KTM’s 2017 plans = RC16 MotoGP bike YOU can buy!

KTM’s 2017 plans = RC16 MotoGP bike YOU can buy!

No, we didn’t see this coming either!

But hot on the heels of the hubbub that surrounds the Honda RC213V-S comes the news that KTM is pushing on with its RC16 MotoGP plans – and the best bit of that is the fact that non-road-legal versions of the bike will be on sale to punters to ride on track.

So this means that if you’re minted enough then you’ll be able to get a true MotoGP motorcycle to ride on track. How minted will you have to be? Around Euro 140,000 – roughly 48,000 Euro less than you’d pay for the Honda (which has a different gearbox and air-intakes plus other concessions to road legalities to make it OK for road useage).

The bike, dubbed the RC16, will appear in 2017 and it’s a fair bet that the punter version of the factory motorcycle will be appearing alongside at the same time.

The first tests of the bike are likely to happen at the end of this summer.

Pit Beirer, Director of KTM Motorsport Department, said: “It will be a real KTM, with a motor that will certainly be a V4 but with a tubular chassis and WP suspension.

“The bike will be fully designed and produced in Austria by KTM, and we will not use any external designers. We want to create a true KTM and do it completely.

“We know it will be a complicated project but I am sure that our engineers will succeed. We are only at the beginning, but we are looking forward to participating in MotoGP.”

Get saving, people.