New KTM Sport Bike?

I am a big fan of the KTM Duke.  Great bike, easy to ride, handles great, looks good. etc. 

I also love sport bikes--handling, braking, power, etc.

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.