now this may be exciting, but remember that the bike is in early prototyping stage and we don't expect it to come to markets too soon. The earliest we get to see the bike will probably be next year's EICMA with a launch in the following year. So, who's waiting for 2021?