BMW G 310R vs KTM 390 Duke: Who wins [Video]

BMW Motorrad’s recently launched 310 twins has got everyone talking. The bikes offer excellent build quality, good engines and are quite a looker apart from many other notable features. We recently brought you a video comparison of the Bajaj Dominar and the G 310 GS. Today, we bring you another video which shows the Beemer pitted against a KTM 390 Duke. Would the Germans be able to take on the Austrians, let’s find out.

The drag race has been conducted on an empty and flat stretch of road and spanned over three rounds. However, the result remained the same in all three rounds with the KTM showing the BMW who’s the boss. The first round begins with the KTM gaining ground over the BMW since the start and maintaining the lead till the end of the round. The second round proves to be no different with the KTM again winning the race.

In the third round, the riders exchange their rides and once again get ready for the race. However, this time too the KTM wins easily, leaving the BMW in dust. So what is the reason behind the BMW G 310R losing the drag races to the KTM 390 Duke? Well, the answer is quite simple, the Duke is able to access its performance at lower rpm compared to the BMW and also has more overall power and torque on tap. This translates into better performance and also better engine response time than the BMW.

Talking of figures, the BMW G 310 R has a 313cc single cylinder engine which produces 33 Bhp @ 9,500 and 28 Nm of torque@7,500 rpm. The KTM on the other hand comes with a 373.2 cc single cylinder engine churning out 42.9 Bhp @ 9,000 rpm and maximum torque of 37 Nm @ 7,000 rpm. As you see, the figures speak for themselves for what happened in the drag race.

The KTM engine has more power and torque  and more boost is available earlier on in the rev band as compared to the beemer. Though the 390 Duke weighs around 5 kg more than the G 310 GS, the power and torque difference of almost 10 Bhp/9Nm covers up for that easily.

What however the Duke doesn’t have more than the BMW is the asking price for the bike. The BMW G 310 GS retails for Rs. 3.09 Lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) while the KTM 390 Duke comes at Rs. 2.44 lakhs. That’s a price difference of more than Rs. 60,000. And with India being a price conscious market, this probably seals the deal for buyers.