Get a sneak peek of the KTM RC390 – sort of

By
Zac Kurylyk
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Here are some views of the KTM RC390.
Here are some views of the KTM RC390.
Here are some views of the KTM RC390.

It’s no secret that KTM is working on a fully-faired sport version of their Duke 390. It’s no secret that the bike will be based on a race machine.

But we were waiting until EICMA to see that machine, which we assumed would be based on their Moto 3 bike, until now. Now we have some pictures of KTM’s RC390, giving us a good idea what the street-based machine will look like. Add in some lights, a license plate, passenger pegs and some other odds and ends, and you’ve got KTM’s future offering.

The specs for the new street machine look interesting. The bike is supposed to weigh a bit over 306 lbs wet, with 43 hp (the KTM 390 Duke’s specs). Those numbers are very close to the two-stroke 250 cc race replicas of the 1980s that many pine after. An ’86 Suzuki RG250 Gamma, for instance, put out around 45 hp, with a 337-lb wet weight. Although, we doubt KTM will offer the RC390 in Walter Wolf colours.

Interestingly, the track version of this bike will actually be detuned from the street version, putting out 38 hp instead of the mid-40s. Of course, it’ll also be lighter than the street bike, since you can pull off a lot of lights and other bits for track work.

KTM has announced a spec series (ADAC Junior Cup) based around the track bike. Whether or not they’ll have regional spec series, similar to Honda’s CBR250 series that runs in Canada, is another question – we don’t know for sure whether or not the bike is coming here yet.

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8 COMMENTS

  1. Sounds like double whammy for competition, RC390 together with P375 can pre-empt any competition. Bajaj-KTM is doing unimaginable things within the premium section. If this can be offered at about 2.5 lakh OTR, then it’ll definitely have an effect on Ninja 300.. btw, have u people thought about milage of the bike ? It has to be atleast 40km per 1 ltr

  5. I have been waiting way too long for a bike like this, the ninja 250 is too ‘budget’ the Honda 250 is too ‘Honda’ We really need a proper sub 400cc sport bike to hit North America. Thank you Ktm! (make sure you give it the over under lights from the 690 duke 😉

  7. Finally, KTM steals the show from Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki, and Suzuki by developing what should be a fun, powerful, modern, high-quality, affordable, and light-weight sport-bike. It will have a better power to weight ratio than Honda’s new CBR500 and Kawasaki’s corpulent Ninja 300. It should get considerably better fuel-economy too. Rumours indicate that it will sell for around $6000 in the U.S. It will probably force Yamaha to further delay their plans for a YZF-R250. If the Honda we know today were to produce this – it would be called a “World Bike”, weigh 410 lbs wet, produce 30 hp, redline at 7000 RPM, but be sold at a similarly affordable price so everyone could afford to be equally bored when riding it.

    • “Finally, KTM steals the show from Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki, and Suzuki by developing what should be a fun, powerful, modern, high-quality, affordable, and light-weight sport-bike.”

      Indeed. The class has been sorely lacking since the demise of the 2-smokers and hopped-up 4-cylinder 250s/400s.

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