Bikes

Spy photos of the KTM 1290 Super Duke are nothing new, and the Austrian company has even gone as far as to tease us with a heavily massaged KTM 1290 Super Duke R prototype at the 2012 EICMA show. With the final version of the superbike-powered streetfighter expected to be decidedly less edgy, the photo brought to us today (one can only guess when it was taken), if anything else, is a reminder to be reluctant our expectations. The ever elusive “spy” photo, what we have here looks to be a near production prototype of the KTM 1290 Super Duke that has been caught in the wild. Easily the clearest photo we have seen of the road-going bike, it clearly holds KTM’s LC8 motor as well as the same trellis frame found on the “beast” prototype.

News

News that KTM would be making a full-fairing version of its small-discplacement single-cylinder KTM 390 Duke street-naked is nothing new, and is something that we have reported ad nauseum. News that Stefan Pierer has confirmed that bike’s release isn’t new either, but for the first time the Austrian CEO has given us a concrete date on when we will see the now-called KTM RC390 in the flesh, and that date is the 2013 EICMA show in Milan, Italy. Talking Sir Alan Cathcart with Cycle News, Pierer explains that three flavors of the full-fairing machine will come from Mattighofen, in the 125cc, 200cc, and 390cc varieties.