KTM RC990 may be a reality if this latest spotting of a mysterious mule is to go by. The Austrian will return to big supersports after a long time..
Motor Cycle News (MCN) has managed to capture a test mule of what may be the next road-legal Supersport offering by KTM since its V-twin RC8 way back in 2008. The new bike appears to share its styling with the recently launched track-only bike powered by the 890 Duke’s LC8c parallel twin – KTM RC 8C.
However, mechanically it is speculated that it may be powered by the next-generation parallel-twin motor which could be named ‘990’, with a slight capacity increase over the current road version. It is expected that the upcoming ‘RC990’ could boast power figures of around 130bhp – a significant increase over the 119 bhp that the current 890 Duke R churns.
From the front the bike resembles the RC390 and RC200 of the previous generation – bearing twin headlights. Other than the license plate hangar and the LED indicator, the mule visually looks very similar to the race bike – even being fitted with carbon air intakes on the Brembo Stylema front brakes.
A very similar design was also observed earlier in the year on the development mules of the next generation KTM Duke prototypes. The tubular steel frame – a KTM Chassis staple – is again closer in resemblance to the 890 Duke running thick tubes over the engine than to the KTM RC 8C (trellis frame).
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This road model prototype also seems to be using a plastic tank with aluminium side plates forming the subframe of the chassis.
This would be the first supersport bigger than the RC390 to join the portfolio after a very long time. However, according to the report KTM is not expected to launch this model before 2024. It appears we still have a few years to wait before we can ride this beast on our roads.
Source – MCN
