KTM is growing incredibly fast in India. Last year, the Austrian marque sold 64,000 bikes?up more than 25% on the previous year. It?s enough to give pause to top-selling incumbents Hero and Bajaj, and the trend has been noticed by top custom shop Rajputana.
?We had not seen a cafe racer build done on a 390 Duke in India, so we decided to give it a go,? says founder Vijay Singh. ?It was a client project and we used a 2015 Duke.?

Rajputana have a rock-solid reputation in the subcontinent; when Harley-Davidson launched the Street, for example, they tapped the Jaipur-based shop for the first officially sanctioned custom Street build.
This KTM was a private client commission, though. The 390 Duke is a popular model, along with the 200, since the Indian market favors smaller capacity bikes. And the 43 hp single-cylinder engine?also used in Husqvarna?s 401s?is one of the best in the business.
The usual brief with custom KTMs, no matter where the builder is based, is to make it look less like a KTM. The dynamic qualities of the bikes are well liked, but some retro-inclined folks find the distinctive styling too hard-edged or in-your face. And that was the case here.
The Rajputana crew has left the engine and suspension alone, since KTM dialed in those elements brilliantly at the factory. There?s a straight-through exhaust system to free up the breathing, but the main effort has been focused on the bodywork: there?s a new tank, tail unit and mini fairing hand-crafted from 20-...