KTM is reportedly working on a new '990' Duke and recently, a test mule has been spotted in Europe as well. KTM started off its naked middleweight sportbike journey in 2018 with the 790 Duke. The KTM 790 Duke then evolved into the 890 Duke and sometime in the next year or so, we could see the 990 Duke as well. Reports suggest that the motorcycle is completely new ground up and not borrow parts from the 890 Duke, barring one odd panel.
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(The new model gets a bigger engine, new radiator and a new exhaust as well.)
The engine on the test mule seems to be bigger than the one on the 890 Duke. The exhaust and the radiator are new too. With, Euro 5b emission norms coming into play, the engine is likely to get water jackets to nullify the noise as well. The other changes on the 990 Duke include a new swingarm and the chassis seems to get few tweaks as well. The test mule gets split seats, new tank extensions and few new panels as well. The LED headlight unit seems to the same as the KTM 890 Duke.
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(It will be positioned above the current KTM 890 Duke)
Reports suggest that KTM is testing two different setups for suspension, with different riding geometry as well. The idea behind this could be to gather data for different body styles because KTM may also look at introducing new models based on the '990' platform, especially a sport tourer. Till now, KTM only has the 1290 Super Duke GT as a sports tourer, but many people may want to opt for a sport tourer with a smaller displacement, rather than a full-blown model.
Source: MotorcycleNews
