Great Bike

Great Bike

It has already been an extremely exciting year in the 300-400cc space, with the likes of the Triumph Speed 400 and Harley-Davidson X440 joining the neo-retro ranks. And now, it’s the turn of more cutting-edge motorcycles. The all-new KTM 390 Duke will be here very shortly, and to prepare itself for that Austrian charge, TVS has rolled out its new Apache RTR 310. Essentially, this is the naked sibling to the Apache RR310 sportbike, but TVS has gone far beyond just taking off the fairing and replacing the handlebar . One obviously big area of change is the design. You’ve got a very handsome streetfighter look with a hunkered down stance and sharp, clean lines all across. The LED headlight is placed low on the golden upside-down fork, the handlebar is tall and wide, and the tank extensions are just big enough. The bike is chunky up front, especially with that rather large headlight pod, and then flows towards a tail section that’s rather clean, thanks to the number plate and indicators being mounted on the rear tyre hugger. Neat as this design is, there is a distinct resemblance in the overall silhouette and stance to the Ducati Streetfighter V4, and you see very close similarities even in areas like the radiator shrouds and lower cowl.One area where TVS has very much gone down its own path is features, with a lot of innovation and groundbreaking technology on this motorcycle. The twin LED headlights (which seem to be extremely bright) not only turn on and off automatically, but they also adjust their brightness in two stages with the speed of the bike. Our time was spent aboard a bike kitted out with both the BTO customisation packs that TVS is offering for the RTR, which means a whole host of IMU-assisted rider aids, including cornering ABS, cornering traction control and even cornering cruise control. You’ve also got a bi-directional quickshifter, and all this is controlled via a new 5-inch TFT screen that uses Bluetooth to hook up to your phone, your helmet communicator and even a GoPro.