2009 doesn’t bring a totally restyled 690 Duke so the bike works with the same longitudinally mounted streetfighter headlights integrated into an aggressive housing that looks like a pretty well made aftermarket piece even though it is a standard feature of the bike. The side plates and fenders look sharp too while the supermoto-style seat is positioned at 34.06" from the ground.
The 17-inch wheels, 320mm front disc brake and under engine exhaust all indicate that we’re dealing with a veritable sports bike while the supermoto-style handlebars works with the seat in order to get us pretty confused about the bike’s specific category, but even more interested to see what it’s up to when on the move.
Orange and White where the 2008 color schemes for this model and they carry on to 2009, but this year’s special color for the middleweight Duke is Black. If this would have only got an orange painted frame and upgraded engine, we would have talked about a very special 2009 KTM 690 Duke R, just as we did about the 2009 KTM 1190 RC8 R and 2009 KTM 990 Super Duke R models. These models are all related and it’s just too bad that the small Duke was excluded from the performance and visual upgrading process.
