If you’ve been waiting for KTM to get serious about fully-faired middleweight machines, the wait is officially over. KTM’s Global CEO Gottfried Neumeister has gone on record confirming that two new RC-badged motorcycles — the RC 490 and the RC 790 — are genuinely in the pipeline. Not rumours, not spy shots, not forum speculation. Straight from the top.
At the heart of this announcement is a jointly developed twin-cylinder engine platform that KTM and Bajaj are building together. That partnership isn’t new — it’s the same axis that gave us the Duke 390 and the KTM RC 390 — but this time they’re going bigger, bolder, and into territory that Indian riders have been hungry for. A new middleweight twin platform means we can expect multiple motorcycles to spawn from the same architecture, with the RC 490 and RC 790 being the fully-faired, race-replica faces of that family.
The RC 490 slots neatly above the existing RC 390, giving riders who’ve outgrown the 390 platform somewhere to go without jumping all the way to a litre-class machine. The RC 790, on the other hand, puts KTM squarely in the fight against Triumph’s Speed Triple RS-derived machines and Yamaha’s MT-07-based lineup. A faired 790 twin from KTM? That’s a serious track weapon for the road.
India is one of the most important markets in this entire equation. Bajaj’s manufacturing muscle and the Chakan facility mean there’s a real chance these motorcycles — or at least the 490 — could be produced in India, keeping prices far more accessible than fully imported alternatives. Given how competitive the KTM 390 Duke and RC 390 have been on pricing, there’s genuine hope that the RC 490 won’t demand a kidney in exchange.
The RC 790 will likely be a CKD or CBU proposition initially, but even that opens up a track-focused supersport that Indian enthusiasts currently have almost no access to in this displacement range. Right now, your options between a 390 and a full litre bike are frustratingly thin. These two motorcycles could fill that gap in the most aggressive way possible.
This confirmation also signals something larger — the Bajaj-KTM alliance is maturing into a serious force in the global middleweight segment. With Triumph already in bed with Bajaj for the Speed 400 and Scrambler 400, the competition between these two alliances is going to push engineering standards higher and prices lower. As a rider, that’s exactly the kind of corporate rivalry you want to root for.
Track days at Kari Motor Speedway, BIC, or even the twisties up to Nainital and Kasauli are about to get a whole lot more interesting. Whether you’re an RC 390 owner looking at your logical next step or someone who’s been eyeing a European middleweight supersport and hating the price tag, the RC 490 and RC 790 deserve a spot on your radar right now.
No official launch dates have been locked in yet, but with a CEO-level confirmation in hand, these bikes are real. Watch this space — things are about to get loud.
Source: bikeadvice.in
