There’s a new KTM 890 Duke, it’s called the 890 Duke GP, and out of all the 890 Dukes, it’s probably the trickest looking one going.
I’ll be honest, I did get a bit excited when I saw the name KTM 890 Duke GP. I thought the GP version might be the super saucy, fully sorted race version of the 890 Duke. And then I remembered that that already exists, it’s called the KTM RC 8C and it’s £30k.
But to be quite frank, any KTM 890 Duke related news excites me, because the 890 Duke (as well as the 890 Duke R) is a seriously impressive little bike. Probably one of the most exciting in the naked-middleweight sector, particularly if we’re talking about the more expensive (£11,049) ‘R’ version. The standard 890 Duke is £10,049.
As it happens, the ‘GP’ version is actually the same as the standard 890 Duke, save from a MotoGP inspired colour scheme. Yep, it’s got the same 115hp LC8c engine, the same WP Apex suspension, and the same six-axis IMU controlled electronics suite. But I think you’ll agree, it looks seriously sweet.
Fit
You’ll pay £10,249 for the KTM 890 Duke GP (an extra £200 over standard) which isn’t a massive amount in the scheme of things. It’s an extra 2% more expensive, but I’d say it’s easily 20% better looking. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, isn’t it? Some people would rather save their £200, and I won’t argue with them.
What I think is a tiny bit strange though, is that KTM have given this bike an actual model name of its own, when the only difference between this and the standard bike is a paint job. I know that’s not completely unheard of, but there were already two different colour options available on the 890 Duke (orange and black, grey and black), neither of which had their own model name.
Dream on
Now I might be grasping at straws here, putting two and two together and getting four, but I’m wondering if we can infer anything from this decision. Could the GP be the basis of something special later on? As I said before, I know the KTM RC 8C exists, but it’s £30k which is a little bit too saucy for most of us. And I know the KTM 890 Duke R exists, but that is still just a road bike, albeit a little bit snazzier than the Duke.
Perhaps we can look forward to something, in the near or distant future, that’s somewhere in between the 890 Duke R and the RC 8C. A fully sorted race bike with 130ish-bhp that we can all afford.
It’s something that I believe the market is lacking in at the moment. And I also believe that the 890 Duke would be the perfect starting point for that type of thing. Will it ever happen? Is that what the 890 Duke GP is getting the world ready for? Or am I living in a dream world?
