Much awaited wait for the dream RC series from KTM seems to be turning into reality sometime soon. Earlier this year, the international bike-maker has stated its plans to launch the RC bike series on a global platform sometime in 2014. Fresh reports have been pouring in stating that RC series bikes – 390, 200 and 125 have been spotted undergoing tests on Indian roads. The sports bike-maker has also put an official video showcasing all the three bikes. Currently the Duke series of 390 and 200 bikes has been a hot-seller amongst the younger lot in the country. At the recently held 2014 Auto Expo event in Delhi, Stefan Pierer, President and CEO, KTM Sportmotorcycle AG, said, “We are a fast-growing company, not only with our products, but also with the joint products of Bajaj Auto out of India. We had a record year in 2013. We expect to carry forward the momentum with our full-faired RC motorcycles this year as well. The Indian market is so big; it is expected to be the biggest market in the next couple of years as we are eying sales of 50,000 units.”
The KTM RC 390 shall be powered by 373.2 cc four-stroke, liquid-cooled, single-cylinder engine that generates about 43.5 Ps of power and 35 Nm of torque at 7000 RPM. The ABS technology comes as a standard feature with the RC 390. The RC 200 is powered by a 200 cc, single-cylinder, 4-stroke, spark-ignition, liquid-cooled engine that generates about 25 Ps of power with 19.2 Nm of torque. The RC 125 gets a 124.7cc single-cylinder, liquid-cooled engine that delivers a maximum power of about 15 Bhp with a maximum torque of about 10.8 Nm. All three engine variants are mated to a six speed transmission.
The KTM RC series bikes are expected to undergo production at Bajaj’s production plant in Chakan which is being used currently for the KTM series. As per sources, the international bike-maker shall also unveil a new DUKE 690 for the Indian market, though confirmed reports on the same are awaited. The bike maker is clearly eyeing to create a strong footing for itself in the Indian performance bike segment, but it shall only be clear post the launch of these anticipated bikes.
