It has been a decade since the KTM RC8 debuted at the Austrian brand’s answer to the superbike question. Perhaps ahead of its time, the RC8 and its progeny were never strong sellers for KTM, though the bike had its highlights (and struggles).
Now, the “Ready to Race” brand is obviously missing a full-faired superbike in its lineup, despite offering the naked “Beast” that is the KTM 1290 Super Duke R, which is a direct descendent of that RC8 project.
Our point? It’s high time that KTM got back into the superbike game, and while the Austrians have made it clear that they are not interested in revisiting the RC8 thesis, KTM is on the forefront of the electric motorcycle movement.
That brings us to these concept creation by Indian designer Mohit Solanki, who envisions an electric superbike from KTM.
Solanki’s design is unique and it incorporates a number of interesting features that certainly have our creative taste buds buzzing.
Our favorite has to be the single-sided swingarm, which is made using an additive manufacturing process with topology optimization, and gives the bike a very organic feel.
The rear subframe that holds the tank and rear seat also benefits from this manufacturing process, while also creating an interesting visual gap along the midsection of the motorcycle.
Solanki sees KTM sticking to traditional suspension and braking pieces for the future, though he does have some interesting ideas for the bike’s wheel design and ergonomics.
Overall, the look is very in line with KTM’s design language (or atleast where it could be, in say a decade’s time), and it creates an electric motorcycle that doesn’t tread too deeply into the realm of a sci-fi fantasy movie.
Hopefully one day the folks at KTM will bring a worthy successor to the RC8 back to market, and maybe it will be electric when they do.
Source: Mohit Solanki via Visordown
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