BIKETEST KTM RC8: The KTM RC8 is most certainly a bike with attitude and one which, says Tom Robert, treads the line between craziness and pure genius
KTMs: LOVE them or hate them, you just can't ignore them. Especially when they come in a virulent, throbbing orange. I could not help but think as I rode home that this is not exactly the best colour choice for a spot of gentle pottering through nationalist north Belfast.
Thankfully, the RC8 has a turn of speed which can outrun a speeding brick if needed, but only when you get used to the idiosyncrasies of the bike.
KTM is a company which I am increasingly beginning to suspect hires its staff by turning up at graduation day for the Salzburg College of Design and Technology and picking the chaps who look like Einstein.
You know the type: hair like an explosion in a mattress factory, tie somewhere below their left ear and the faraway look in their eyes flickering with the coded signal that half the time they are mad geniuses, and the other half, just plain mad.
Let's start with the look of the bike. At a time when virtually every other bike manufacturer on the planet has gone all smooth and sinuous, KTMs are still designed by men with rulers. Broken rulers.
This may make them undetectable to radar in the manner of the stealth fighter, but it sure doesnt make them undetectable to the naked eye. Ride one of these through town and youll attract more double takes than Lady Godiva did when she wandered through Coventry naked on a horse.
KTM really should slap a sticker on the tank saying "Warning - this orange clashes with shrinking violet".
Start it up and you get that typical blustery twin commotion, then ride it off, and you realise that this is a very typical KTM in the manner of the Adventure and Super Duke which I'd ridden before.
For a start, it hates being in low revs so much that in spite of being warned to keep the revs up in first, I stalled it almost immediately. Then I had a problem, which recurred a few times, when it got stuck in neutral between first and second and took some persuading to shift up. This is a problem that KTM has recognised and is, er, looking into.
At anything below 3,000revs, the throttle is basically an on-off switch, and the power delivery is so intermittent that you begin to suspect there has to be a fuel flow problem.
Then you remember that you thought that about every other KTM, and all it means is that these are bikes that moan and groan and bitch and complain until they get to 4,000revs, when they start to sing like all the angels in heaven on a Sunday afternoon.
The RC8 may annoy the hell out of you in town, but on the open road, this bike is a point-and-shoot, sweetly-handling dream. When you get to the end of the open road, the Brembo front brake is so effective that, only a week after doing my first wheelie on a Suzuki Hyabusa, I nearly did my first stoppie.
So there you have it, a bike you'll either love or hate.
Would I buy one? Afraid not, because I can't quite see the point of a bike that only does a few things well, and because there are so many other bikes that do them better and cheaper. But if you like to live your life on the edge between madness and genius, unstraighten your tie and walk this way.
KTM RC8 FACTFILE
Engine: 1148cc, V-twin
Power: 152bhp @ 10,000rpm
Torque: 89lb/ft @ 8,000rpm
Bore x stroke: 103x69mm
Compression ratio: 12.5:1
Top speed: n/a
Transmission: six-speed, chain drive
Weight: 188kg, 415lbs
Suspension: front 43mm fully adjustable WP USD fork; rear fully adjustable WP shock
Wheelbase: 1430mm
Seat height: 805-825mm
Fuel capacity: 16.5 litres, 4.2 gallons
Price: in the Republic €16,000. Dublin dealer Killeen Motorcycles, Sundrive Road, Dublin 12, 01 4927071 www.killeenmotorcycles.com Test bike £10,695 on the road from Philip McCallen, Lurgan, 028 3832 9999