Went to the RC8 launch day.

Sadly never got to ride it, as they only had the one. But gave it a good look over and a sit on it etc.

Comfort was pretty poor, you wouldn't want to be doing motorways on it. Pegs are quite high and pushed back.

Number plate braket far too extended, so someone will be making a nice piece of carbon to replace that.

Dash was something out of Streethawk 'KTM' logo in LCD and about 400 pieces of information. Wouldn't suprise me if there's a GPS add-on for it very soon.

The exhaust, well i'm not sure about that. Sort of runs to back of engine and fold under itself into a large collector box under your right foot.

Headlight still doesn't do it for me.

And i'm not sure about the flat matt orange tank with the gloss fairings.

Mirrors/indicators seem OK.

Engine sounds crisp and throttle very responsive... Apparently you can get a Akrapovic system for £1600, wouldn't mind seeing what that looks like and how it fits etc.

Nice brembo radials and WP race shock. Never checked what the fork internals were.

All in all, the riding position would put me off it, but i'll certainly have a test ride when i can

Man with KTM making all these leaps in road bikes they should match all this money spent with marketing and new dealerships outside of dirt racing here in the US.

I had a look at one in Sideways. I think it's stunning.........

Here we go.

From a review in the Telegraph :

There are good reasons for a significant number of people to put down deposits for a new RC8 even before the first test reports emerge, but are they going to regret it? Unlikely, but they might be surprised at first by the riding position, which, far from the Ducati-type, wrist-breaking, track-attack ergonomics, is almost sports tourer. Well, it's sports tourer with the bars, footrests and seat adjusted that way. Pleasingly, all of these can be tailored to suit the rider or conditions, and for our road test on some twisty back-roads in Andalusia they were moved into their most conservative settings, where you sit reasonably upright with plenty of room for long legs, and the fairly low screen still does an excellent job of separating the airflow without excessive turbulence. Seat comfort is good, too: it's fine for several hours on board, and even the mirrors are wide enough to see what's behind you - well, you could if they didn't shake and vibrate so badly.

from Jezza McWilliams test at ascari :


My first impression of the seat and riding position is that of a sportbike slightly less extreme. I have a feeling that I am sitting more in the middle of the bike rather than on top of the front wheel. I adjust the mirrors that also house the front blinkers. The mirrors are easily adjusted and fairly big for a sportbike.


And from Chris Moss,who is a big lad :

The roomy riding position is a real bonus to the planted and easy feel of the bike, and being able to move around it quickly and comfortably lets you boss the KTMabout to make it go just where you want it to. Steering is very light and accurate and the general agility of the RC8 helps you to dispatch fast flick-flack style chicanes without much thought or physical effort.

Out on the road, later in the day the story was pretty much the same, but the 100-mile journey did allow me to find a couple of minor issues. Like it is on the track, the KTM is very easy and invigorating to ride. Its comfortable riding position, which had been adjusted to make it feel even roomier that it had on track (seat and footrests were lowered) felt good enough for me to ride it back to the UK. If I owned the bike I’d prefer to fit a slightly taller screen to fend off the wind a little more, but I reckon I’d still manage OK if I tucked in a little more or lowered the bars slightly.

The more I see the bike the more I want it but it has to be in black. Roll on next year

[/quote]

Wife is 6 months pregnant mate. That added to the fact i really feel the SD is better suited to the riding i want to do nowdays, nope i never.[/quote]

Mine's only got 9 days to go but I didn't let that stop me, although that's partially down to the gsxr being paid for and so won't actually cost me any more money.

Regarding the comfort, I reckon you've got too used to the SD riding position, I rode my SD exclusively for about 5 or 6 months before getting back on my gsxr complete with rearsets and it was a horrendous experience, it really felt like I was riding with my feet on the seat the pegs were so high up, it eased up a bit after a short ride but still feels a bit high now even after a couple more short rides to get it mot'd ready for selling and it never felt like that before I had the SD.

In comparison sitting on the RC8 after my last ride being the gsxr the pegs are so much lower and more comfortable than those, on the gsxr it feels like I'm on top of the bike but the rc8 feels like I'm part of it.

STOP IT ! STOP IT ! i CAN'T FECKIN TAKE IT NO MORE, DUTCH, DAMN IT, DO NOT BACK DOWN! YOU HAVE SPOKEN WORDS OF SAVING GRACE TO joe.

martin damn it, you can be a little more persuasive to yer plight, we in here will soon be an RC8RRRRRR crowd

and they will have finally deleted my account access, they have only reduced me to a manual operator as of yet, but I am sure the hammer is coming.

What you bangin on about now,Joe ?


I was just telling Freestyler that he needs to ride the RC8 as i think his mate gave him a false impression.

But we are all agreed,it's a great bike.

Boy's,,, Boy's . Martin, I think it is more just a regular old fashion pissing match, joe alway tries to place principals before personalities.

this way it is impossible to have this sort of thing happening. I know it is easier said than done, that being said,

lets just get along and please enjoy the moment that will not come along often, joe sees both sides here, both have illegitimate merits.

to ride the thing is what we must do, to be a band of brothers may be more difficult.

PEACE I TELL YOU!..... PEACE.
joe