You read it first on MotorBeam. KTM will finally launch the RC 390 in India on the 9th of September, 2014. The RC series from KTM has been long awaited and although many believed the RC 200 would come first, we were quite sure that KTM would bring the RC 390 first. The RC 200 will be launched in the subsequent months, mostly in October. Bookings have now opened and reports of bookings being opened a few weeks back were untrue as most dealers refused to take bookings as they had no idea about the launch date of the bike.
The RC 390 is the full faired version of the Duke 390 but gets many changes although the engine remains untouched. Power comes in from a 373.2cc, single-cylinder mill which outputs 43 PS of power and 35 Nm of torque, matched to a 6-speed gearbox. The bike gets ABS as standard while tyres are super grippy ones from Metzeler. The RC 390 has a smaller tank than the Duke 390 and the suspension travel has been reduced too. The bike is a track machine with an aggressive riding position, thereby being an excellent upgrade for Yamaha R15 owners.
The KTM RC 390 will be priced at Rs. 2.40 lakhs (on-road, Mumbai) and won’t have any direct rivals at the time of launch. However, once Honda launches the CBR300R and Yamaha bring in the R25, the KTM will face some Japanese competition. The only rival of the RC 390 is the Kawasaki Ninja 300, a bike priced too optimistically. The RC series of small capacity bikes were unveiled at the EICMA motorcycle show last year and at this year’s show, we can expect KTM to unveil the Adventure versions of the Duke/RC 125, 200 and 390.
