KTM RC390

I'm a huge fan of small capacity, lightweight bikes, but I want to find out if an experienced, grown-up sportsbike fan can really live with a mini-supersport bike. Can it genuinely thrill on track? Will it take me touring? Will the novelty of 40bhp wear thin? I'm going to ride to Mugello to do a few laps with a Moto3 rider to find out.

Year: ALL

Long term update: RC390's hidden skills

17 December 2015 by Emma Franklin

Three-and-a-half-thousand miles on KTM’s learner-friendly RC390 have taught me one or two things. The first thing I learned was, despite the Austrian firm’s brace of Moto3 titles and the RC’s ‘Ready...

Long term update: Turning over a new leaf

04 November 2015 by Emma Franklin

Usually I wince at the thought of subjecting a bike to the horrors of autumn; mud-strewn roads permanently soggy, plummeting early-morning temperatures and the hazard of slippery mulched leaves. I’ll...

MCN Fleet: Is the RC390 the modern LC?

30 September 2015 by Emma Franklin

At the launch of KTM’s RC390 many people were asking whether young riders have ever had it so good. The RC is the raciest thing 19-year-old A2 licence-holders can sling a leg over, and it even has its...

Long term update: Highland fling

16 July 2015 by Emma Franklin

All relationships have their ups and downs, and the RC390 and I were going through a bit of a rough patch. A couple of flat-out and fraught jaunts across country had left me frustrated by its lack of...

Long term update: Ready to race?

10 June 2015 by Emma Franklin

Mallory Park, a 1.4-mile exercise in momentum conservation buried within the natural bowl of a sleepy Leicestershire village. Over the past 12 months it’s become something of a second home through the...

Long term update: A little belter

16 May 2015 by Emma Franklin

I’m reliving the youth I never had, tearing through traffic with the torn hems of my riding jeans flapping in the breeze and the RC390’s throttle flat to the stop. As a product of Direct Access I...