KTM RC 490 Confirmed: New twin-cylinder Supersport Incoming!

Published August 5, 2026
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2 min read

The RC 390 upgrade you have been waiting for is not too far!

KTM RC 490 Confirmed: India Launch Expected In Late 2027

It’s official! KTM is building the RC 490, a new twin-cylinder bike made together with Bajaj, and it’s expected to arrive in late 2027. The team at Bajaj-KTM in India is working on a brand-new twin-cylinder platform just for it. With this bike, KTM is stepping into the under-500cc twin-cylinder space, where it’ll take on rivals like the Aprilia RS 457 and Kawasaki Ninja 500.

The Bajaj partnership

Bajaj and KTM in India are working on the new twin-cylinder platform together, and that’s what the RC 490 will be based on. It’s a completely separate project from KTM’s tie-up with CFMoto, which makes the RC 450 (based on the CFMoto 450SR-S) for China. The new made-in-India engine should feel smoother and more refined than KTM’s current single-cylinder bikes. Considering that the RC 390 still gets the 373cc single-cylinder mill, this upgrade has been a long time coming.

Where it fits in the lineup

The RC 490 will sit right between the single-cylinder RC 390 and the upcoming RC 790 in KTM’s global supersport range. Thanks to its twin-cylinder engine, it’ll be quicker and more powerful than the RC 390. On that note, the RC 390 hasn’t been selling well in India, so KTM could phase it out, which feels like the right move. The new bike also draws on everything KTM has learned in MotoGP, so if you follow the racing, you’ll appreciate the pedigree behind it.

There’s more to come

The RC 490 is really just the start. KTM will likely use this new platform for plenty of future bikes too, including the next-generation Duke and Adventure models. The idea is to bring twin-cylinder power to KTM’s whole mid-range family around the world. In time, it could even replace the entire 390 range in some markets. So if you’ve been eyeing a 390, there’s a nice upgrade waiting down the road.

When can you buy it?

It is expected that KTM will launch the RC 490 by late 2027. The bike itself is confirmed, but we’re still waiting on the finer details, things like the engine specs, features, and the overall design. That timing lines up with how long KTM usually takes to bring an all-new platform to market, so it’s about what you’d expect.

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