KTM RC 250 Cafe Racer – Old School Yet Very Modern

KTM and Cafe Racer in the same sentence sounds odd, right? It did it to me too, but that was before I came across the KTM RC 250 Cafe Racer. Jonathan Evan, the man behind Indonesia’s Minority Custom Motorcycles (MCM), has converted a KTM RC 250 into a full-bred neo-retro cafe racer.

The Austrian brand is commonly linked to words like motocross, off-road, futuristic, supermoto etc. but never with ‘modern classics’. This makes the MCM RC 250 Cafe Racer a unique take at KTM’s modern-looking motorcycles.

Jonathan says that he had his goal clear from the moment he started working on the bike. It was a fairly simple goal- to create a cafe racer that celebrated the RC 250’s signature, bright orange trellis frame while looking like a modern cafe racer.

The first step in the conversion from a faired motorcycle to a cafe-racer is obviously to strip down the bodywork. Replacing the bodywork was MCM’s mixture of custom made, cafe racer styled-components.

Starting from the front, the first thing you’ll notice in the cafe racer is the new headlamp. A round headlamp replaces the RC’s signature headlamp design. As you move backwards, the next thing in sight is the new fuel tank. The fuel tank is a hand-shaped piece made from a steel sheet which still holds the same amount of fuel as before to ensure practicality.

Say adios to pillions, as a wasp’s tail rear cowl replaces the old pillion seat. More changes include an integrated tail light and a custom black upholstered seat which completes the cafe-racer design.

To keep the motorcycle ‘modern’, the round headlamp gets halo style LEDs with its small wind deflector and a custom bracket with integrated LED indicators.

From the side, you can see that some custom bodywork is present. As we know, if the fairings disappear, it exposes a lot of electrical components. This is where the custom bodywork comes into play, i.e. to cover these components.

With the new tank, seat and rear cowl in place, the ergonomics undergo drastic changes. To keep up with these changes, MCM has thrown rear-set footpegs into the mix.

Lastly, the KTM RC 250 cafe racer gets fancy Bridgestone Battlax tyres to keep up with the extra cornering clearance, thanks to the absence of a lower fairing. We also expect a bump in performance as the motorcycle gets a Scorpion carbon fibre muffler with a custom stainless exhaust system.

To sum up, the only things that remain close to ‘stock’ are the orange trellis frame and the engine. Almost everything else has undergone some sort of change which has resulted in a very aesthetically pleasing motorcycle. The motorcycle even gets a new dark grey paint with orange pinstripes for added-swagger. We’d like to say Kudos to MCM for creating a modern classic that looks at home even with bigger motorcycles like the Triumph Thruxton, Yamaha XSR and so on.

KTM RC 250 Cafe Racer

• The RC 250 Cafe Racer comes from the Indonesian company, Minority Custom Motorcycles
• It gets a custom fuel tank, rear-set pegs, new lights, new paint job, new bodywork, etc.
• On the performance front, it gets a Scorpion carbon fibre muffler with a custom stainless exhaust system