Finally, some good news out of KTM to report, as the past 12 months have been nothing but a steady stream of headaches for the Austrian brand. You've had insolvency, layoffs, a will-they-won't-they relationship with MotoGP, sell-offs of recently acquired brands, and a constant on-off of production at its Mattighofen facility.
But in recent weeks, it seems that KTM's been rebounding and rebuilding after being saved by Indian manufacturer Bajaj, as you've seen a host of new motorcycle introductions, the rehiring of folks, the teasing of its 2027 MotoGP engine, and production resuming. The latter of which is important to today's news, as KTM has finally begun production of its first street-legal superbike in the last few years with the 990 RC R.
And that's cause for celebration, as I wasn't too sure that it'd ever actually happen given the above chaos. Better yet, it isn't priced in a way that only billionaires could afford it, which was one of the issues that caused many of KTM's problems. You will still have to wait a little longer before you're able to get one onto the street, though.
According to KTM, the first production 990 RC R motorcycles are set to begin to roll off the production lines in Austria later this month, with dealerships getting the machines later this year and into early next year. And the Track version, a non-street-legal version of the 990 RC R, will begin delivering next February.
Speaking on the production start of the 990 RC R, KTM's Manager of Global Marketing, Riaan Neveling, stated, "At KTM we like the fast-paced life and the KTM 990 RC R is a bike that we’ve been impatient to show for some time now. Why? Through all our model segments and strong technology, we know we’ve been missing that motorcycle that gets a certain type of rider excited. We kick ass when it comes to Naked bikes, Adventure bikes and, of course, Offroad, among others but this is the expression we’ve wanted to deliver for some time. It’s our link to all the efforts to the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing MotoGP project and our outlet for the sea of information and data that has come the way of our Mattighofen R&D experts."
As for price, KTM wants $13,949 for the superbike which, honestly, isn't that bad considering the tech, power, and race-bred engineering you're getting in the motorcycle. Seriously, if you look at others in the segment, Ducati's base-spec Panigale V2 starts at $16,500, Yamaha's R9 starts at $12,499, Suzuki's GSX-R750 is $13,249, and Kawasaki's ZX-10R is $17,799. So KTM is right there with everyone else, and a bit cheaper than Ducati and Kawasaki's offerings.
And, again, that's good, as KTM's pricing structure was one of the call-outs as to why it got into the trouble it did, as while the market was shifting toward cheaper small-displacement motorcycles to continue the mass adoption fueled by the pandemic, KTM absolutely wasn't. In fact, it doubled-down on pricier models to the point where nearly every motorcycle, aside from its 390s, cost $20,000. So seeing KTM price this right makes me hopeful for its future.
But I'm stoked to see this motorcycle finally come to fruition, as not only has it been a long-time coming, it's been a rough time, too.
