KTM’s First Road-Legal Sport Bike in 15 Years Will Be Called 990 RC R, Here’s What We Know

If you were craving a brand new example in this segment, your wait will be over soon. That’s because Austrian bike maker KTM just placed under our spotlight the initial details of “an authentic road homologated performance sports bike for the masses” that should make its way onto the market soon.

I said earlier that one needs quite a lot of experience to be able to design a proper ride of this kind, and one doesn’t get more experience than KTM. Since the 1970s, when it entered competitions for two-wheelers, the brand has won no less than 341 various FIM World Championships, including in the mighty MotoGP.

The Austrians have placed their racing expertise in the hands of the general public by releasing road-going sport bikes before. The last time they did that was about 15 years ago, when the 1190 RC 8 made the rounds. Since then, only track versions of the bike, in the form of the mighty RC 8C, have been presented.

Come early 2025, KTM will once again offer a sport bike for civilians. It will be called 990 RC R and promises to dominate the field. More importantly, though, it will mark the birth of a range of such two-wheelers, meaning the company is planning to play big in this segment.

The initial bits of information we have access to at the moment point to the bike being the road-going version of a race bike that will be presented later this year, during non-point scoring events held at various European Supersport races.

But what makes the bike the insane speed machine we’re promised it will be?

One of the first things KTM made public about the bike is the fact that it will use the LC8c parallel-twin engine, the hardware we’ve already seen deployed on various interpretations of the existing RC 8C bikes.

In this application, the powerplant was envisioned to deliver 126 horsepower and 103 Nm of torque at 10,500 rpm. The engine will breathe out through a stainless steel muffler and weighs just 126 pounds (57 kg).

It will be held in a steel frame that has been designed for “dynamic performance.” The frame allows for a 25-degree steering head angle and is supported by a diecast aluminum subframe. Up on top is the fuel tank, linked to the frame through six contact points.

The entire build makes contact with the ground through cast aluminum wheels wearing Michelin tires. The suspension system that ties them to the rest of the bike is of the WP APEX open cartridge variety.

On a visual level, there’s not much to talk about. The several photos released by the bike maker show a fully faired ride whose exact lines are hard to distinguish under all that camouflage.

We do get a sense of the motorcycle’s abilities thanks to the visible aero wings meant to provide stability during braking and cornering, and an overall silhouette that screams performance.

The 990 RC R is a bike that’s been years in the making, and that means it won’t be limited to a single version. KTM already promises to release a track version of the ride in the second quarter of next year.

This one will feature “minimal modifications” compared to its road-going sibling, pointing to the fact that the original 990 RC R is as competitive as it gets, even under the restrictions imposed by a ride meant to travel on public roads.

The track version will dump the road-legal bits of hardware the first 990 RC R comes with but will gain a series of other features, including a revised bodywork and a full racing exhaust system.

KTM has already set up a webpage dedicated to the new bike and promises to constantly update us on the project as it progresses. It even kickstarted a behind-the-scenes documentary giving us a glimpse into the ins and outs of the development process for the 990 RC R.

The first episode in this series is already out (you can have a look at it beneath this text). We’re promised “close, and not normally seen, insights into the fast-paced world of the Austrian based factory and what it takes to craft a motorcycle from an idea into reality.”

At the time of writing the official release date for the model is not known, but we’ll keep an eye out for developments regarding this motorcycle and update you with new bits of info as soon as we know more.