Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128244
Il7M RCB Superbike The KTM RCa is as tiny as It looks. The current prototype weigh s In under 370 pounds dry, and KTM claims the production version will weigh only a bit m ore at around 385 pounds . M ost of the b ik e 's weight saving s com e from the In credibly ligh t motor. By A LA N CATH CART PHO T OS BY H ERWIG PEU KER T M ' s arrival in the Sup erb i k e sector ha d to happen sooner or late r - but now we know it' s going to be soo ner, not la ter. Wit h t he deb ut o f i t s prototy pe RCB 999cc 75 degree V-t wi n sp ortb ik e at the Tokyo Sho w on October 22 , the Au stri an' em peror of th e off.,'ยท- . road world is telling the wo rld th at it s' transition from dirt-bike speci ali st to fu ll- ra nge manufacturer i s gathering mome nt um and will b e promo ted a c c o rd i n g to t h e only way K TM k no w s via success in racing , but th is tim e on ta rmac, rather than dirt. KTM tr eaded the path fro m ba nkru pt cy to boom times ov er the past decade, but this year's productio n of 7 1,000 m otorcyc les underp inn ed one of t he m oto rcy cl e wo rld's g rea tes t mod ern -day turnarounds , ac hieve d .on the b a c k o"f a' st ream of W orld Moto cross and Enduro Championship titles and it s LCB 95 0cc Y-t win rac ers ' domi na nc e of th e prestig ious Par is - Dakar marathon and ot her K > 16 D ECEMBER 10, 2003' c u e The motor Is derived from the c ompany 's LCS off-road motor; the 999cc liquid-cooled 7S -degree drysump power plant weighs (i ncluding a single balance shaftl only 123 pounds; that's 17- to 26-percent lighter than KTM's V-twin rivals. I e n e 1ftl s desert ral li es. The Austrian fi r m has built a w or l d wide repu t ation fo r the excell ence of its products on the back of success in rac ing, achieved by both its own wo rks riders and by customer race teams - a si m il ar path to that fol lowed b y i t s road ' ae-ing co unterparts at Ducati, whose do minance of the sporting Ytwin four-stroke sector KTM is now firml y targeting . I had the c h a n c e to v isit th e co m p a ny 's modern B2,500 square fo ot factory in t he upper Aust rian town o f Mattighofe n, not far f ro m Salzburg , to look at the p rot ot ype RCB Supe rb ike befo re it wa s shi pped to J apan fo r its p ub lic unv eiling, thus underlin in g how serious KTM is about go in g t armac. Until j u st th ree month s ago , the chosen medium for KTM 's entry int o road race co m pet iti on had appear ed set t o b e M o t oGP , u s in g i ts own 990cc pn eum at ic -v alv ed 75-degree Y4 engi ne crea ted entirely in -house at Mattighofen, five of which now exist in prototy pe form . But in a shock announcement back in July , KTM boss St efan Pierer revealed that he and hi s partners had m ade the to ugh decision to call a halt to the Mo toGP project in fa vor of concentrating thei r efforts on developing a twin -cylinder Superbike based on their dominant dirt bike eng ine, the liquid-cooled, dry-su mp , dohc eight -valve 75deg ree Y -t w in LCB , fitted wi th the same Ke ihin EFI as the fi rm 's new SuperDuke streetrod, which sees this engine expanded to a full 1000cc for the firs t time. " We now realize that this high-t ech form of two-whee led Form ula 1 do es not co nform with KTM 's est abli shed poli cy o f selling to th e c ustomer the bi k es we go racing with as a factor y, ~ says Pierer of MotoGP. "A nd racinqis the ma in issue for KTM - it 's th e fundamental bas is o f the company, the roo ts of our e xistence . We cou l d never do th is with our Mo toGP bik e,