KTM RC 8C 890 2024 — Specifications

One hundred units. Five minutes to sell them all in 2022. Less than three minutes the following year for two hundred machines. The KTM RC 8C 890 2024 returns with a fresh batch of one hundred bikes, a white livery, and a price that keeps climbing: €42,000, or €7,000 more than when it first launched. The entry ticket stings, but this is no ordinary sportbike. This is a near-race prototype, born from the collaboration between Mattighofen and Krämer Motorcycles, a small German craftsman whose business is building track weapons.

The 889 cc parallel twin has been extensively reworked for this second generation. Titanium valves and connecting rods, two piston rings instead of three, compression ratio pushed to 14:1, larger throttle bodies, uprated fuel pump. The result: 135 horsepower at 11,000 rpm, 14 more than the same engine in the 890 Duke R. Torque reaches 98 Nm at 8,250 rpm, and the engine will spin all the way to 12,000 rpm, backed by a titanium Akrapovic exhaust. Of course, compared to the 200-plus horsepower of a Panigale V4 or an M 1000 RR, the figures look modest. Except the KTM RC 8C 890's weight radically changes the equation. 142 kg dry is roughly fifty kilos less than those heavyweights. The power-to-weight ratio puts this machine in a class of its own — one where corner entries are razor-sharp and mid-corner speeds are enough to make your head spin.

On the chassis side, the chrome-molybdenum steel trellis frame uses the engine as a stressed member. The steering head is adjustable by plus or minus one degree. The WP Apex suspension, race-specific units, has been revised with softer settings than the previous version to deliver more feedback to the rider. It's not Öhlins, granted, but it's the sharpest and lightest hardware WP produces. A 43 mm inverted fork and rear monoshock each offer 120 mm of travel. Everything is adjustable: fork rake, triple clamp offset, clip-ons, footpegs, neoprene seat, seat height set at 820 mm. Two injection maps, wet and dry, round out the package along with a revised traction control system and a new engine braking management function. The 5-inch AIM MXS dash logs GPS speed, lap times, engine data, and racing lines for post-session analysis. A bidirectional quickshifter and a pit-lane speed limiter come as standard.

The braking setup makes zero compromises. Radially mounted Brembo Stylema calipers, a 19 RCS Corsa Corta master cylinder with three lever-ratio settings, and 290 mm discs. Smaller discs than on Italian superbikes, yes, but deliberately so: with such a low kerb weight, braking power remains more than adequate, and the smaller discs reduce gyroscopic effect, further sharpening agility. The forged aluminum Dymag wheels are wrapped in Pirelli Diablo Superbike slicks. Carbon bodywork, aerodynamic winglets, a fuel tank integrated into the subframe, reverse-shift gearbox, safety-wired bolts — every detail reveals a machine designed exclusively for the track.

The KTM RC 8C 890 2024 is not aimed at the weekend rider or anyone looking for a versatile road-going sportbike. It targets the experienced track rider, the one who knows how to exploit a racing chassis and who favors surgical precision over big-bore brute force. Its price in France positions it against far more powerful motorcycles on paper, but none of them offers this level of sharpness in such a compact package. Down the long straights, the 1,000 cc superbikes will blow past without breaking a sweat. Through tight chicanes, late braking zones, and hard drives out of hairpins, it will simply be in another league.