The KTM Duke 200 Is Here

[Peon Maface]

We’ll have to quit making little-bike jokes about the 390 Duke, because KTM just released details of its new 200 Duke naked. You know how much we all love the 390 (also the 390 Adventure), and we have no doubt the KTM 200 Duke will be just as much fun albeit at a less rapid pace. 

With a seat an inch lower than the 390’s, at just 31.6 inches, and a price tag even lower – $3,999 – this one pretty much blows ownership obstacles completely out of the water.

It doesn’t appear there’s much skimping on the old family recipe, either: The 200 gets a WP 43mm Apex fork like the 390’s, and the same linkless suspension and swingarm at the rear (which is preload adjustable). Those look like the same Bybre brakes, too, including a 4-piston front caliper, and the littlest Duke gets standard ABS with a Supermoto mode so you can back it into corners. Please be careful.

The sweet steel trellis frame (with bolt-on subframe) looks suspiciously like the 390 Duke’s also. It looks like the main difference is the single-cylinder engine that’s bolted into it. It’s still a double-overhead cam design, but displacing 199.5 cc via bore and stroke of 72 x 49mm. Compression ratio is 11.5:1. Four valves are actuated by two overhead camshafts and ultrahard, carbon-coated cam followers, for an ultra-reliable, long-lasting engine according to KTM.

State-of-the-art fuel-injection electronics and close-ratio, 6-speed transmission are said to not only enable performance worthy of the Duke name, but also extremely low fuel consumption. An additional catalytic converter produces minimal emissions, even when riding at full throttle. Which you’ll be doing a lot on this one. A 3.5-gallon steel gas tank should get you pretty far down the road.

Seventeen-inch wheels, a 3-in front and 4-in rear, pack 110/70 and 150/60 radial tires, which will absorb life’s bumps with 4.6 in and 5 in of travel, front and rear.

The whole package weighs just 308.6 pounds, dry, says KTM. For the 390 Duke, they claim 328.5 – so 20 lbs lighter than the already flyweight big brother. Add this to the list of all the cool little inexpensive motorcycles “they don’t make anymore.”

We’ll see if we can pry one out of KTM soon for a nice road test, but you might be able to beat us to the punch: KTM says the Duke 200 should be in dealers this month.

 

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