New 2025 KTM 990 RC R Announced: 8 Things To Know!

Welcome back everybody to another Motobob video and this week KTM announced their first out and out super sport bike in some time in the form of their brand new 2025 990 RCR along with a super special track edition and of course this thing looks like a bit of a weapon so here we go with the eight key things that you need to know about it. Now we did see this bike out testing with some spy shots about a year ago and I covered that in a full video so we have some idea of what to expect and it does seem to be largely related to the 990 Duke hence the name. So naturally there are going to be some similar components and the engine and some of the technology but also you got to consider that they launched last year and the year before their RC8C which is a very expensive exclusive track only bike developed in collaboration with Kramer Motorcycles and so no doubt some of the development of that bike has fed into this RCR. Then they also say that the company is harnessing all their expertise that's been gained through their recent efforts in MotoGP, thousands of track laps and wins and podiums to fire the KTM 990 RCR to life. So yeah while it is heavily related to the 990 Duke I'd be expecting this bike to be much more performance orientated. Now the heart of it we've got their LC8C parallel twins so yeah same as the 990 Duke and the small c at the end of the engine stands for compact and it weighs in at just 57 kilograms although there's no total weight given for the bike. Now the performance figures here that they've given are 128 ps of peak power and 103 Nm of peak torque up at 10,500 rpm. So not a million miles off the 990 Duke but it does feel like everything's been shifted higher into the rev range in search of that higher peak power figure. So the 990 Duke makes 121.4 horsepower but that's at 9,500 rpm so lower than where this sports bike is going to make its peak torque and the same 103 Nm peak torque figure is made at 6,750 rpm so significantly lower than the RCR. Makes total sense there's much more opportunity to get the engine spinning up when you're out on the track whereas with the 990 Duke naked which is more so built for the street you want to be able to access that peak torque more easily for that proper strong pull at road speeds. Also we've got a dedicated silencer for this particular bike I think the one in the pictures is with the Akrapovic that might be a specific add-on from the accessories catalog but presumably there's a little bit more airflow and then the other difference with this bike is that the gear shifter can be flipped for a reverse race shift pattern if needed and I think that comes as standard with this bike. Now onto the frame and it does get a similar-ish setup to the 990 Duke so you've got the steel trellis frame at the front and then a die-cast aluminium subframe which integrates the air intake and part of the air box but there are apparently some changes specifically for this bike like more weight over the front wheel and also a dedicated head angle of 25 degrees which is going to be a little bit sharper and they say that's going to lead to enhanced steering responsiveness. On top of that if you look at the two pictures side by side down sort of where the swing arm pivot is you can see that it looks a bit more chunky and reinforced and they do say that in the press release as well so they say it's been beefed up to give the right feel and stability under acceleration on bumpy roads or on racetracks whilst also maintaining agility especially at low speeds. Now if you put the pictures of the 990 Duke on top of this new bike and sort of scale them using the wheels as a sort of consistent measure they do look similar in length they've also got what looks like the same swing arm but I think those changes to the stiffness of the frame and that steeper head angle are just going to make it feel a bit more flickable as well as having that weight over the front. Now again comparing those two pictures you've got all of the typical ergonomic changes that you'd expect for a more track biased bike so a naked bike is going to be quite flat with the bars and a little bit sat up whereas this one is lower and further forward with the bars with what looks like a pair of clip-ons then also you've got to get the rider canted down to that point and so that means moving the foot pegs back and lifting them up and then also there is a little bit of a difference there with the seat height so again it looks like it's but on top of all that there is a pretty significant ergonomic tweak and that's the tank shape and in the pictures you can see it's quite significantly longer which they say gives you six contact points on the tank for a better connection leaning and tucking in to ensure comfort but also support for the knees arms and lowering pressure on the hand. As for the rest of the componentry on this bike well with the suspension of course it's from WP who are their in-house suspension brand and provide all of the suspension for all their bikes and they say it's WP's Apex line of suspension which is fully adjustable and gets an open cartridge design and so that sounds pretty similar actually to the setup that's on the 990 Duke although I would at least expect different settings here in order to give it that firmer ride that's more suited to sporty and track riding as well as cope with that different weight distribution that they just mentioned. Now one area that does look like it could be a bit of an upgrade is with the brakes because in the pictures here we've got some rather bling looking Brembo calipers and that's as opposed to the KTM branded four piston radial calipers on the 990 Duke. The only thing I will say is that clearly you can tell from the paint job on this bike that it's a prototype and so maybe this is just for testing or potentially part of the KTM power parts accessories catalog which does include some upgrades and that is potentially the case because they got the wavy discs on there which they often offer as part of that power parts lineup. So yeah they don't call this out specifically the brakes in their press release so that one is TBC but they do say it gets lightweight cast aluminium wheels 17 inch front and rear of course and they're going to be wrapped in Michelin tires and again these wheels look pretty much the exact same as the 990 Duke. One area in which it does look really significantly different though is with the front end and it's of those MotoGP inspired winglets. Now they do have a practical purpose of course as with all other bikes that come with winglets they say it provides stability for braking and cornering although it is worth pointing out that winglets get more effective with the more airflow they get which is generally owing to higher speeds and so if you're just pottering around on the road I wouldn't expect this bike to feel absolutely glued to the tarmac and I do suspect they've done it for the looks because it's going to give you a bit of that MotoGP KTM image which is very focused around racing. Personally visually not really my cup of tea I think it looks like a big droopy mustache and I say that as someone who's generally a fan of facial hair but let me know what you think of it down in the comments below. On top of that there is also a track version of this bike that's going to be available and they say that the modifications strip away the road legal essentials so we're thinking about stuff like the lighting, the indicators, the license plate holder and stuff like that and it allows them to customize further and revise racing body work including a full exhaust system. These modifications ensure that riders focus on lap times rather than leisurely rides although I don't think there are going to be many leisurely rides even on the road version of this bike and additionally the ease of repair, low maintenance requirements and extensive official dealer support provide further advantages. Clearly everyone's going to want one of these bikes so the real question is how much is it going to cost and I don't think it's going to be particularly cheap if you base it upon a couple of sort of reference points. I mean the 990 Duke comes in now at £12,999 so that was quite a significant jump up versus the 890 Duke R that went before it and also if you compare it to some of the immediate competition like a Yamaha MT-09 or stuff like that you know it's definitely on the more pricey end of things. Then you've also got to think about that KTM RC 80 that I just mentioned. The first version of it sold out in minutes and that was £30,999. They came out with another version a year or two later and that was £34,999 and again it immediately sold out so clearly it's probably a pretty good bike but that sort of price really does put it in the sort of dream bike category for the majority of people. With this for the standard road bike I mean based on the 990 Duke hopefully it'll be somewhere around the £15,000 mark and that might put it on a par with something like the Ducati Supersport 950 which comes in at about £14,500 and it makes 110 horsepower but I will say this bike looks like it's going to be a little bit quicker and more aggressive and so maybe they can possibly charge a bit of a premium and also if the rumoured Yamaha R9 ever makes an appearance I'd expect that to be a direct competitor too but generally Yamaha are pretty good on price and so it'll probably undercut it. The track version I mean a few grand on top probably you might be looking at around the £20,000 mark or more than that and on the one hand that does sound quite expensive but on the other it might be quite a nice way to get a cut price RC 80 and in fact if you've bought a £30,999 RC 80 in the first instance or £34,999 in the second instance the announcement of this bike might hurt a little bit. As always I'd love to know what you think of it so do let me know down in the comments below and I'll put my full video about the spy shots on this bike on the screen now in case you haven't seen it already because that'll give you a little bit more of a flavour of what the road going version of this bike might look like and also might be spec like. Hit subscribe as well if you want to see more of the latest motorcycle news like this right here on YouTube. Many thanks for watching today and we'll see you in the next video.