The middleweight upright sportbike segment has hit fever pitch, with nearly every manufacturer ponying up a new and exciting competitor. This year, the Austrians are sending the street-focused 2021 KTM 890 Duke into the fray.

The base model 890 Duke completes KTM?s all-important middleweight sportbike lineup, including the up-spec and racetrack-ready 890 Duke R. Of course, with this announcement, we must also bid farewell to the short-lived yet extremely impressive 790 Duke ? a moment of silence, please.

Powering the 890 Duke is none other than the same punchy, rip-roaring 889cc parallel-twin engine producing a claimed 115 horsepower and 67.9 lb-ft of torque, featured in all 890 Duke and Adventure motorcycles. For those keeping score, that?s ten more horsepower and 3.7 lb-ft of torque when compared to the 790 Duke.
It also benefits from all the advancements first seen on the ?R? model, such as a new cylinder-head with 1mm-larger intake and exhaust valves, more aggressive camshaft profiles and forged pistons, and lightened connecting rods to decrease rotating mass. Meanwhile, a 20% heavier crank is used to improve low-rev manners. Lastly, the redline is 1,000 rpm higher, and a Pasch slipper clutch is thrown in for good measure. An optional up/down quickshifter is available.

Shared amongst the middleweight Duke family is a chromoly-steel frame, lightweight one-piece aluminum subframe and cast aluminum swingarm. By using the 889cc engine as a stressed membe...