Have you ridden one?
I'm on my second of their street bikes and 2nd of their dirt bikes as well.
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No More Superbikes for KTM - CEO Says They're Too Dangerous For Public Roads
- Thread starter CafeRay
- Start date
Have you ridden one?
I'm on my second of their street bikes and 2nd of their dirt bikes as well.
KTM started in Austria and still builds many models there, but some of the newer and smaller models (notably the 390s and the not-sold-here 125 and 250 cousins - same bike different engine) are built in India.
So Asian like Ducati?
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msatrakkoic
Well-known member
A friend of mine is sponsored by ktm. He gets their 450 sxf new every year and this year it looks better than ever. His dad has an rc8...scared the **** out of me last time he started it. Idles at like 60
Back in the late 80's there was a place in North Oshawa on Taunton Rd. that sold them too as I recall. But you're right most of them came from Helmut.
Pretty much, or soon to be BMW sub 500cc bikes ... People have no idea what they are talking about. Anyone can write any crap these days.
The situation as far as KTM and their support of street bike sales in Canada or US for that matter is still very sub-par when compared to most of the other brands. The reason is simple .... They consider the street markets too irrelevant on this continent.... And to a degree I don't blame them, especially for smaller cc bikes they have bet on.
I want an RC8R badly but I cant get past their pricing. Brand new 2013 at the dealer for $16k, same price as a newer 899, which is a almost certainly a better bike. Does brand new $16k make sense to you guys for a 2013 RC8R?
Interesting: insurance on an RC8R is much lower than a hypermotard, 848/899, Tuono...for me it would be the same as a 675R. That was surprising to me.
Interesting: insurance on an RC8R is much lower than a hypermotard, 848/899, Tuono...for me it would be the same as a 675R. That was surprising to me.
Shaman
Well-known member
Not really. Especially not since current bikes from other manuf. are well advanced compared. There are definitely pros and cons, but technically ... not so much.
Interesting. Makes no sense to me.
I'm going to go out on a limb here because high end sports bikes aren't my area of concern but I thought I remembered reading that the RC8R has considerably less electronic nimby nannyism than the current crop of atom smashers. Apparently this thing can be leaned over without crutches if I'm not mistaken. These types of bikes aren't coming back and if it's a numbers matching piece some people might see it as an investment.
It sounds like there are people that know things about motorcycle emissions in this thread. Why the heck did it take so long to move from Euro 3 to Euro 4 for bikes? Haven't we been on Euro 3 for over a decade?
BigEvilDoer
Well-known member
Test rode both, ended up with an RC8r.
Ducati has boatloads more tech and is super sleek, the KTM is much more raw but is also the most adjustable bike on the market (clip ons, subframe, rear sets etc).
RC8r has a lower insurance rate due to the small number of bikes they can build their claims cases on. Tons of GSXr's, R6-1's, etc etc, lots of history.
The KTM RC8r tends to be owned by older, mature and experienced riders. They have fewer crashes and claims per capita, therefore lower insurance.
The bike standards have lagged behind the car standards. Euro 4 for cars started somewhere around 2004, and the bikes were not on Euro 3 until quite a while after that, I'm going to guess 2007ish because that's when a number of previously carbureted models went EFI / lambda sensor / 3-way catalyst, and a number of previously two-stroke models went the way of the dodo to be replaced with four-strokes. I also don't know if the emission limits of Euro 3 for bikes correspond to those for Euro 3 for cars ... I tend to suspect that they don't.
Still, the tech needed to comply with Euro 3 - 4 - ?? is pretty much known: EFI, closed-loop with lambda sensor, 3-way catalyst. Not a lot different from cars. California requires a charcoal canister to meet their evap requirements, but this doesn't seem to be the case with Euro 3 (I don't know if Euro 4 will change that). OBDII doesn't change the physical hardware (except for needing the second O2S after the catalyst in order to monitor it), only the software and the diagnostic plug.
The North American motorcycle emission standards are FAR more lax than even Euro 3 and haven't changed in decades, with the exception of California's evap requirements. This is why a number of bikes that were carb in our market were EFI - O2S - TWC in Europe (I'm looking at you, 2008 - 2013 Ninja 250) and quite a number of others are open-loop EFI - oxidizing catalyst in our market but closed-loop EFI - O2S - TWC in Europe.
Shaman
Well-known member
Pipe, airbox and tune, and that's as close to 200 as doesn't matter, I agree.
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