INTENTS TALK

Is the dual-sport motorcycle the new cruiser?

- Kartik Ware

This is not a comparison. Funny thing to say about two bikes that share a LOT of components and are made in the same place, yes? And while I will inevitably state each motorcycle’s qualities, it’s not meant to be a contrast to each other, rather to what each stands for — the cruiser and the dual-sport motorcycle. I run the risk of knitting a few brows at Bajaj by calling the Dominar 400 a cruiser, but I am in a reasonably safe position because I’m pretty sure even Bajaj doesn’t know what exactly the bike is supposed to be. The KTM 390 Adventure, on the other hand, does exactly what it says on the label. Or at least it looks like it will.

That cocky comment up there about the Dominar isn’t without reason. Bajaj launched marketing campaigns to the four winds to make sense of the motorcycle, from ‘dominating the night’ to ‘hyper riding’ to making fun of ‘elephants’, all in quick succession, but none satisfactorily explained what the Dominar is. If there is a focus to this lovely all-rounder, it’s the sportiness with which it does everything. However, its proportions firmly dictate that it falls into a category called ‘power cruiser’ (coughDiavelcough). In our scaled-down Indian context, of course. That KTM-derived motor is fully capable of delivering on the ‘power’, while the rest of the motorcycle can handle everything, including the ‘cruiser’ bit.