UPDATE: KTM Pricing Its New Sportbike At $47K Has To Be A Joke, Right?

Last time I checked, April Fools’ Day was months away.

Photo by: Colwyn Bay KTM

By: Enrico Punsalang

Nov 20, 2024 at 7:02am ET

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[UPDATE November 21, 2024: It seems that the KTM dealership has edited the price tag of the 990 RC R following the initial posting of this story. It now carries a sticker price starting at £16,000, or about $20,250 USD. Not bad, but still a massive chunk of change for a middleweight sportbike. Take note that a bike like the Ducati Panigale V2 retails for even less, oh, and bikes like the Yamaha YZF-R9 and Aprilia RS 660 can be had for close to half that money.

But definitely, £16K makes a lot more sense than £37K, and sure, I see die-hard KTM aficionados looking for a razor-sharp middleweight superbike going crazy over this thing. But what do you think? Is $20,000 a reasonable price for this homologation superbike?]

Original piece follows.

We’ve talked a whole bunch about KTM recently, and a lot of it hasn’t exactly been great. It seems that the company is finding itself in some serious trouble as of the moment, with a sharp decline in sales, and customers losing trust in the brand due to a myriad of issues.

Personally, as a multiple KTM owner, I was extremely hopeful that the brand would turn things around at EICMA. After all, this year marked the brand’s return to the prestigious motorcycle expo following a five-year hiatus.

And indeed, on the EICMA floor, Team Orange unveiled some seriously promising machinery. Unfortunately, the bikes that should’ve taken the spotlight seemed to have been left cordoned off in a corner of their booth, and instead, KTM showcased some of its bigger, more premium models.

And based on what we just found, that might still be the tact KTM is using with its return to street-legal sportbikes, which would be dumb as hell.

When will KTM realize that the key to its future lies in its small-displacement bikes? Hopefully before it goes under.

Photo by: KTM

As it would turn out, it seems that KTM returning to EICMA wasn't really a flex. Instead, KTM's presence at EICMA now seems like a desperate attempt at catching people's attention in the midst of some serious internal problems, all disguised as a flex.

I previously wrote a story about how the KTM 990 Duke R made me feel. The big middleweight naked bike seemed to be KTM’s most promising model, especially for riders like me who love grin-inducing, wheelie-popping, hooligan machines. And alongside the 990 Duke R is its sportbike sibling, the 990 RC R.

Now, we were super excited about the 990 RC R back in May when this thing first broke cover—and for good reason. KTM’s 790 and 890 models—as well as the new 990 Duke—have always been reasonably priced. For reference, the 990 Duke gets an MSRP of $12,500 USD. Not bad, especially considering how much performance it brings to the table.

Guess it's time to kiss my dreams of owning this razor-sharp middleweight sportbike goodbye.

That said, how in the name of all that is holy does KTM think that pricing the 990 RC R at $47,000 USD is a good idea? Yeah, that’s right, KTM’s apparently asking nearly four times the price tag of the 990 Duke for what’s basically its sportbike equivalent. Don’t believe me? Check out the landing page of the 990 RC R on Colwyn Bay KTM’s—an authorized KTM dealer in the UK—website. It’s listed for £36,999, which roughly translates to $47K, per the current exchange rate.

Now, I tried to do some digging and there doesn’t seem to be any other KTM dealership that has put a price on the 990 RC R. So maybe, just maybe, $47,000 isn’t the 990 RC R’s MSRP, but rather, a typo on the part of this particular KTM dealership. Or a very shady dealership putting a helluva markup on the bike.

But some Reddit commenters shed light on a possibility that’s much more devious, and it's that this particular KTM dealership is going around offering some sort of pre-order campaign, promising buyers that they’ll be among the first to receive the highly anticipated sportbike in exchange for the exorbitant price tag.

Fat chance. Remember, KTM’s shutting down its Austria factory for two months starting January 2025. And while they say this is just a “temporary production halt,” KTM has been known for not addressing the full story in the past.

What do you think?

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So yeah, KTM probably has to do something about this particular dealership offering the 990 RC R at this price tag, because a sportbike of this caliber, no matter how cool, cutting-edge, or high-performance it may seem, simply has no business being this expensive.

For reference, the most expensive variant of the Ducati Panigale V4 S—a top-tier superbike, and one that’s possibly the closest thing you can get to a WorldSBK-winning machine for the street—retails for $33,895 USD. So either this KTM dealership is moving behind KTM’s back, or KTM has officially lost its mind.