BIKETEST KTM RC8R:LIKE BRITISH Tory MPs, KTMs respond best to a good thrashing.
Particularly their latest offering, the Race version of the RC8, which caused a sensation with its aggressive performance when it was launched last year.
Powered by a bored-out 1,190cc version of the already successful 990cc LC8 engine on the Super Duke and SM models, the RC8 went like a space rocket, and by all accounts, the R version was even faster, with the engine bored out even further to 1,195cc and power up from 153 to 170bhp.
“Er, how quick is it, exactly?” I said nervously to Sam at the dealership.
“Put it like this,” he said, pausing for effect, “one of our customers has just bought one because his GSX-R1000 wasn’t quite fast enough.”
Having thus succeeded in scaring the life out of me, he wandered off, humming merrily to himself, leaving me to think that, if the performance was as brutal as the bike looked, I may as well phone casualty and book a place now.
KTM, you see, doesn’t do subtle. Quite apart from an orange and black colour scheme that makes it look like a wasp with a headache, it’s all hard edges and sharp corners.
Were it a bloke, it would chew razor blades for breakfast and shave with broken glass.
I started it up and the air filled with angry thunder. I climbed aboard and found that it was actually quite comfortable – and that the rear view mirrors were useful.
Well, well, I thought, as I rode off and reaffirmed to myself that KTM simply refuses to acknowledge the existence of anything below 4,000rpm. I imagine that when the engineers were born, they hit the delivery room floor running rather than waste time learning to crawl.
Above 4,000, though, the engine stops stuttering and coughing and sings like a canary freed from its cage.
Take it up to 6,000 and beyond and the bike goes, not so much like a bat out of hell, but the whole family of Mr Bat, Mrs Bat and all the little Bats.
Like the look of the bike, its ride – thanks to 170bhp, 182kg in weight and WP suspension – is lean, mean, hard and aggressive. This is not a bike you take out for a Sunday potter; this is a bike you take out and thrash to within an inch of its life.
Everything about it, from the lightweight Marchesini wheels to that suspension, suggests that, even if bought for road use, it’ll see a lot of track days.
With slightly more trail than the RC8, it’s smoother through fast bends and out of them, particularly since KTM seems to have ironed out the gearbox problems that plagued some of its earlier models.
Stopping, thanks to Brembo monobloc brake calipers, is as brutal as the acceleration, to the extent that, by the time I got back to the dealers, my family jewels had become firmly embedded in the petrol tank.
As I was painfully prising them loose, Sam’s mate Andy wandered over.
“Well, what did you think?” he asked.
“Like a ZX-10 on steroids. And hates anything below 4,000rpm. No wonder KTM stands for Keep Throttle at Maximum,” I said.
“Funny enough, KTM does a cam kit for off-road bikes that keeps the revs up at low speeds and cures that. Don’t know why they don’t fit it as standard, since we can stick one on for 60 quid – not to mention Akrapovic pipes that make it even louder.”
“Aye, it’s far too quiet and civilised all right,” I said, handing him the key and going to do something less exciting for the rest of the day, like wrestle crocodiles at Belfast Zoo.
Factfile KTM RC8R
Engine: liquid-cooled 1195cc 75-degree V-twin four-stroke
Max speed: 180mph
Power: 170bhp
Torque: 88.42 ftlb
Front brakes: twin 320mm Brembo discs with four-piston radial calipers
Rear brakes: 220mm disc with twin-piston caliper
Wheelbase: 1425mm
Seat height: 805-825mm
Fuel capacity: 16.5 litres
Weight: 182kg
There’s no KTM dealer in the Republic. UK price £14,995. Test bike supplied by Philip McCallen, tel: 028-926 22886, philipmccallen.com