KTM RC390 ADAC Cup.....................
Check out what German kids are going to be wringing to death this summer on track – the KTM RC390 ADA C Cup machine...
Rootsy heads to Italy to sample KTM’s new A2 compliant RC390 – but in race trim ready for some lucky German kids to abuse!
If, in ten years time, we come to salute some new German wünderkind who’s just won his first MotoGP title in his debut year, then KTM can take much of the credit. Why? Well, this year sees the start of a new series running alongside the German superbike championship (IDM), the ADAC Junior Cup, using the Austrian firm’s new RC390 – after all, the RC stands for Racing Competition and this is KTM getting in with the talent at the ground floor. This one make series is designed to nurture young riders, from the age of 13 to 21, to help develop their riding and set-up skills. The bike and entry fees are 9,000 euros (6,500 euros for the bike, 2,490 euros for entries), which is a reasonable investment in your offspring’s future. Win this, and you get a try-out for the Red Bull Rookies series that follows the MotoGP circus around the globe. Win that, and the sky’s the limit… We’ve been assembled at the Magione circuit
in Italy to sample this new race bike, but this machine needs more of an introduction. Yes, it’s the RC390, but we’ve yet to see the production model in action. The road going version will be in the showrooms at the end of the summer, but we’ve not ridden it so this is our first opportunity to test this potentially crucial machine. 50 machines were plucked off the Indian production line to become race warriors, later converted in Mattighofen, but we need to know more about this bike.
In short, it’s the faired version of the Duke 390 that was launched last year. In, er, medium, it’s actually got a tweaked frame, new tank, clip-ons and fairings. But the engine is the same, a 375cc single cylinder bike, pumping out an A2 friendly 44bhp.
This race version, with its dapper Akrapovic exhaust (and reduced sized cat)
replacing the stocker’s belly can, generates 38bhp. Eh? What’s going on here, where's the power gone? Well, as the previous version of the ADAC Cup (where current Moto3 sensation Jack Miller cut his teeth) used 125cc machines, it was thought that the full hit of 44bhp was too much, so a throttle body restrictor is used to tone down the power.
But other changes are more encouraging. For a start, all the suspension is fully adjustable, whereas standard kit only has adjustable preload. The brake disc grows by 20mm to 320mm. A set of rearsets and race fairings are added, but the big news is what’s been taken off. All told, nine kilos has been junked by ditching the road requirements and scraping the ABS system. The bike hits the scales at just 138kg. Combine this with the fact that Magione circuit is a twisty little bugger, and the day ahead looks like it’s going to be filled with fun – and that prophesy didn’t take long to be realised.
The first session was a fraught affair, learning the bike and track in tandem – and both took some working out. The track’s course puts an emphasis on quick direction changes and a series of arcing hairpins, with one ballsy right hander at the end of a seemingly infinitely long straight. But the bike’s reaction to this scene was a curious one.
You’d think that you should really boss this bike, grab it by the scruff of the neck and manhandle it into submission. But a few laps of this was enough to realise that a new strategy was needed. Do this and the soft suspension and the not-as-sporty-as-hoped Metzeler M5 Interact tyres soon start complaining. The WP forks don’t have the most fluid action, and the front seemed like it was ready to tuck as soon as you took one too many liberties. Elsewhere, the bike’s meagre output was metered out enthusiastically enough, with the throttle basically used as an on/off switch given the power available. There is drive from 4,000rpm, but most corner exits
In terms of thrott le control, it wasn't going to be a day filled with finesse...”
needed 6,000rpm for anything meaningful. With a redline at 10,000rpm the timing of each change was crucial. But in terms of throttle control, it wasn’t going to be a day filled with finesse…
So it was back to the drawing board for session two, and a chance to let the bike do the work. Working out how the RC likes to be ridden is half the battle. Steering inputs needed to be gentler and more fluid, mid-corner poise required some sympathy to not grind the belly pan out and braking needed to be kept to the bare minimum to keep corner speeds up. Now we’re starting to get somewhere, and it’ll be great to see lightbulbs illuminate over the minds of kids as they work out how the bike wants to be ridden. This is the point of the bike; it’s a learning tool for real rookies to hone their limited skills. Set-up helps here, and with some more preload at the rear and more
damping support in the front the bike starts to sharpen into a proper tool for the job.
The day progresses, and little victories around the track are won – higher gears are carried through corners, new lines are adapted and braking markers pushed back or brought forward – all with the aim to extract more speed and shed tenths here, tenths there. Any screw up – a missed gear, a heavy belly pan grounding, an early corner entry – demolishes a lap, but you know you’re on a good 'un when it doesn’t seem like hard work.
By the end of the day, you wonder what people do with an extra 100bhp available to them. In the right environment, and this little
The cup bike provides evidence that the road going bike will be great...”
1.5 mile track was exactly that, 38bhp is cock-on and, given the impulses of teenage kids, this output is more than enough for them to be getting on with. You end up doing more with less, honing in on what’s important to ride and having a more engaging and rewarding day as a result. As a learning tool, the ADAC bike is a brilliant bit of kit and a perfect stepping stone into more serious racing – if only there were plans to bring them over here, why do the German's have all the fun?
But, more importantly, this race bike provides evidence that the road going RC390 is going to be a little beauty. Yes, it’ll be 9kg heavier, but even as standard there will be another 7bhp to play with – nearly 20 per cent more power as standard. They look sharp and dynamic, it seems to have enough puff and so long as the unadjustable suspension on the stock bikes isn’t too soft it should blow its A2 competition out of the water. If you’re about to commit to the likes of a CBR500R or a Ninja 300 you need to hold fire because this new kid on the block for new kids on the block is about to do some damage.
And as a race bike for eager young pups to learn, crash and learn some more on, it seems perfect. Cheating will be very difficult, and on a grid packed with the same machinery the cream will naturally rise to the top...