VOL. 52 ISSUE 22 JUNE 2, 2015 P57
styling taken directly from the
R-series. It looks like a mixed
version of the R1 and R6, racy
and full of attitude that will no
doubt appeal to not just newbies
but older riders, too. Yamaha de-
cided to one-up Kawasaki right
from the off with the R3 by giving
it an extra 21cc over the Ninja
300 (it's always better when it's
bigger, they all say that), but
while Yamaha and Kawasaki
were busy playing 'mine's bigger
than yours,' KTM was quietly toil-
ing away with Bajaj in an Indian
manufacturing plant to come up
with the orange challenger.
The RC390 sports the same
375cc, DOHC single-cylinder
engine you'll find in the 390
Duke (read Cycle News Issue
18 for our opinion of that little
monster), a chassis built for
the track and styling that really
brings home KTM's "Ready to
Race" philosophy. This bike gets
even hardened riders going—it
looks the goods, comes with
WP suspension and brakes from
Brembo's subsidiary company,
and even sounds tough for a
single-cylinder. It'll bring new rid-
ers in by the truckload. But can
it beat the Yamaha?
>>FROM THE SEAT
KTM RC390
My test buddy Adam's first
comments on the RC sum it
up perfectly. "Imagine being
16-years-old and having one of
these things! This thing is sick."
He's spot on. The KTM RC390
oozes racebike aggression. It's
the perfect machine for the boy
racer in all of us and you can't
help but feel the need to give it a
proper squeeze every time you
climb on.
When you do, you're greeted
by a slim seat that slants up-
wards and pushes you into
the racebike crouch. It's tall in
the back end, but the bars are
relatively high and wide, not your
traditional low-slung clip-ons,
making for a comfortable seating
position despite the racetrack
focus and Euro-skinny tank. The
RC8R genes are clear from the
(Clockwise) Front
brake lacks the initial
bite of the Yamaha, but
does come with ABS.
Hand grips are
hard and become
uncomfortable after
a while on board. The
exhaust is one of the
best points of the
RC390—neat and with
a good roar.
