Quote:
Originally Posted by csmith12
Fine... don't sell it in street form. The question is... how will they prevent it from a street life when mr. track day sells it to a non track rider?
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They won't prevent it… but to be honest, who would bother? You'd wind up with a Frankenstein build. Being track-only, the RC16 will have no brackets, bodywork or wiring for an ignition key, turn signals or headlight. Safe bet it wouldn't meet noise regs either. Sure you can hack up the factory stuff and make it work, but WHY? There are too many other options out there.
IMHO this choice is a straight cost/benefit analysis on KTM's part. You don't make business decisions based on some lofty belief about what belongs on the road. You make business decisions based on how profitable the product will be. End of story.
KTM is way under the radar in the sportbike arena. I've never seen an RC8 except once at a dealer and at the motorcycle show. Never on the road and never at the track. Meanwhile, its competitors are all over the place.
It takes a lot of resources to develop and market a bike. If you don't anticipate enough volume and unit profit to make it worthwhile, you don't do it. Period. Assign whatever reason you like to it… KTM sees more upside in its mainstay businesses and growth markets (read India) than in a high-profile homologated superbike project.
Just look at the competition. Yamaha just came out with an amazing machine in the new R1. BMW has given the S1000RR some serious upgrades. Ducati has the Panigale. What do you think KTM's chances are of making a dent in that market? They'd have to come out with a quantum leap, and I don't see it happening in the near term. The best they could hope for is parity.
And never say never. If KTM succeeds in building brand loyalty among sport riders with the RC390, it's a safe bet they will come out with a larger sport bike down the road to capture sales from those people. A superbike? Maybe, maybe not. A middleweight? Perhaps… that segment has been heating up lately.