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There are four solid products in the entry-level sport bike segment: The Yamaha R3, Honda CBR300R, Kawasaki Ninja 300 and now this, available since February. A more reasonable commuting pace would likely yield much better mileage. Our second tankful of 92.7 miles took up 1.586 gallons for 58.5 mpg at mostly higher speeds. Our first tankful, before we reset the odo, was eaten up pretty fast, gulping the whole tank just going from Murrieta over to the OC. Likewise, what looks like just a rear fender behind the front seat is actually padded for a passenger, with foot pegs down below. The seat was also pretty firm, firmest in the class, but it didn’t wear us out. The seat height is the highest of the bikes in the class at 32.3 inches - no problem for us, but shorter riders should make sure it’s a comfortable fit. But LCD gauges help keep the sticker price low, so we’ll take that tradeoff. You can’t see the little 4, 5 or 6 on the tach readout. The LCD is tough to read, though, particularly the horizontal tachometer. The gauges are on a nice LCD screen that includes gear position, coolant temp, fuel gauge and a tach, along with a bright red shift-up light.
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The bike had a lot more performance than we were able to wring out of it. Next day, we took it up Angeles Crest Highway and found it was still just as smooth and capable through those turns. Let’s say, in theory, a rider could easily tuck behind the windscreen and hit 105 mph and not even know it. The 43 peak hp is listed at 9,500 rpm and peak torque of 23 lb-ft comes at 7,250. In fact, you can engage the clutch and start off just above idle and do it smoothly and without any hesitation from the engine. In general, it likes to stay above 4,000 rpm when underway, but it doesn’t complain at lower revs. And you will hit them - all the way up to the bike’s 10,000-rpm redline. Unlike competitors in the class, that poppity-pop-pop sound doesn’t smooth out quite as much on the KTM when you hit higher revs. Pop-pop-pop goes the fuel-injected four-stroke DOHC counterbalanced single-cylinder.
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Just hang your hide off the side of the seat and keep steering, twisting the torquey throttle as you apex and powering out with ease seemingly no matter where you are on the tach. It’s great! Straight from the KTM offices, we took our RC 390 up and over Ortega Highway and loved the handling in the very first turn.