CTS488
BARF Racing
All right folks, I’ve got a REAL review of KTM’s RC8. I had the great opportunity to takes the RC8 to a Pacific Track Time event at Thunder on Monday Sept. 22nd. Ace Motorsports in Concord received their RC8 about 2 weeks ago and we have all been geeking out on the bike going through the entire thing and riding it on the street. For those of you that have not seen this bike, you need to. The RC8 is a true work of art. With all its sharp lines and aggressive styling, the bike is truly unique.
I’d had to chance to ride the RC8 at Miller Motorsports Park for the KTM dealer meeting about a month ago and was impressed by the bike and unfortunately they didn’t really let us flog the bike to see what it had. That whole day Miller Motorsports was just a big tease and left me wanting to find out more about the bike. Once Ace Motorsports got their bike and we inspected and rode it on the street everyone at the shop wanted to know what kind of race bike this would be up against the likes of Ducati’s 1098/1098s and some of the other big bikes. The main competitor for this bike would be Ducati’s superbike line up but also in the racing world it’s going to be the likes of Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki, and Yamaha.
Ace Motorsports is well aware of my experience with racing so they asked me to take the RC8 to thunder hill and run a bunch of hard laps on the thing……….they didn’t have to ask me twice!!!! We planned the day with our KTM sales rep and a few other KTM dealers who wanted to ride their RC8’s and let a few potential customers have a few laps on it as well. We picked a Pacific Track Time day since Michael Earnest hosts some of the best track days on the west coast. He has a great crew and always runs a safe and fun day.
We spent some time at the shop prepping the bike for the track day. We removed the turn signals on the rear of the bike which is really easy, four small bolts and a quick disconnect plug and the whole turn signal assembly pops off, and boy does the rear of the bike look sweet without the stuff there!!! We removed the mirrors, which were just as easy and really cleaned up the look of the bike. I logged all suspension settings to get an idea of where the base line settings were and set sag on the bike as well. I set it up 10mm free in the rear and 27mm free in the front. Jumping up and down on the bike it seemed a bit on the stiff and slow side so I kind of took a shot at guessing where the thing should be for the track and sped it up a bit all the way around. I adjusted the rear sets to their highest setting (fully adjustable rear sets) for clearance and I adjusted the fully adjustable sub-frame for my size. The sub frame actually is adjustable which is cool so big or tall the bike will fit you. I also adjusted the clip-ons, which once again, are fully adjustable, not fixed like most sport bikes. The clip-ons have a ton of adjustment in them which is great because people like their bars a different way, I prefer mine to be wide for extra leverage during transitions. After all this was completed, we were ready to hit the track.
Got to Thunder Hill on Monday morning, checked in the Pacific Track Time staff and then checked my pressures, threw on the tire warmers and off I went. The first session was to get familiar with t-hill again. It has been a long while since I’ve been there and also since the re-pave and wanted to make sure everything was the same for the most part. After the 2 laps I started to get a bit aggressive with the bike. Immediate thoughts were that the bike transitioned really well….and when I say really well I mean like new R6 good! No joke! The bike is so flickable that I found myself turning in a bit early. Also noticed that the gear box was really tight, almost too tight and I found myself having difficulty shifting……now I’m a reverse shifter and this was a standard shift bike so I truly think that was my issue, I’m just not use to standard on the track and I struggled to shift coming out of corners and coming into corners. The entire feel of the bike was great right off the bat, it wasn’t perfect in terms of suspension set-up but man it was close and I felt it wouldn’t take a whole lot to get this bike going.
Power delivery was really smooth on the RC8. When I was up at Miller riding the bike we were at 5,000 feet so power was lacking because of thin air so I really couldn’t feel what the bike had to offer then. Coming on the front straight at T-Hill the bike accelerated really well and smooth. The power signed off a bit right as you got to the limiter but with the on board computer I showed my top speed down the front straight to be 158 mph. This number may be off a bit, but regardless it is still impressive that a stock bike can reach that speed on the straight. My drives off the last corner were not that great so I’m guessing it could’ve been a bit higher with a much better drive.
In terms of how the bike fit I really liked it, I felt comfortable on the bike. The tank is shaped in a way that you can lock you knee into the tank while going through a corner which is really important while riding, you want to be loose on the bars and having the tanked shaped in that type of way helps you get comfy and loose. Also the seat on the bike is sloped up on the back so when you are in a full tuck going down the straight it keeps you forward. The whole seat thing was really cool for me because being a smaller guy I always had a hard time keeping my weight and body over the tank and this seat is the best seat I’ve sat on a bike.
I’m going talk about my absolute favorite part of the bike, the front end. The feel that the front of this bike gives you is amazing, it was so forgiving and let me feel everything the front tire was doing. I had a few times going through turn 2 that towards the exit the front started to push and I felt it pushing and sliding and it allowed me enough time to adjust my speed and lean angle to bring it back. Usually bikes will just give, one second you have traction the next you don’t. For stock forks to have that kind of feel is amazing. Another thing that amazed me was under hard braking into a corner and trail braking that the front was so compliant, and the combination of Brembo mono block brakes and the 320mm rotors gave such a great feel for trail braking that I had a ton of confidence while going into a corner.
Their were 2 customer of Ace Motorsports up there riding their own bikes, one had a standard 1098 and the other was 1098s. We worked it out that I got to ride their bike and they got to ride the RC8. First I rode the 1098s that was decked out with race bodywork, pipes, tuned, slipper clutch, and track gearing. I went out a did a few laps on the bike, my first impression of the bike was that the Ducati has a ton of power, the thing was a torque monster and the front wheel came up at will, but the down side was that the bike felt heavy when transitioning through corners and it lacked the feel of the RC8 in the front. Don’t’ get me wrong, the 1098 is a great weapon when in the right hands, i.e. Bayliss, but it for sure is lacking a bit in the handling department. After the ride on the 1098s I got to ride a standard 1098 that had 25mm Ohlins forks, Ohlins race shock, full system, power commander tuned, reverse shift with a quick shifter and track gearing. Again the 1098 impressive with the power, down the front straight I was blown away by the power and the way the thing accelerated off a corner but once again I felt that I had to muscle the bike through corners and had to fight to keep it on its line. Another thing that I noticed with the Ducati was the brakes lacked the feel while coming hard into a corner. Not sure what the reason is as both the RC8 and the 1098 have the same Brembo mono block calipers but the 1098 is 330mm rotors versus the 320mm of the RC8. Once again, the 1098 is a great bike and it does a lot of things right but in certain areas the KTM did a little better.
Session after session I came in and fiddled with the suspension to get it to feel a bit better and do things the way I like them. I kept adding rear ride height to the rear to make it finish off the corners better and to get it to feel solid through the corner plus for rear grip, a bit more swing are angle. Adjusting the rear ride height couldn’t be any easier, never seen a bike that I was able to adjust the height in less than a minute, as you can see from the picture that all you do is loosen up a 10mm pinch bolt and take the supplied wrench from KTM and adjust the eccentric hub. A full 10mm of adjustment is available. The more a raised the rear the better the bike got. I kept track of my lap times all day long with my micron lap time that I mounted on the bike. I started the first few session in the 2:10 range, as I became more adjusted to the bike and figured it out more and fiddled with the suspension (which was really only adding rear ride height) the times dropped every session. At the end of the day after 50+ laps on the tires I started hitting the 1:56 mark with my best being 1:56.5. I was really impressed by the bike being able to handle it and the front end was not even buried yet, I had about a full inch left on the zip tie on the fork. With fresh tires (Dunlop preferably not the o.e.m Pirellis’) and a few more sessions I truly feel that 55’s and maybe even 54’s would have been capable on this bike with its stock form.
The fact that the RC8 had Bonneville Salt Flat gearing and a stock pipe on it made a big difference, if it had track gearing and a full system with a bit of tuning the acceleration would be way better and on par with the Ducati. This bike has some serious potential and if put into the right hands will win races. I’ve been reading a few reviews about the RC8, articles like the one in RoadRacingworld where the bike was like a compaired to a Buell…..well I don’t think it could have been farther from the truth, this bike feels like a full on superbike and when it gets some race prepping I think it’ll surprise a few people. Guys like Cory Call took it for a few laps and he seemed surprised by how well the bike worked after he got off so i know it's not just me who thinks this bike is something special. Maybe…..just maybe, you’ll find me on one of these next year trying to chase down our AFM fast guys. We’ll see!
I’d like to say thanks to Pacific Track Time for putting on such an awesome day, one crash all day long and it didn’t even hold up anyone. Their entire staff are awesome and helpful and fun to watch.
Thanks to Ace Motorsports for loaning me the bike for the day and letting me flog it! If anyone is interesting in seeing the KTM RC8 come on down to Ace Motorsports and check it out, and if like what you see and hear you could even put a deposit down on t when it comes out in Jan. of 2009.
For action shot check out GOTBLUEMILK.com, Dito tooks some great shots as always!
Thanks for checking this review out, if you have question feel free to email or PM about this bike.
Chris Siglin
I’d had to chance to ride the RC8 at Miller Motorsports Park for the KTM dealer meeting about a month ago and was impressed by the bike and unfortunately they didn’t really let us flog the bike to see what it had. That whole day Miller Motorsports was just a big tease and left me wanting to find out more about the bike. Once Ace Motorsports got their bike and we inspected and rode it on the street everyone at the shop wanted to know what kind of race bike this would be up against the likes of Ducati’s 1098/1098s and some of the other big bikes. The main competitor for this bike would be Ducati’s superbike line up but also in the racing world it’s going to be the likes of Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki, and Yamaha.
Ace Motorsports is well aware of my experience with racing so they asked me to take the RC8 to thunder hill and run a bunch of hard laps on the thing……….they didn’t have to ask me twice!!!! We planned the day with our KTM sales rep and a few other KTM dealers who wanted to ride their RC8’s and let a few potential customers have a few laps on it as well. We picked a Pacific Track Time day since Michael Earnest hosts some of the best track days on the west coast. He has a great crew and always runs a safe and fun day.
We spent some time at the shop prepping the bike for the track day. We removed the turn signals on the rear of the bike which is really easy, four small bolts and a quick disconnect plug and the whole turn signal assembly pops off, and boy does the rear of the bike look sweet without the stuff there!!! We removed the mirrors, which were just as easy and really cleaned up the look of the bike. I logged all suspension settings to get an idea of where the base line settings were and set sag on the bike as well. I set it up 10mm free in the rear and 27mm free in the front. Jumping up and down on the bike it seemed a bit on the stiff and slow side so I kind of took a shot at guessing where the thing should be for the track and sped it up a bit all the way around. I adjusted the rear sets to their highest setting (fully adjustable rear sets) for clearance and I adjusted the fully adjustable sub-frame for my size. The sub frame actually is adjustable which is cool so big or tall the bike will fit you. I also adjusted the clip-ons, which once again, are fully adjustable, not fixed like most sport bikes. The clip-ons have a ton of adjustment in them which is great because people like their bars a different way, I prefer mine to be wide for extra leverage during transitions. After all this was completed, we were ready to hit the track.
Got to Thunder Hill on Monday morning, checked in the Pacific Track Time staff and then checked my pressures, threw on the tire warmers and off I went. The first session was to get familiar with t-hill again. It has been a long while since I’ve been there and also since the re-pave and wanted to make sure everything was the same for the most part. After the 2 laps I started to get a bit aggressive with the bike. Immediate thoughts were that the bike transitioned really well….and when I say really well I mean like new R6 good! No joke! The bike is so flickable that I found myself turning in a bit early. Also noticed that the gear box was really tight, almost too tight and I found myself having difficulty shifting……now I’m a reverse shifter and this was a standard shift bike so I truly think that was my issue, I’m just not use to standard on the track and I struggled to shift coming out of corners and coming into corners. The entire feel of the bike was great right off the bat, it wasn’t perfect in terms of suspension set-up but man it was close and I felt it wouldn’t take a whole lot to get this bike going.
Power delivery was really smooth on the RC8. When I was up at Miller riding the bike we were at 5,000 feet so power was lacking because of thin air so I really couldn’t feel what the bike had to offer then. Coming on the front straight at T-Hill the bike accelerated really well and smooth. The power signed off a bit right as you got to the limiter but with the on board computer I showed my top speed down the front straight to be 158 mph. This number may be off a bit, but regardless it is still impressive that a stock bike can reach that speed on the straight. My drives off the last corner were not that great so I’m guessing it could’ve been a bit higher with a much better drive.
In terms of how the bike fit I really liked it, I felt comfortable on the bike. The tank is shaped in a way that you can lock you knee into the tank while going through a corner which is really important while riding, you want to be loose on the bars and having the tanked shaped in that type of way helps you get comfy and loose. Also the seat on the bike is sloped up on the back so when you are in a full tuck going down the straight it keeps you forward. The whole seat thing was really cool for me because being a smaller guy I always had a hard time keeping my weight and body over the tank and this seat is the best seat I’ve sat on a bike.
I’m going talk about my absolute favorite part of the bike, the front end. The feel that the front of this bike gives you is amazing, it was so forgiving and let me feel everything the front tire was doing. I had a few times going through turn 2 that towards the exit the front started to push and I felt it pushing and sliding and it allowed me enough time to adjust my speed and lean angle to bring it back. Usually bikes will just give, one second you have traction the next you don’t. For stock forks to have that kind of feel is amazing. Another thing that amazed me was under hard braking into a corner and trail braking that the front was so compliant, and the combination of Brembo mono block brakes and the 320mm rotors gave such a great feel for trail braking that I had a ton of confidence while going into a corner.
Their were 2 customer of Ace Motorsports up there riding their own bikes, one had a standard 1098 and the other was 1098s. We worked it out that I got to ride their bike and they got to ride the RC8. First I rode the 1098s that was decked out with race bodywork, pipes, tuned, slipper clutch, and track gearing. I went out a did a few laps on the bike, my first impression of the bike was that the Ducati has a ton of power, the thing was a torque monster and the front wheel came up at will, but the down side was that the bike felt heavy when transitioning through corners and it lacked the feel of the RC8 in the front. Don’t’ get me wrong, the 1098 is a great weapon when in the right hands, i.e. Bayliss, but it for sure is lacking a bit in the handling department. After the ride on the 1098s I got to ride a standard 1098 that had 25mm Ohlins forks, Ohlins race shock, full system, power commander tuned, reverse shift with a quick shifter and track gearing. Again the 1098 impressive with the power, down the front straight I was blown away by the power and the way the thing accelerated off a corner but once again I felt that I had to muscle the bike through corners and had to fight to keep it on its line. Another thing that I noticed with the Ducati was the brakes lacked the feel while coming hard into a corner. Not sure what the reason is as both the RC8 and the 1098 have the same Brembo mono block calipers but the 1098 is 330mm rotors versus the 320mm of the RC8. Once again, the 1098 is a great bike and it does a lot of things right but in certain areas the KTM did a little better.
Session after session I came in and fiddled with the suspension to get it to feel a bit better and do things the way I like them. I kept adding rear ride height to the rear to make it finish off the corners better and to get it to feel solid through the corner plus for rear grip, a bit more swing are angle. Adjusting the rear ride height couldn’t be any easier, never seen a bike that I was able to adjust the height in less than a minute, as you can see from the picture that all you do is loosen up a 10mm pinch bolt and take the supplied wrench from KTM and adjust the eccentric hub. A full 10mm of adjustment is available. The more a raised the rear the better the bike got. I kept track of my lap times all day long with my micron lap time that I mounted on the bike. I started the first few session in the 2:10 range, as I became more adjusted to the bike and figured it out more and fiddled with the suspension (which was really only adding rear ride height) the times dropped every session. At the end of the day after 50+ laps on the tires I started hitting the 1:56 mark with my best being 1:56.5. I was really impressed by the bike being able to handle it and the front end was not even buried yet, I had about a full inch left on the zip tie on the fork. With fresh tires (Dunlop preferably not the o.e.m Pirellis’) and a few more sessions I truly feel that 55’s and maybe even 54’s would have been capable on this bike with its stock form.
The fact that the RC8 had Bonneville Salt Flat gearing and a stock pipe on it made a big difference, if it had track gearing and a full system with a bit of tuning the acceleration would be way better and on par with the Ducati. This bike has some serious potential and if put into the right hands will win races. I’ve been reading a few reviews about the RC8, articles like the one in RoadRacingworld where the bike was like a compaired to a Buell…..well I don’t think it could have been farther from the truth, this bike feels like a full on superbike and when it gets some race prepping I think it’ll surprise a few people. Guys like Cory Call took it for a few laps and he seemed surprised by how well the bike worked after he got off so i know it's not just me who thinks this bike is something special. Maybe…..just maybe, you’ll find me on one of these next year trying to chase down our AFM fast guys. We’ll see!
I’d like to say thanks to Pacific Track Time for putting on such an awesome day, one crash all day long and it didn’t even hold up anyone. Their entire staff are awesome and helpful and fun to watch.
Thanks to Ace Motorsports for loaning me the bike for the day and letting me flog it! If anyone is interesting in seeing the KTM RC8 come on down to Ace Motorsports and check it out, and if like what you see and hear you could even put a deposit down on t when it comes out in Jan. of 2009.
For action shot check out GOTBLUEMILK.com, Dito tooks some great shots as always!
Thanks for checking this review out, if you have question feel free to email or PM about this bike.
Chris Siglin
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I had a chance to ride a nicely set up 1098S at the Ducati dealers meeting last year at Laguna and I was really impressed with it - it didn't feel heavy at all to me, but that may also be due to the fact that Chris and I are polar opposites when it comes to rider stature... 
