Twinning and Winning

27th November 2025

The first is the original Indian powerbike. Well thought-through product marketing by Bajaj targeting an attention hungry new India launched its sales into orbit in the early 2000s. Thanks to the Pulsar, motorcycles were not about getting from point A to point B but more about how you felt on the way. That it was not a 1950s design bolted onto a 1970s leaky engine helped. An 18-year old Bajaj Pulsar is still a Bajaj Pulsar.

The second is an orange dream vetted across the deserts of Dakar and its cousins in different continents. The full form of KTM may be beyond the linguistic capabilities of most of its customers but Kronreif & Trunkenpolz Mattighofen sure did know how to make a motorcycle. The growl putter of the KTM Duke's engine divides opinion viciously as does its behaviour in traffic. Nobody likes being overtaken by an orange blur but some do take pleasure in the existence of such manoeuvrability.

Possessing both in a single stable might seem unnecessary but practicality wasn't the first concern of any motorcyclist's life anyway. For that, there will always be the public bus.